Urban issues
It is true that, in many respects, the roots of racial segregation can be traced back to the nineteenth century and the strictures that colonial society imposed upon southern Africa's urban areas. Case studies in the region seem to indicate that our suburbs were often integrated to a larger degree than is generally admitted by Apartheid's historians, and although black and white were uneasy neighbours, they generally appear to have shared urban facilities with a measure of success. Disputes between the two communities usually arose over the occupation of coveted residential land, an issue which was often linked by whites to the question of public health. Occasionally matters reached a critical point, such as in 1901-1903 when the British importation of fodder from Argentina brought about a nation-wide outbreak of Bubonic Plague. Upon this occasion the authorities unilaterally imposed draconian restrictions upon the Black population, demolished their homes, burned their belongings, and displaced entire communities to sites well beyond the city boundaries. Barring such instances, however, planning decisions which created social divisions were generally made by planners on an ad hoc basis, and were largely guided by considerations of economic class.
A major turning point was reached in 1923 when the Union Parliament passed the Natives (Urban Areas) Act, which laid down the principles of residential segregation and reinforced the doctrine that the African population had no permanent rights in the towns. In spite of this, the now "white" suburbs remained racially integrated to varying degrees until 1948 when the Nationalist Party came to power. At that stage the process of separating communities was placed upon an ideological footing, and was given substance by a variety of inter-linking residential, squatting, labour and security legislation. Although, over the years, the dialectic of Apartheid has tended to change, its net effect upon the black community has involved the dispossession of their homes and land, often with minimal recompense. They have also been denied access to markets, infrastructure and civic amenities, leading to impoverishment and increased economic hardship.