Facing the ‘black peril’: the politics of population control in South Africa

Abstract

There is no sense in withstanding the enemy beyond the country's borders while the far more serious population explosion within its borders is allowed to continue unchecked.' A programme of national population control theoretically encompasses three distinct elements: limitation on women's fertility, change in human mortality rates and control of immigration. The government of South Africa has adopted specific policies on each of these three which, taken together, attempt to limit the black population while maintaining a large white population. 2 This article will focus on official policy regarding the limitation of women's fertility in the wider context of population control. While the National Party, in power since 1948, has long been committed to limiting the growth of the black population, its efforts to curb such growth have varied in intensity. It was only in 1974, for example, that Pretoria announced an official 'family planning' policy and allocated sufficient funds to carry it out. This article therefore also explores the nature and cause of these policy shifts, placing the birth control programme in the context of South Africa's evolving political economy.

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