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Johannes A. Smit
Firstly, we may acknowledge that apartheid’s Ideological State
Apparatuses (ISAs) were indeed disparate – those chosen by the state could
have been different. Yet, as a brief overview of the state’s legal framework
shows, the racist state’s ISAs as founded in state laws, formed a firm grid in
terms of which the ruling racist elite and its Repressive State Apparatuses
(RSAs) could function 11 . Drawing on an earlier paper (cf. Smit 2002), they
can be briefly outlined in terms of 1) the legislation prior to 1948 which
cultivated certain racial practices and social formations in society broadly
speaking; and 2) the actual legal framework the racist state put in place – i.e.
as it was supposed to not only structure society ideologically, but also use
these systems and structures to enforce and inculcate racial superiority and
conditions of existence under the racist ideology by both oppressor and
oppressed. The legal framework mainly focused on the governance of sex,
suppressing and prevention of political resistance and opposition, the
governing of relations in local communities (‘little apartheid’), as well as in
education, the economy, and the establishment of the black homelands 12
.
Against the background of the fully operationalising of the systems and
institutions that inculcated the ideology, direct governance – akin to
Althusser’s RSAs (1971:138) – provided a unified coordinating and
11 In order to make a distinction between direct state governance of the ruling
elite via its direct repressive systems and its indirect governance via its coopting
of systems and institutions in the sate, Althusser’s (1971) distinction
between the RSAs and ISAs is helpful. In his context of 1950s France, the
ISA’s comprised of: 1) the religious ISA (the system of the different
churches/ [religions]); 2) the educational ISA (the system of the different
public and private ‘schools’); 3) the family ISA; 4) the legal ISA; 5) the
political ISA (the political system, including the different parties); 6) the
trade-union ISA; 7) the communications ISA (press, radio and television,
etc.); 8) the cultural ISA (literature, the arts, sports, etc.).
12 I only provide a sample of these laws. For a full break-down with
discussions of the different Acts impacting on or contributing to the
establishing of apartheid South Africa, consult, http://www.sahistory.
org.za/pages/chronology/special - chrono/governance/apartheid - legislation.
html. The different timeframes this website treats are: 1856 – 1913; 1920s;
1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s.
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