After 1948 the South African government codified racial separation into a comprehensive legal system. Apartheid classified the population by race and restricted where people could live, work, attend school, and move. The policy aimed to secure white minority control over land, politics, and the economy.

Laws enforced separate residential areas, pass systems, and unequal public facilities. Resistance grew through strikes, boycotts, and armed struggle, met by state repression. International isolation and internal pressure mounted through the 1980s.

Negotiations in the early 1990s led to the first democratic elections in 1994 and the formal dismantling of apartheid legislation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission later examined human-rights violations of the era. Economic and social inequalities rooted in the system persisted long after the laws were repealed.

• System of racial segregation in South Africa
• Enforced by law from 1948 to the early 1990s
• Restricted residence, movement, and rights
• Ended through negotiation and democratic transition