During the terribly system of institutionalized racial segregation of Apartheid, marriage in South Africa between white people and anyone non-white was forbidden, passing as a law in 1949 under the name of <em>South Africa's Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act. </em>
One of the blackest pages in the history of South Africa is the times when the laws of apartheid were the basis of public policy. It was in this country that racism was legalized until the end of the twentieth century. During the apartheid regime, all the black population (and they constituted the vast majority) would be forced to live in separate areas from the white people and to use public services in separate public institutions. Contact between two parts of the population within different races will be strictly limited. Laws prohibiting mixed marriages have been enacted. Despite a strong and consistent policy against the apartheid regime outside South Africa, its laws have remained in force for more than 50 years. It was only in 1991 that the Government of President De Klerk began to abolish most of the laws that were the basis of the policy of apartheid.
