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Question 5
Question 5
This crucial failing to check and limit the power of the governing
party supports arguments that the Constitution laid the foundations of
apartheid by allowing an extremist party to implement racist and
discriminatory legislation. A further failing of the first point of the
Constitution was the exclusion of a Bill of Rights. Therefore, there was
nothing to protect the rights of vulnerable groups in society such as
Africans and Coloureds. It is argued that the fundamental failure to
include a Bill of Rights in the 1910 Constitution allowed the
government to pass legislation such as the Native’s Land Act, 1913.
Thompson maintains that this was a very significant law, enacted by
the government without consultation with Africans, which was
designed to regulate and control areas in which Africans were allowed
to live. The act set aside 22 million acres, approximately sever per cent
of the area of the Union of South Africa, for the creation of reserves in
which Africans were allowed. The act also banned sharecropping in the
Orange Free State and prohibited Africans from purchasing or leasing
land out with the reserves from anyone who was not an African. The
first point of the Constitution had allowed the government to introduce
legislation which would have a dramatic impact on the lives of Africans
across South Africa. Moreover, the Constitution had enabled the
government to regulate and control the interests of South Africa’s
largest racial group – the Africans.
Question 1