When did the segregation in South Africa end and how?

Answer 1

It hasn't ended completely, but the famous forced segregation (apartheid) laws were in place for 41 years, from 1948 to 1989. A democratic government was elected in 1994, which is the official year of the end of apartheid, but legally everyone was free to go as they pleased since 1989. Apartheid was very much about the government and control of the whole country as well as segregation, and not just civil rights as in America, because by far the majority of South Africans are black. Although the whites were eventually a very small minority in 1989, the Demographics were a bit different after the second world war. In 1948, when Apartheid commenced, South Africa's population was roughly two-thirds black. It is not a coincidence that segregation ended immediately after the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the end of communism. The opposition to the white minority government, the African National Congress, had an ideology of communism as it's official system of economic government. Although Apartheid was a racist system, it was also the only other option to a communist South Africa. The white government not only had to deal with civil rights issues and politics, but economics too. If they had relinquished power before the end of communism, they would have simultaneously given away all their property and personal belongings as well. Seen in it's own light, residential segregation was extremely successful and continues (informally) to this day. This arrangement will not end for some time, as it is a natural occurrence all over the globe.