The unbelievable crimes that have occurred in the name of apartheid in South Africa are horrific. The fight for freedom and democracy has coasted many innocent lives and harm to almost all black South Africans. Even though the fight has come a long way it is certainly not over yet.
It is not possible to tell the story of apartheid in South Africa without beginning with a little about the countries story. To be treated, as a foreigner in their own land is nothing new to South Africans, they have been fighting over their right in the country since the first white settler from Holland stepped onto the South African land in the 17th century. Then the British fought the Boers (as the settlers from Holland decided to call them selves) and the British won and took over the country. Then in 1910 they united South Africa into the British Empire. The fist racial discrimination laws were passed in 1931 with the .
pass-laws. By the pass-laws all black South Africans (including Asian and people of mixed decent) had to carry a pass-book which held the information about where the persons could work, live and if she or he were even allowed to be traveling in the area they were stopped at. And if a person was stopped and did not have the pass-book on them or did not have the required stamps to be traveling in the area the punishment was a high fine or up to 45 days in prison. Over 2000 people were arrested each day on these charges. In 1948 with the victory of the National Party (NM) apartheid really set off, the strategist for NM said that apartheid was established to gain control of the economic and social system and by that racial discrimination began full speed. In 1950 the Population Registration Act (PRA) was passed. The PRA meant that everyone had to be racially classified into one of four groups; white, colored, African (black) and then Asian and people of mixed decent. The classification into these groups were based on appearance, social acceptance and decent.