Cape Town apartheid accounts for the racial discrimination prevalent in the society, which acted as an impediment in the intermingling of the various sections of the society, and curbed the growth of every aspect of Capetonian life.
Cape Town Apartheid began with the coming of Rev Dr DF Malan to power in 1948. The National Party, led by him, formulated a policy of apartheid, which demanded the division of the population on racial issues. The white inhabitants of the country were supposed to be the privileged ones and thus exercise their superiority in every aspect of socio-economic and political life.
The Government ordained the formulation of laws by virtue of which each and every resident of Cape Town had to state their racial orientation. The National Party aimed to separate the colored people and the whites and in the process demarcated separate residential areas for the two groups. Intermarriage was also prohibited. This segregation also had a profound impact on trade and commerce, businesses as well as economic development of the region.
Ground & Petty Apartheid
The racial segregation was operative on a couple of levels. First, it was the Ground Apartheid which called for the marking of areas restricted to either of the two groups. There was also the practice of Petty Apartheid. It introduced discrimination in day to day activities. Each and every item and facility was under the scanner of racial division be it the public services or public vehicles.
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Response to Apartheid in Cape Town
The initial response to the practice of Apartheid in Cape Town was that of resistance. But it was a divided opposition. Moreover the government declared the dissenters as outlaws. In 1965 a new law was implemented according to which the African workmen were supposed to go back to their respective 'homeland' after their contract of employment was terminated and seek reapplication in order to make themselves eligible for working in Cape Town.
One of the significant features of the era of opposition to Apartheid was the protest launched by the children against the introduction of Afrikaans as medium of instruction in educational institutions. There was also the development of the Black Consciousness Movement in 1976 which prompted the government to cancel some of its decisions. There was also a rising international condemnation of the practice of apartheid. Cape Town became the center of all resistant movements of the students, trade unions as well as the civil bodies.
The rising dissension amongst all sections of the population in the 1980s stimulated by the economic depression found a vent in the movement of the African National Congress or the ANC and Nelson Mandela. Mandela began his struggle against apartheid in the 1950s. He was imprisoned several times but this did not deter him from his aim. He continued to wage an incessant anti-apartheid war from his prison cell itself. He traveled to different parts of the world trying to gather support for his movement. Mandela led the anti-apartheid movement and finally succeeded in establishing a 'multi racial democracy' in 1990s.
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