The Natives Land Act, 1913 (hereafter the Land Act) established a legal goal to create territorial segregation in South Africa after 1913, and South Africans debated the meaning of the word and how to implement the goal after 1913. In Chapter 4, I briefly discussed the views of Jan Smuts and J. B. M. Hertzog about segregation and its implementation. The focus of this chapter is on the factors which prevented the territorial segregation plans envisioned in 1913 from being achieved by 1948.

R. V. Selope Thema, newspaper columnist and editor, wrote that black South Africans were ‘strenuously opposed’ to segregation ‘because we are firmly convinced that it cannot be in the interests of our race’. A contemporary, the Fort Hare College professor, D. D. T. Jabavu, declared that segregation was ‘a mere catchword’, because, he believed that segregation was no longer possible. The word was used frequently during the first half of the 20th century, but few in South Africa really knew what it meant. W. K. Hancock recognised that segregation ‘was not a precisely defined programme but a slogan with as many meanings as anyone could want. It meant one thing in one place, another thing in another place. Government speakers, including [Prime Minister Jan] Smuts himself, failed to pin its meaning down’. W. Poll sent a report to the distinguished parliamentarian, J. X. Merriman, in which he asserted that a ‘great deal might be written upon the misuse and misunderstanding of the blessed word “segregation”. There is no recognised definition of this word, and no two people have the same meaning when using it’. For certain whites, segregation meant trying to achieve the total separation of the races, while others declared that total separation was impractical or impossible. Certain politicians wanted segregation imposed immediately; others believed that segregation would require time for gradual implementation. Historians have offered several reasons why segregation became a dominant policy in 20th century South Africa: the growth of industrialisation, fear among whites of the growing African majority, and racism.