General election in South Africa 1948
The parliamentary elections in South Africa in 1948 took place on May 26, 1948 in the Union of South Africa . It marked the beginning of institutionalized apartheid in South Africa .
prehistory
The United Party (UP) has led the Union of South Africa since 1934, under Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts since 1939 . During this time the country took on the part of the Allies at the World War II in part. The wartime and post-war years were marked by restrictions. So there was no wheat bread for a long time, as wheat flour was exported to the needy countries of Europe. In Alexandra , residents protested against the city bus company's fare increases in 1940 and 1942 ; in 1943, public transport was boycotted for nine days and in 1944 for seven weeks. Unrest broke out among black industrial workers in 1942 because of unfulfilled wage promises, in which 18 people were killed in Pretoria . In August 1946, under the auspices of the JB Marks- led African Mine Workers' Union, a strike of 70,000 black miners developed, which the government fought with the toughest efforts and thus ended in bloody fashion. In direct reaction to this government action , the African National Congress (ANC) ceased its participation in the Native Representative Council (NRC) and boycotted this body until its dissolution in 1951.
The political position of the UP on the question of the different treatment of the “races” was shaped by the assumption that an integration of blacks, coloreds and “Asians” was inevitable. The opposition Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP), headed by the clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa , Daniel Francois Malan , opposed a strict separation according to skin color in all areas of life - the political concept of apartheid. The HNP was formed in 1940 from the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party and the Volksparty, a spin-off from the UP. The program implemented by the nationalists after the 1948 election had its roots in the so-called Sauer Report of 1947, which was published under the title Verslag van die Kleurvraagstuk-Kommissie van die Herenigde Nasionale Party (for example: “Report of the HNP Commission on the Skin Color Question “) Gained notoriety. This declared the protection of the “white race” and the separate preservation of “other races” in South Africa to be the central goal of future politics. None of these groups should threaten another in the future by creating a perfect separation on a “natural basis”.
Through its immigration policy, the Smuts government brought about the fact that many British people came to South Africa, who, alongside the Boers, represent the second large group of white South Africans. The Boer-influenced HNP saw this as a danger for the Boers, which represented the larger of the two groups. She also portrayed Smuts as a Communist friend, having apparently worked well with his then ally Josef Stalin during World War II . With reference to the supposed integration policy of the UP, the term “red danger” was used.
The policy of the HNP was particularly popular with voters in rural areas, where blacks were needed as cheap labor. In addition, many white South Africans feared possible competition from other South Africans on the job market.
The conservative-moderate African Party (AP) was allied with the HNP, the left-wing South African Labor Party (LP) and some independents were on the side of the UP.
Before the 1948 elections, the UP had 89 seats, the HNP 43 and the LP 9. The AP had 1.8% and won no seats.
Electoral process
The active right to vote had only white South Africans and a few coloreds and Asians. Only white people could be elected. Blacks in the Cape Province could elect a total of three additional white parliamentarians.
The parliamentarians were elected exclusively by majority voting. The 153 constituencies were divided in such a way that the rural constituencies comprised significantly fewer voters than the urban constituencies.
Results of the parliamentary elections
The HNP won the elections together with the AP, although they received considerably fewer votes than the later opposition parties. The HNP and AP mainly won rural constituencies, while the UP and LP won urban constituencies. Jan Smuts lost his seat in the Standerton constituency .
| Political party | be right | % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP) | 401.834 | 37.70 | 74 | |
| United Party (UP) | 524.230 | 49.18 | 65 | |
| African Party (AP) | 41,885 | 3.93 | 9 | |
| South African Labor Party (LP) | 27,360 | 2.57 | 6th | |
| Independent | 70,662 | 6.63 | 3 | |
| Representative under the Representation of Natives Act | --- | --- | 3 | |
| total | 1,065,971 | 100.00 | 153 |
consequences
The elections mark the beginning of the period of systematic legislative, administrative, cultural and economic segregation politics in South Africa, usually referred to as apartheid . The representatives of that state and economic concept referred to it euphemistically as "separate development". The following laws were passed in quick succession:
- 1949: Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
- 1949: Natives Laws Amendment Act
- 1950: Group Areas Act
- 1950: Population Registration Act
- 1950: Suppression of Communism Act
- 1950: Immorality Amendment Act
- 1951: Bantu Authorities Act
- 1951: Separate Representation of Voters Act
- 1952: Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act ("Pass Laws")
- 1953: Bantu Education Act
- 1953: Reservation of Separate Amenities Act
The new government allowed the previously banned Boer organizations Afrikaner Broederbond , Ossewabrandwag and Nuwe Orde . The Ossewabrandwag was accused of collaborating with the Germans during the war , Nuwe Orde was Oswald Pirow's right-wing radical party . German National Socialists who wanted to expel the previous government were now allowed to stay in the country.
In 1950, the Malan government commissioned the Tomlinson Commission with the aim of establishing a scientific basis for apartheid policy . In the form of a multi-volume report, this body presented extensive recommendations and analyzes for the design of a future “policy of separate development”.
In addition to the restrictions on the rights of non-whites, some partly symbolic rights of whites of British origin were curtailed. For example, British dual citizenship was abolished for South Africans and the British national anthem was no longer allowed to be used as the national anthem of South Africa. In 1950, six additional MPs were elected to the South African parliament in occupied South West Africa , all of whom belonged to the NP.
In the face of growing political repression, the ANC Youth League decided on a program of action with which four key areas would be the focus of its future actions: civil disobedience , economic blockades, withdrawal of black workers, no collaboration with the government. At the time, Ashby Peter Solomzi Mda was chairman of the ANC youth organization. This action program was determined in the version edited by Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews , Oliver Tambo , Moses Kotane and Selby Msimang on December 17, 1949 at the annual conference on the ANC's program.
Smuts died in 1950. The HNP merged with the AP in 1951 and henceforth operated as the “Nasionale Party” or “National Party” (NP), which until 1994 provided sole government.
literature
- Ohm Kruger redivivus. In: Der Spiegel . 23/1948 of June 5, 2012 (digitized version )
- Synchronization in South Africa. In: The time . 38/1948 of September 16, 1948. (digitized version )
- ISSA (ed.): Documents of the South African Liberation Movement . Bonn 1977, ISBN 3-921614-82-5 .
- Gottfried Wellmer: South Africa's Bantustans. History, ideology and reality . Bonn 1976, ISBN 3-921614-29-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c History around 1948 at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on November 26, 2012.
- ↑ a b Wellmer, 1976, p. 36.
- ^ ISSA: Documents, 1977, p. 31.
- ^ Newell Maynard Stultz: Afrikaner politics in South Africa, 1934-1948 . Berkeley 1974, ISBN 0-520-02452-4 , p. 136.
- ↑ election results in sahistory.org.za , accessed on 26 November 2012 found.
- ↑ a b Synchronization in South Africa. In: The time . 38/1948 of September 16, 1948. (digitized version )
- ↑ History of NP in sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on February 8 2016th
- ^ ISSA: Documents, 1977, pp. 31-32.
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
