South Africa is often referred to as a ‘secular state’. What’s the background? The primary feature of a secular state is political secularism, which is the attempt to draw distinctions between state and religious institutions and their activities. According to this definition, political secularism did not exist in South Africa at the time it was established as a unified country in 1910. In other words, no meaningful differentiation was made between the mechanisms of statecraft and religious institutions. Instead they were conflated as a violent politics of racial rule became sanctioned by these institutions. This crystallised into the system of apartheid.