Hendrik Verwoerd - Apartheid

Apartheid

Hendrik Verwoerd is often called the "Architect of Apartheid for his role in shaping the implementation of apartheid policy when he was minister of native affairs and then prime minister. Verwoerd once described apartheid as a "policy of good neighbourliness".

Afrikaner nationalism was skilfully mobilised by leaders in the theological, political, cultural, economic, agricultural and industrial sectors as well as in government service. A strategy of massive economic development was introduced to make South Africa less dependent on Britain and to create thousands of job opportunities.

Verwoerd realised that the political situation that had evolved over the previous century under British rule in South Africa had become untenable.

Under the Premiership of Verwoerd, the following legislative acts relating to apartheid were introduced:

• Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)
  • This law laid the cornerstone for the classification of black South Africans into eight ethnic groups and their allocation to 'homelands'.

• Bantu Investment Corporation Act (1959)
  • A law that offered financial incentives for industrial corporations to transfer their capital from White South Africa to the Black Homelands.

• Extension of University Education Act (1959)
  • Legislation putting an end to black students attending white universities and creating separate tertiary institutions for the different races.

• Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act, Act No 3 of 1961

• Preservation of Coloured Areas Act, Act No 31 of 1961