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Verwoerd heavily repressed opposition to apartheid during his premiership. He ordered the detention and imprisonment of tens of thousands of people and the exile of further thousands, while at the same time greatly empowering, modernizing, and enlarging the white apartheid state's security forces (police and military). He banned black organizations such as the [[African National Congress]] and the [[Pan Africanist Congress of Azania|Pan Africanist Congress]], and it was under him that future president [[Nelson Mandela]] was imprisoned for life for sabotage.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">[https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/oct/11/guardianobituaries.davidberesford?commentpage=1 "Obituary: Long-jailed assassin of South African premier"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 11 October 1999. Retrieved 8 July 2009. {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20151003180228/http://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/oct/11/guardianobituaries.davidberesford?commentpage=1|date=3 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/people.php?id=65-251-7D|title=South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid|website=overcomingapartheid.msu.edu|access-date=7 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201160254/http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/people.php?id=65-251-7D|archive-date=1 December 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Verwoerd's South Africa had one of the highest prison populations in the world and saw a large number of executions and floggings. By the mid-1960s Verwoerd's government to a large degree had put down internal civil resistance to apartheid by employing extraordinary legislative power, draconian laws, psychological intimidation, and the relentless efforts of the white state's security forces.
Apartheid as a program began in 1948 with [[D. F. Malan]]'s premiership, but it was Verwoerd's role in its formulation and his efforts to place it on a firmer legal and theoretical footing, including his opposition to even the limited form of integration known as {{lang|af|[[baasskap]]}}, that have led him to be dubbed the "Architect of Apartheid". His actions prompted the passing of [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1761]], condemning apartheid, and ultimately leading to South Africa's international isolation and [[economic sanctions against South Africa|economic sanctions]]. On 6 September 1966, Verwoerd was stabbed several times by parliamentary aide [[Dimitri Tsafendas]].
== Early life ==
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{{One source section|date=August 2018}}
The town of [[Orania, Northern Cape|Orania]] in the Northern Cape province houses the Verwoerd collection — memorabilia collected during Verwoerd's lifetime which is now on display in the house where his widow lived for the last years before her death in 2000 at the age of 98.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/02/world/betsie-verwoerd-apartheid-ruler-s-wife-98.html Betsie Verwoerd, Apartheid Ruler's Wife, 98]</ref> Verwoerd's legacy in South Africa today is a controversial one as for black South Africans
In 1992, Verwoerd's widow, [[Betsie Verwoerd]], moved to [[Orania, Northern Cape|Orania]], the Afrikaner settlement founded by her son-in-law. She was visited by the first democratically elected [[president of South Africa]], [[Nelson Mandela]], at her home in 1995.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/23/world/beloved-country-repays-mandela-in-kind.html|title=Beloved Country Repays Mandela in Kind|date=23 March 1999|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=9 August 2017}}</ref>
On the 50th anniversary of Verwoerd's assassination in 2016, parts of the South Africa
Many major roads, places and facilities in cities and towns of South Africa were named after Verwoerd; in post-apartheid South Africa, there has been a campaign to take down statues of Verwoerd and rename buildings and streets named after him.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gross |first=Daniel |date=14 September 2016 |title=How Should South Africa Remember the Architect of Apartheid? |publisher=Smithsonian |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-should-south-africa-remember-architect-apartheid-180960449/ |access-date=29 May 2008}}</ref> Famous examples include [[H. F. Verwoerd Airport]] in [[Port Elizabeth]], renamed Port Elizabeth Airport, the [[Verwoerd Dam]] in the [[Free State (South African province)|Free State]], now the Gariep Dam, [[Steve Biko Academic Hospital|H. F. Verwoerd academic hospital]] in [[Pretoria]], now Steve Biko Hospital, and the town of [[Verwoerdburg]], now Centurion.
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