The pass laws were also important, because it restricted blacks from having the freedom of movement, having a big affect on blacks meaning they had to carry ‘pass books’ all the time. If they did not have their passes they could be arrested.
The Bantu Education Act changed lives of Africans because white children were taught subjects for example history, maths, science etc. So they can be doctors lawyers etc. However, black children, were only taught subjects such as wood works and metal work etc. So they can be workers in factories or down the mines. This meant that blacks couldn’t learn history, couldn’t learn maths, and couldn’t learn science and so on, whereas white children couldn’t learn the practical subjects. The effect of this law for blacks was that they could only set up low paid jobs.
The separate Amenities Act affected the Africans because parks, benches, bus stops, swimming pools etc were separated into black and white areas. A black worker could enter a white church to clean it but not to pray in it. Meaning blacks were treated differently and separated from whites. If a black person were to go into a white area they would have of needed a “Pass Book”. The job reservation laws meant that certain jobs were reserved for certain races. This had a big affect on Africans, for example a black builder could hammer nails into a plank with the front of the hammer but could not use its claw to remove the nail. The main effect was that Africans were seriously restricted in the jobs they could do.
All of these laws were very racist, showing that whites were superior to blacks in the 1950s.
The 1960s saw the introduction of a new development the Bantustans. This was when tribes such as Zulu, Xhosa, Venda and Sotho were scattered around in South Africa in small groups, meaning that the whites would always have the majority.
Most of the farmland in the Bantustans was poor quality and there were few jobs inside the Bantustans. This changed the lives of Africans because blacks were separated into tribes in small groups, meaning that the land would be very overcrowded and the people generally lived in very poor conditions.
The government also talked about “Separate but equal development” this meant that blacks, whites were separated but would be treated equally. This was very untrue because the government said that £104 million would need to be spent on building industries in the Bantustans for the Africans to work in but, only £500,000 was spent on trying to provide jobs.
Africans also lost the few rights that they had in South Africa; they had long distances to get to work. When they left their areas and moved away their lives would be very hard. The different tribes would be encouraged into arguing with each other to, to stop them joining together to fight against apartheid.
In the 1970s the Africans health and living conditions continued to get worse.
Africans had poor health care; this changed their lives because they had 1 doctor per 12 000 and 1 nurse per 1000 people. Unlike white people they had about 1 doctor per 500 people. The effect of this is that white people had more attention than the blacks meaning that they were more likely to die.
Africans also had poor living conditions for example overcrowding, because blacks had 13% of the land meaning that their would have been many diseases and malnutrition. This was unlike whites who had 87% of the land, living in the highest standards.
Black Africans had a lower life expectancy of living (until 60 yrs) because of the poor and filthy places they lived in. However white’s life expectancy was about 72 yrs of age.
The pensions black Africans had compared to whites was shocking, Africans had below 100 and whites over 150 per month.
Therefore blacks didn’t have much medical care, or were not treated fairly and so whites got everything they wanted.
Life under Apartheid deteriorated for most Africans from 1950 to 1970 as the amount of money spent on law and order increased and the amount spent on Africans decreased as life got worse and worse for them in the 1950s to the 1970s, and that the government were deliberately making the lives of Africans worse to allow the whites to be better off.