Apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, was implemented in South Africa in 1948 by the National Party, which was in power at the time. The National Party came to power in 1948 after winning the general election that year, and one of its first actions was to pass the Population Registration Act, which classified South Africans into racial categories and laid the foundation for the system of apartheid. The National Party government subsequently passed a series of laws that entrenched segregation and discrimination against non-white South Africans and granted privileges to the white minority. The system of apartheid remained in place until the early 1990s, when it was dismantled as part of the transition to a multi-racial democracy.