Apartheid, (Afrikaans: “apartness”) policy that governed relations between South Africa’s white minority and nonwhite majority and sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhites. The implementation of apartheid, often called “separate development” since the 1960s, was made possible through the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all black Africans), Coloured (those of mixed race), or white. A fourth category—Asian (Indian and Pakistani)—was later added.

Built on earlier South African laws and customs, apartheid classified every South African by race as either (1) black, (2) white, (3) Coloured (mixed race), or (4) Asian. Apartheid required segregation in housing, education, employment, public accommodations, and transportation. It segregated not only almost all whites from nonwhites but also major nonwhite groups from each other. It also limited the rights of nonwhites to own and occupy land, and to enter white neighborhoods.