may 26, 1948 - South African General Election

Description:

The National Party's (NP) ability to articulate a clear apartheid vision contrasted sharply with the uneasy complexity of the United Party's (UP) vision.

It was a message which resonated with many Afrikaner voters in a fearful and embattled White electorate. The part's slogans of "black peril" and "red peril" raised the twin spectres of White cities overwhelmed by Black workers on one hand, and the civilized Afrikaner way of life threatened by a godless, revolutionary communism on the other.

This was enough to see D.F. Malan's NP triumph over its UP rival.

Following the 1948 election, Malan's victorious NP issues a spate of laws that became the basis of the system known as apartheid.

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