The South Africa which was born in 1910 included people from Africa, Europe and Asia, and the system of government was modeled on the common law of the Netherlands, supplemented by modern English law. In many respects, this new country was a compromise. It would acquire two official languages (Afrikaans and English); three capitals (an administrative capital, Pretoria; a legislative capital, Cape Town and a judicial capital, Bloemfontein); and the symbols of the state would reflect the union of Afrikaans and English-speaking whites. While the new state had a democratic form, with a few controversial exceptions, only whites enjoyed the vote. For virtually the whole of its history therefore, politics has been practiced on a ‘whites only’ basis. Therefore, when looking closely at the system and attempting to place the government in a category, I would create a new category summarized as a selectively democratic regime.White interests obviously shaped public policy. Spending on areas like education, pensions, health and housing, has greatly favored whites, who were clearly the major beneficiaries of the system. In addition, discrimination and injustice inflicted upon black South Africans have largely shaped the present political system. Black South Africans played virtually no part in the founding of the Union of South Africa. This was to be the start of a long and inspiring resistance to minority political rule that culminated some 85 years later in South Africa’s first truly democratic elections. Political protest began in 1909 when a delegation of blacks unsuccessfully petitioned the British parliament against approving the country’s independence constitution with its color bar. Some two years later in 1912, the largest black political organization, the African National Congress was founded. Blacks pursued moderate goals during the 1920’s and 1930’s and were then largely reliant on whit...
