ewis Jr. in his book The Economics of Apartheid, South Africa's system of legally prescribed racial segregation and white domination made the country the focus of international attention and condemnation beginning around 1960. He adds that by 1970, cracks started to appear in the apartheid system. Black income fell dramatically relative to white income. At the same time, white South Africans began to question the economic justification for apartheid. The economic growth that occurred in the 1960s in South Africa made the need for apartheid's protectionist laws less apparent to the average voter (Lewis, 1).
The inherent inequity of apartheid can be measured by the ratio of black income to white. From 1946 to 1960, whites earned about 70% of South Africa's income in spite of a significant decrease in the white proportion of the population. Between 1970 and 1980, this ratio fell to 60 percent. Stephen Lewis writes that because of the discriminatory practices in effect in South Africa including discrimination in education as well as access to skilled jobs, the white population held most of the high income positions in the country. The Black population was
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