The system of apartheid was implemented in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 to legally enforce racial segregation. Several laws were passed during this period, including the Population Registration Act which classified all citizens into racial groups, the Group Areas Act which restricted where members of different races could live, and the Pass Laws which controlled the movement of black South Africans. The apartheid system deprived non-white South Africans of basic rights and severely impacted them through poverty, loss of land, and discrimination in voting and jobs. After many years of struggle against apartheid, it was finally dismantled in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the first black president after democratic elections.