Q 01/05

Which Communist Party leader's 1993 assassination pushed negotiators to agree a date for South Africa's first democratic election?

A) Joe Slovo

B) Chris Hani

C) Moses Kotane

D) J.B. Marks

Answer · why

B) Chris Hani

Chris Hani's killer was quickly caught because an Afrikaner woman who saw him called the police.

Q 02/05

Which South African prime minister lost power in the 1948 election that began apartheid?

A) Barry Hertzog

B) Jan Smuts

C) J.G. Strijdom

D) Deneys Reitz

Answer · why

B) Jan Smuts

Jan Smuts had written the first draft of the UN Charter's preamble three years before he lost to the apartheid campaign.

Q 03/05

Which 1949 law was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation?

A) Reservation of Separate Amenities Act

B) Suppression of Communism Act

C) Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act

D) Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

Answer · why

D) Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was followed in 1950 by the Immorality Amendment Act, which banned sex across the colour line too.

Q 04/05

How many racial groups did the Population Registration Act of 1950 sort South Africans into?

A) Two

B) Three

C) Four

D) Six

Answer · why

C) Four

The categories were Black, White, Coloured and Indian, and the last two contained several sub-classifications.

Q 05/05

Apartheid officials sometimes classified race by pushing which object into a person's hair and telling them to shake?

A) A comb

B) A pencil

C) A ruler

D) A matchstick

Answer · why

B) A pencil

A pencil that stayed put in the hair marked a person for the lower classification, such as Black rather than Coloured.