South Africa’s history is marked by colonization, enslavement, and the separation of racialized populations through numerous practices and laws since the arrival of White colonists. The discovery of diamonds and gold led to the consolidation of White settlers’ priveleges, and of the legal exclusion and discrimination of Black people.

In 1948, apartheid was institutionalized, and with the 1950 Population Registration Act the population was divided into three categories: White, Black (additional non African, indigenous Bantu) or Colored (this included South African minorities with ‘Cape Malay’ and ‘Griqua’ but also ‘Indian’, ‘Chines’, and ‘Cape Colored’, people of mixed ancestry).

 This categorization permitted structural discrimination that produced and consolidated a fall in income, power, and skills. In 1990, after many years of resistance the apartheid system finally broke down, and prisoners, such as Nelson Mandela, were released from political imprisonment.

Through the centuries of racism a huge imbalance in resources and skills in families, and communities arose. When apartheid was dismantled some measures were developed, such as housing projects, anti-discrimination directives, and positive actions in the labour and education markets. These were designed to tackle the lasting effects of apartheid.

In order to observe the progress of these measures, data was regularly collected. For this purpose this dossier first refers to the general collection of data. Data is collected through the census, crime statistics, and in business.