"Dr. Malan was re-elected as prime minister"

 Dr. Daniel François Malan, an ex-dominee, was elected Prime Minister of South Africa in 1948. He is today thought of as the “architect” of Apartheid. Until 1948 a separation of the races had existed, but Malan formalized that separation in law.

He constitutionalized  the Immorality Act that forbade sex between black and white people, the Mixed Marriages Act that forbade racially-mixed marriages, the Group Areas Act that stipulated who could live where, the Separate Amenities Act that barred public toilets and park benches to “non-Europeans” , and the Population Registration Act. Under the latter, a South African on reaching the age of 18 was racially classified as either white, coloured, black, Indian or Asian. The classification was based on ancestry or physical characteristics.