>>1149518Inaccurate, Status of the Union Act, 1934 effectively made South Africa free from British rule and making it functionally independent. In fact, they initially refused to join World War 2 and were free to remain neutral if they desired. However J. B. M. Hertzog was overruled with Jan Smuts replacing him as Prime Minister. To say that South Africa was a colony is very misguided, most of the money generated in the country, stayed in the country. The declaration of being a republic in 1961 and removing any links to the United Kingdom is also another circumstance which identifies that South Africa was clearly NOT a colony. The large Afrikaner population made the ideas of detaching themselves from the British very enticing, and South Africa functioning as a colony was quite different from other dominions.
