Apartheid was a system of racial discrimination and segregation that was unique to South Africa and was imposed by the white Europeans settled in South Africa. It was practised in South Africa between 1948-1994 by the white minority government over the native population. The policies under the Apartheid system were:

• Strict Segregation: The blacks were debarred from living in white areas. They could work in white areas only if they had allowed them to work there.

• Ban on the formation of association and protests: Blacks could not form associations or protest against the extreme discriminatory treatment.

• No voting rights for non-whites: The system of apartheid divided the people and labeled them on the basis of their skin colour. The non-whites did not have voting rights.

The apartheid system believed in separation of people based on their color, ethnicity, caste, etc. It was a strict policy in South Africa to segregate and economically and politically oppress the non-white population of the country. Apartheid laws were introduced in 1948 and racial discrimination was institutionalized. This race-based law affected almost every aspect of the person’s social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites and the sanction of the ‘white-only’ jobs. In 1950, the Population Registration Act was passed in which all South Africans were racially classified into three categories: white, black (African), or colored (mixed of descent) .

The struggle against apartheid in South Africa was a concrete grassroots civil resistance movement with international support and sanctions that forced the white government to negotiate. The apartheid system in South Africa was abolished in 1994, when a new constitution was ratified which abolished the previous system of segregation.