The 1922 Southern Rhodesian Government referendum would see the almost entirely white electorate vote narrowly in favour of joining the Union of South Africa. Along with the colony of Southern Rhodesia (now referred to simply as Rhodesia), Bechuanaland, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia would be transferred to the South African Government and gradually integrated into the union. The majority English-speaking Rhodesians were firmly pro-British and would align themselves to the emerging Dominion Party, established to maintain South Africa's "British connection" and the interests of the distinctly British cultures of the Natal and Rhodesia. The 1948 election would result in an extremely narrow victory for Jan Smut's United Party through an electoral pact with the Dominion Party against the primarily-Afrikaner National Party. Smut's administration would see a gradual process of enfranchisement of the Coloured and Indian populations of the union, increased native indirect representation in the House of Assembly (natives electing white/coloured representatives on their behalf) and subsidisation of immigration from Western Europe. Of the 2 million immigrants that arrived in South Africa between 1948-1965, the vast majority were English-speakers, increasing the white population to up to 20%.
These arrivals would form a significant base for the United Party who would comfortably enter power once again in 1953. The Dominion Party had begun to crumble as English speaking voters gravitated towards the United Party, perceiving it as the only viable option to prevent a National victory in the upcoming election. Quite ironically, the NP would undergo major reform in an attempt to appeal to white voters as a whole, rather then just Afrikaners. Such a gambit would prove successful allowing them to achieve victory in 1958. The UP suffered as a result voter fatigue at the prospect of a sixth UP administration . The new governing National Party would restrict immigration, along with opting to enforce much stricter segregation laws against the African community dubbed petty Apartheid/Apart-hood. These discriminatory petty apartheid laws would become a focal point in the Unions history, entrenching white minority rule.
The issue of minority rule would become brutally divisive. A small wealthy white minority presided over a vast nation of non-whites, the majority of whom were completely disenfranchised and victims of racist policies. Thus opposition to National Government would increase, following the trend of civil rights movements nationwide. Organisations such as the ANC would demonstrate against the racist system, yet would often face brutal repercussions. Multiple inflammatory incidents in which black protestors would be brutalized (even massacred) by the defence forces resulted in armed insurgencies across the nation. African nationalist groups would rise up against minority rule, often funded through backers in the Eastern Bloc, conducting terrorists tactics in a guerrilla war against the segregationist regime. The ANC itself would be torn apart as rival factions became increasingly divided on the best course of action in the campaign for majority rule.
The United Party would return to power in 1973 as a minority government, having agreed a confidence and supply agreement with the Commonwealth Party (successor to the Dominion Party) and Labour Party. Ironically it had been the Dominion/Commonwealth Party's resurgence following a decade of decline, that had resulted in the division of the English-speaking electorate, resulting in the National Party sweeping to victory in 1963 and 1968. South Africa found itself in a precious situation, facing an insurgency and mounting international pressure. In the preceding year, South Africa had been expelled from the Commonwealth of Nations due to its racist policies. While the UP would oversee major reforms such as the full enfranchisement of the Coloureds and Indians, and repealing some of the more radical legislation, UP leadership to policy in terms of repealing segregationist laws and the limited political rights the party wished to give to Natives infuriated Liberals within the party. Tensions between the liberal and conservative factions of the UP would come ahead at the party congress in 1975, in which twenty UP MPs would defect to form the Progressive Federal Party. The ensuing vote of no confidence in the House of Assembly would see the government defeated, resulting in a general election. The 1975 General election would result in a significant National majority.
The staunchly republican NP would achieve yet another major victory in the monarchy referendum. The Labour Government in the United Kingdom under Alfred Robens had openly flirted with encouraging Queen Elizabeth II to renounce the throne of South Africa. Having felt increasingly betrayed by the British crown, the electorate would narrowly vote in favour of the abolition of the monarchy. Instead South Africans would elect a ceremonial state President every 10 years. With ties to Britain irrevocably severed, the NP would attempt to appeal to the increasingly fractured voting base of the Commonwealth Party. While the Anglo-centric CP had in the past found itself in conflict with the Afrikaner Nationals over the monarchy and commonwealth, the two parties shared a firm support of maintaining minority rule regardless. Threatening the prospects of majority rule under a UP (or even worse a Progressive) government, the NP developed a populist appeal in the Rhodesia, effectively abandoning their previous Afrikaner nationalism in favour of white nationalism. Yet while many Rhodesian voters gravitated towards the NP, many did not. From the embers of the Commonwealth party, the Rhodesian Front would emerge.
