This description covers the end of the Apartheid system in South Africa, a system of racial segregation and discrimination that had been in place since 1948. It describes the events leading up to the end of Apartheid, including the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990, the negotiations between the African
Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population. Under this minoritarian system, white citizens held the highest status, followed by Indians, Coloureds and black Africans, in that order. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality.