National Party summary

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National Party, in full National Party of South Africa, South African political party that ruled the country in 1948–94. Its following included most Afrikaners and many English-speaking whites. It was founded in 1914 by J.B.M. Hertzog as the National Party of South Africa and sought to rally Afrikaners against the Anglicizing policies of the government of Louis Botha and Jan Smuts. After winning the 1948 elections, the party enacted a mass of racial legislation, a policy that the party named apartheid. In 1961 it severed ties with the Commonwealth and made South Africa a republic. In the 1990s, under F.W. de Klerk of the National Party, the government began to repeal racially discriminatory laws. The National Party was defeated in South Africa’s first universal elections in 1994 but participated in a coalition government with its longtime rival, the African National Congress. With the enactment of a new constitution in 1996, the Nationalists resigned from the government in protest, marking their first time out of government since 1948. In 1998 the party changed its name to the New National Party. After several years of declining popularity, in 2005 the party’s federal council voted in favour of disbanding the party. See also P.W. Botha.

F.W. de Klerk Summary

F.W. de Klerk was a politician who as president of South Africa (1989–94) brought the apartheid system of racial segregation to an end and negotiated a transition to majority rule in his country. He and Nelson Mandela jointly received the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace for their collaboration in

Daniel F. Malan Summary

Daniel F. Malan was a statesman and politician who formed South Africa’s first exclusively Afrikaner government and instituted the policy of apartheid (the enforced segregation of nonwhites from whites). Malan was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch, and at the University of Utrecht, Neth.,

racially restricted beach in apartheid-era South Africa

apartheid Summary

Apartheid, policy that governed relations between South Africa’s white minority and nonwhite majority for much of the latter half of the 20th century, sanctioning racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhites. Although the legislation that formed the foundation of

political party Summary

Political party, a group of persons organized to acquire and exercise political power. Political parties originated in their modern form in Europe and the United States in the 19th century, along with the electoral and parliamentary systems, whose development reflects the evolution of parties. The