Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), from 1948 to 1994. Although it is now illegal to racially discriminate in South Africa, the legacy of apartheid is still present in education and economic opportunities. Black South Africans are less likely to attain high levels of education and more likely to be unemployed. These trends are widely considered lasting effects of apartheid. 

South Africa is still very geographically and culturally divided along racial lines. A 2012 "reconciliation barometer survey" found:

• 43.5% of South Africans rarely or never speak to someone of another race

• 41.4% find the '"ways and customs" of people of other race groups difficult to understand

• 82% of black and 50.6% of whites agree with the statment  "black South Africans are still poor today as a result of the lasting effects of apartheid"

• 27.7% of white youth think it is untrue that apartheid was a crime against humanity

(Smith)