Later, Asians, or Indians and Pakistanis, were added as a fourth category. The laws determined where members of each racial group could live, prohibited most social contact between races, and denied representation of nonwhites in the national government.

             Before apartheid became the official policy, South Africa had a long history of racial segregation. In 1910 parliamentary membership was limited to whites, and legislation passed in 1913 restricted black land ownership. In 1912 the African National Congress (ANC) was founded to fight these policies. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s the government implemented a series of reforms, but apartheid continued to be criticized internationally. In 1990 South Africa finally ended apartheid.

             South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, formed to uncover past events without further polarizing society, released its final report on human rights abuses under apartheid in 1998. Its conclusions were attacked by all of the country's main political parties, none of which escaped criticism in the report. .

             .

             TIMELINE .

             1931-34.

             South Africa gains independence from Great Britain after the passage of the Statute of Westminster by the British Parliament in December 1931 and its acceptance by South Africa in June 1934. From the formation of the independent country, the white minority controls the government and moves to limit the powers of nonwhites and create special designated areas, or homelands, for them to live. .

             Dec. 8, 1946.

             The United Nations adopts a resolution condemning the South African government's treatment of its Indian minority and asks both South Africa and India to report back as to whether conditions had improved to conform with the U.N. charter. A highly publicized effort by India to prevent South Africa from discriminating against the Indian minority marks the most prominent criticism to date of South Africa's increasingly divisive racial policies.