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The Pass Laws and their effects
By 1947, domestic and international pressure was bearing down on Smuts’ government. The process of European decolonisation began in earnest when Britain withdrew from India in 1947. More importantly, there was a relentless stream of blacks into South Africa’s urban areas, smashing the traditional stereotype of Africans as rural tribespeople. South Africa now had a growing rural population of Africans who wouldn’t go away. To deal with this problem, the government re-examined the Pass Laws.
The fundamental instruments of Apartheid were the Pass Laws. All Africans over 16 outside the bantustans (homelands) had to carry a passbook. The Pass Laws aimed t ensure that only Africans who had jobs could enter the white-designated areas of South Africa. This condemned millions of Africans to a ghetto existence in the impowerished rural areas where there was little employment and infant mortality was high.
For years, the government had hinted at easing up on the Pass Laws. Even prime minister Jan Smuts, no liberal himself, had suggested that it would probably have to end. When the Fagan Commission (set up to evaluate the Pass Laws) recommended that the Pass Laws be eased, there was little surprise. However, Afrikaners (mostly of Dutch descent) felt threatened, fearing that they would be swamped by the blacks who would take their jobs away and dilute their identity. Because of this, at the next elections they swept the opposition National Party, which promised to meet all the demands of the whites.
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Did
even greater segregation take place then?