Apartheid in Republic of South Africa

The Republic of South Africa occupies the southern portion of the African continent and includes the former colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. It has an area of 472,359 square miles. Apartheid, which means separateness, is the name given by the Government of South Africa to its system of racial segregation. This policy of racial segregation has been followed since the Dutch-speaking Afrikaners and the English-speaking elements joined to form the Union of South African under the Act of 1909. In 1948, apartheid became an official State policy when the National Party took power. Thus every person in South Africa is classified by race and is entered into the population register according to this classification. The 1967 mid-year estimate of the population, by ethnic composition was: Bantu -- 12, 750,000, White -- 3,563,000, Coloured -- 1,859,000, Asian -- 561,000.

As may be seen from this photograph, even staircases are racially segregated in some industrial plants in South Africa.

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