When the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was passed by the South African Parliament in 1949, it was the first of some 148 pieces of legislation that were designed to keep the races apart.

The Afrikaner-based National Party had come to power a year earlier and, manipulating the composition of Parliament, had declared its commitment to apartheid (Afrikaner for "apartness").

Its policy was based on its belief in the superiority of the white race. In a 1950 House of Parliament debate, a National Party MP declared: "The white man is the master in South Africa, and the white man, from the very nature of his origins, from the very nature of his birth, and from the very nature of his guardianship, will remain master in South Africa to the end."

The basic principle behind apartheid was simple segregate everything. Skin colour dictated where people lived, worked, studied, prayed, played sports, and more. Sex "across the colour bar" was punishable by imprisonment.

Everyone in the country was assigned a race. As ridiculous as it seems, sometimes the assignment was made based on a person's sporting preferences.

People could appeal their race classification; in 1985, more than 1,000 people officially changed colour. Some 702 coloured [mixed race] people "turned white", while 249 blacks "became coloured", three Chinese "became white", and so on.

Today, apartheid is exactly where it belongs in a museum. The award-winning and internationally acclaimed Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg recounts the political upheaval of the 1900s and moves on to the transition of South Africa from a racist state into Africa's beacon of hope as the 21st century began.

The museum was assembled by a multidisciplinary team of architects, curators, filmmakers, historians and designers. Exhibits take visitors on a historical journey from the early peoples of South Africa through to the birth of democracy in the country with the historic elections of 1994. The injustices meted out under apartheid dominate, and there is also a huge exhibit dedicated to the life and struggles of Nelson Mandela, chronicling his emergence as a political leader, and then his arrest, detention, ultimate release and ascent to the presidency of South Africa in 1994.

The exhibit features a huge array of photos chronicling his fight, as well as video of a 1961 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation that raises the possibility that the then non-violent protest might evolve into a violent struggle.

Reminders of the apartheid era begin outside the museum when a tour guide gives visitors either a "whites only" or "non-whites only" pass that determines which entrance a visitor is entitled to use.

A mass of wire cages holding huge blow-ups of identity cards, identity books, and the hated pass books, begins the tour. The 1952 Natives Act required all black people over 16 to carry a pass book, which gave them permission to work in a white area, at all times.

Police could demand to see a person's pass book at any time. In 1960, thousands of blacks assembled at police stations countrywide to burn their pass books. The law was repealed in 1986.

The rest of the massive museum visitors should set aside a few hours to fully take it in is just as graphic, including:

¦ A large yellow and blue police armoured vehicle, nicknamed a "casspir", in which you can sit and watch footage taken from inside the vehicle driving through the townships.

¦ Dangling from the roof, 121 nooses representing the political prisoners hanged during apartheid.

¦ A cage full of weapons that were used by the security forces to enforce apartheid.

¦ Footage of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd who was assassinated in 1966 — addressing a crowd in English, explaining how the country could be happily ruled only when the races were separated.

Visitors can express their solidarity with the victims of apartheid by placing a pebble on a pile. There is also a recording studio in which visitors can leave their experiences under apartheid, if they had any, for others to hear.

Today, South Africa's Constitution the supreme law of the land is hailed as one of the most progressive in the world. The country's Bill of Rights includes a right to life as well as those of equality, freedom of expression and association, political and property rights, housing, health care, education, access to information, and access to courts. Sexual orientation is included as one of the grounds upon which discrimination is forbidden. One of the founding provisions of the Republic of South Africa, set out in the Constitution, provides for "human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms".

After only a week in South Africa, it is apparent that true equality economic equality will take generations to achieve, but the Apartheid Museum is a powerful reminder of how far South Africa has come, and how far it has left to go.

Veteran World Cup observer Duncan Hall is reporting exclusively from South Africa for The Royal Gazette.