The election of May 1948
On 26 May 1948 South Africa's voters, almost all of them white, chose a new Parliament in a general election. Almost everyone expected Jan Smuts and his United Party to win again. Instead, the National Party, led by Dr D.F. Malan, took power. Its supporters were called the Nationalists.
Malan was 74, a former minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. His party fought the election together with a smaller ally, the Afrikaner Party. Between them they won 79 seats. The United Party and its ally, the Labour Party, won 71. Smuts even lost his own seat. It was a narrow win, but it was enough. The Nationalists had promised voters one big idea: apartheid.
Key terms:
- Apartheid: an Afrikaans word meaning 'apartness'. The Nationalist policy of keeping the races completely separate, by law, in every part of life.
- Afrikaner nationalism: the belief that Afrikaners were a separate people with their own language, religion and history, who should rule South Africa.
- Broederbond: a secret society of leading Afrikaner men, set up in 1918 to push Afrikaner interests.
- Swart gevaar: Afrikaans for 'black danger'. A Nationalist slogan that played on white fears.
- Constituency: an area that elects one MP to Parliament.
- Baasskap: Afrikaans for 'boss-ship'. The idea that white people must stay in charge.
Why did the Nationalists win?
🐂 Afrikaner nationalism
Afrikaners had a strong sense of their own history. They remembered the Great Trek of the 1830s, when their ancestors left British rule in the Cape. They remembered the South African War of 1899-1902, when Britain defeated them and about 26,000 Afrikaner women and children died in British camps. In 1938 huge crowds watched ox-wagons retrace the Great Trek for its hundredth anniversary. The Dutch Reformed Church and the Broederbond spread the message that Afrikaners were a people chosen by God. Many Afrikaners were also poorer than English speakers, who ran most of the mines and businesses. Malan told them that an Afrikaner government would look after its own.
🏙 White fears about the towns
Remember, the war had drawn many thousands of Africans into the towns. White workers feared that employers would replace them with black workers on lower pay. White farmers complained that their workers were leaving for better wages in the factories. In 1946 tens of thousands of African mineworkers went on strike, and the police forced them back to work within a week. To many whites it felt as if control was slipping. The Nationalists used the slogan 'swart gevaar' and promised to push Africans back out of the towns.
🗳 The voting system
The Nationalists won more seats with fewer votes. They and their ally won only about four in every ten votes. The United Party and Labour won about half. How? The party with the most MPs formed the government, and the constituencies were not equal. Rural constituencies were allowed up to 15 per cent fewer voters than the average. Urban ones could have up to 15 per cent more. So a vote in the countryside, where most Afrikaner farmers lived, counted for more. The United Party also piled up huge majorities in a few city seats, and those extra votes won nothing.
👴 Weaknesses of Smuts's United Party
Smuts was 78 and seemed out of touch. He was famous abroad, but many Afrikaners saw him as too close to Britain. In 1939 he had taken South Africa into the Second World War on Britain's side after a narrow vote in Parliament, and many Afrikaners never forgave him. After the war, voters blamed his government for shortages of housing and food. His party was badly organised and too sure of winning. Worst of all, it had no clear answer on race. The Fagan Report of 1948, written for Smuts's government and accepted by his party, said that Africans were in the towns to stay and that total segregation was impossible. The Nationalists said this proved Smuts was weak, and attacked his deputy, Jan Hofmeyr, for his more liberal views.
These reasons worked together. Fear of the towns gave the Nationalists their message. Afrikaner nationalism gave them loyal voters. Smuts's weaknesses meant some Afrikaners who had backed him before now switched sides. The voting system then turned a minority of votes into a majority of seats.
Where did apartheid come from?
Apartheid was not invented overnight. The word spread in the 1930s among Afrikaner thinkers and churchmen. They argued that God had made separate nations, and that each should stay separate. The Broederbond helped to spread the idea.
In 1947 Malan asked a group of his party, led by Paul Sauer, to work out a race policy. Their Sauer Report gave the opposite answer to the Fagan Report. It said that the races must be separated completely. Africans belonged in the reserves. They should come to the white towns only as temporary workers, and their numbers there must be strictly controlled. This became the Nationalist plan for the election.
What did apartheid mean?
As an idea, apartheid had three parts:
- Separation in everything. Whites, Africans, Coloureds and Indians were to live, work, learn and marry apart.
- Separate nations. The Nationalists claimed that each race was a different nation that belonged in its own area. For Africans, that meant the reserves.
- White control. Whites would keep all political power over the country as a whole. This was baasskap.
Not all Nationalists wanted the same thing. Some thinkers wanted total separation, with no African workers in white areas at all. But white farmers and factory owners needed cheap African workers. So in practice apartheid meant keeping the workers but denying them rights.
How was this different from the segregation that already existed? The older system was patchy and full of gaps. Apartheid was meant to be one complete system, set out in law and enforced everywhere, with no exceptions. The laws that did this are covered in The First Apartheid Laws: Classifying and Separating People.
Common mistakes
Don't write that most white South Africans voted for apartheid in 1948. The Nationalists and their ally won fewer votes than their opponents and took power because of the voting system. Don't say that black South Africans voted against it either. Africans had almost no part in choosing the government: all they could do, in the Cape, was elect three white MPs on a separate list. And don't treat apartheid as just a new name for segregation. It aimed to be far more complete.
Exam-style question
Explain two effects of the movement of black workers to the towns on white politics in South Africa in the years 1945-48. [8 marks]
Model answer
One effect was that many white voters became afraid and turned to the National Party. White workers feared losing their jobs to black workers on lower pay, and white farmers complained that their workers were leaving for the factories. The African mineworkers' strike of 1946 added to the feeling that control was slipping. The Nationalists used these fears with the slogan 'swart gevaar' and promised to push Africans out of the towns. This led enough white voters, including Afrikaners who had backed Smuts before, to give Malan 79 seats and victory in May 1948.
A second effect was that it forced the parties to choose a clear race policy, and this divided them. The Fagan Report of 1948, which the United Party accepted, said that Africans were in the towns to stay and that total segregation was impossible. The Nationalists' Sauer Report took the opposite view and called for apartheid: complete separation, with Africans in the towns only as temporary workers. So the growth of the black population in the towns turned apartheid from an idea into the policy of a party, and made Smuts's party look weak by comparison.
What lifts this to the top level: there are two separate effects, each has precise facts (the 1946 strike, the two reports, 79 seats), and each paragraph shows how the move to the towns led to the effect.
Exam tip
This question asks about effects on white politics, so every sentence must link back to voters, parties or policies. Don't describe life in the towns for its own sake. And always give two effects: one effect alone, however well explained, cannot score more than 4 of the 8 marks. For more on this question type, see the Exam Skills lesson Paper 1 Question (b): Explain Two Effects.