THE 1948 VOTE
marriage between people of different races, were introduced. At the time, black resistance failed to halt the implementation of apartheid. Malan said after the election: “Today South Africa belongs to us once more. South Africa is our own for the first time since Union, and may God grant that it will always remain our own.” Two days after the election, on Friday, May 28, 1948, when the results were announced, the Cape Times carried a story on the hours leading up to an announcement. “The Cape Times building in Burg Street was last night again the mecca of thousands of citizens, who, in the critical closing hours of the general election, came to see the results displayed on a cinema screen. “The crowd grew in number, and excitement and tension mounted until at nine o’clock more than 4 000 people were jostling in the street. “The dense crowd included men and women in evening dress. Children swarmed over every vantage point and climbed on the roofs of cars. A one-legged man on crutches was one of the most voluble spectators.”
On Saturday, May 29, 1948, in a front-page article written by the paper’s political correspondent, and headlined “Early action is expected: Issues before new government”, it was clear that the wheels of apartheid were in motion.
“Apart from implementing some of its long-term policies such as apartheid proposals, the Nationalist Government is committed to take action at an early stage on a large number of issues,” the introduction of the article read.
One of the government’s priorities was to strip Africans of the last vestiges of their access to the white political system and to substitute it with political rights in the reserves.
In many ways the disruption caused by laws which enforced statutory segregation paled in significance when measured against the effects of legislation aimed specifically at the African population.
Under then Minister of Native Affairs, Hendrik Verwoerd, native policy sought to extend migrant labour and shore up the Pass Laws, and impose government control over Africans.
To follow this cruel and selfish period is South Africa’s compelling story of the sacrifices made by the people in overcoming oppression of colonialism and apartheid: the Struggle for Freedom.
francesca.villette@inl.co.za