ABSTRACT
The philosophy of apartheid was introduced as the guiding principle of the National Party government under Dr D.F. Malan, which came to power in the general election of 26 May 1948, with the intention of creating a White Christian national state. Initially the new government differed only in degree of enforcement from the segregationism practised by the previous administration. However, the guidelines were set in terms of the apartheid philosophy, which were to focus attention on South Africa in international affairs and give it its distinguishing features. Separation was to be introduced at all inter-personal levels ranging from separate park benches for Whites and other people to separate independent states for members of the various defined population groups. The principle of no equality between Black and White in church and state had been written into the Afrikaner republican constitutions of the South African Republic and Orange Free State in the nineteenth century, and the new government sought to emulate its predecessors in the mid-twentieth century.