Over the course of the next decade, the internal situation in South Africa had become increasingly grim. Major violence, coupled with the economic ramifications of an international blockade triggered major public backlash. The General election would result in a hung parliament: The UP, having managed to survive the crisis it faced itself in in 1975, won the most seats in the House of Assembly, yet were far from a majority. The NP had found itself mired in internal controversy between its reformist and hardliner factions. As the NP had moderated its policies under reformist leaders, a Conservative Party had emerged as a hardliner response. While far from anything near the Progressives, or even the UP policies at the time, disaffected Afrikaners would abandon the NP to support the Conservatives, along with fringe organisations such as Eugene Terreblanche's Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, resulting in a NP crash in the polls. The subsequent UP-Labour-PFP rainbow coalition would be historic. The introduction of a qualified franchise for Parliamentary elections and federal constitution would be landmark reforms in South Africa. The introduction of a Federation granted states control over their voting rights in regional elections, with Swaziland, Lesotho and Bechuanaland introducing universal-suffrage in their state legislature elections. Meanwhile Rhodesia and Natal would adopt a qualified franchise to state legislature. The qualified franchise for parliamentary elections (a very reluctant compromise between the PFP and UP) was deeply discriminatory, yet technically enfranchised segments of the African population. While these reforms would help alleviate some of the international pressure South Africa faced, it would do little to satisfy black nationalist groups who perceived it as little more than tokenism.
The nineties would become the decade of polarisation. Heavy Eastern European immigration from the former Warsaw Pact nations re-enforced the white South African population. While the UP had been able to win two consecutive elections in 1990 and 1995, repealing much of the segregationist laws applied by the former National Governments and lowering the requirements for the qualified franchise in 1993 and in 1999, white backlash against the reforms had begun to mount. The bloodshed of the insurgency had radicalized much of the white population who felt increasingly threatened by the prospect of majority rule, perceiving the UP's reforms (that were criticized by cynics as attempts to build a supporter base amongst a limited African electorate) as the next step to black "domination." On the other hand the UP would fiercely defend their liberal reforms as the only way to modernise and open up South Africa to international investment. In 2000, the NP and Conservatives would run as a joint ticket nationwide as the National Conservatives, winning a slender majority in the House of Assembly. Having promised to halt any new reforms, the Nat-Con coalition maintained tenuous control over Parliament, blocking any sort of reform legislation proposed by the PFP. Internationally relations between South Africa, Russia and China flourished, dubbed as an axis of evil by international press. South Africa would undergo an economic boom under Chinese investment.
Despite remaining relatively solid the years prior, the Nat-Con coalition would disintegrate over the course of 2004. Widely publicised spats between major figures in each party would result in the announcement that their short-lived alliance would not continue in the upcoming general election. The UPs unexpected victory in 2005 has been attributed to such a splinter in the relatively popular coalition. In a press conference following the election, UP leader Guy Scott vowed to the end the violence that had plagued the nation for up to forty years. In 2007, Scott's government would successfully negotiate a ceasefire with all insurgent forces nationwide, inviting them towards a peace conference in Durban. Incredibly controversial, even within the UP itself, Scott relied on the support of the PFP in the House of Assembly. The Durban Declaration of 2008 established the goal of a multiracial democratic South Africa by 2020 latest. The monumental abolition of the Qualified Franchise for Presidential Elections would see Ian Khama elected as South Africa's first black President in 2010. In 2009, after almost five years of filibuster, the House of Assembly would pass the Equality Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin.
The landmark actions of the Scott Government were extremely divisive. While many in the public believed these reforms were necessary and long overdue, many more were vitriolically horrified. The 2010 General Election would be the most alienating in the nations history.