Following the Second Anglo-Boer War, the Transvaal and Orange Free State were barren. Scorched earth tactics from the British had left farmland ruined, and the concentration of the Boer population in camps had lead to a huge depopulation, with around half of the Boer children in these camps dying from disease and malnutrition. The Afrikaner population of the Free State and the Transvaal, the 'Boers' (Dutch for farmer) were a conservative agrarian people. They toiled on the land, and most had little formal education outside of learning to read the Bible. Afrikaners from the Cape Colony were distinct, they tended to have a better education and were more 'cosmopolitan'. Prior to the Witwatersrand Gold Rush which lead to the foundation of Johannesburg, neither the Transvaal or Orange Free State had any sizeable cities outside of their capitals which were also rather small. They were both very rural states, with most of their citizenship economically engaged in agriculture. Ruined farms following the war lead many families to migrate to cities, the so called ''die trek na die stad''. This lead to cities growing in size, and Johannesburg which was effectively run by English speaking business owners, was the main draw to these internal migrants. This wave of migration was later exacerbated by the modernisation of farming forcing more to move on to the cities. When moving to these cities the Afrikaners were left on the fringes, often in the worse areas, sometimes close to the informal settlements of the native bantus who were used as a pool of cheap labour primarily in the mining sector. The language of business, commerce, the civil service and in some cases even education was primarily conducted in English. The Afrikaners were mostly looked down upon as a simple people, and there was much prejudice against Afrikaans which many considered a ''kitchen language'', only suitable for communication with your black workers. With poor command of the English language and little formal education these poor Afrikaners had to resort to manual labour, working for little. So you had the Afrikaners living in an alien place, looked down upon by established English speakers, at a disadvantage socially and in many cases competing with blacks for jobs.

The animosity the Afrikaners had towards the British was considerable from the memory of the Second Anglo-Boer War, and following South Africa's entry into the First World War, a small minority attempted an uprising on behalf of leaving the Empire and joining the Germans, the 'Maritz Rebellion'. This was crushed, and politically the consensus was still on the whole for reconciliation and Afrikaners and English working together in South Africa as a part of the British Empire. However a group of Afrikaners, recognising the need for their people to expand their political power formed the Afrikanerbond, a secret society which was the main driving force behind the Afrikaner nationalist movement.

The close proximity of blacks and Afrikaners, and their competition in the labour market led to a series of labour disputes. The most notable of these was the Rand Rebellion in 1922. Upset at the use of black labour being exploited by business owners thereby depressing the wages of white workers and leading to unemployment for whites, along with blacks being promoted to positions of authority, white workers backed by the South African Labour Party and communists held a strike which almost became an uprising. Their slogan was ''Workers of the world unite, and fight for a white South Africa'', which is ironic given the role socialist movements had in the eventual democratisation of South Africa and the downfall of Apartheid and the non-racial aspect of socialism in general. The government put down the rebellion with brutal force. They attempted to meet some of the demands, passing legislating allowing for trade unions and also banning black membership of trade unions. But the memory of the Army and Air Force using deadly force against citizens, bombing them with tanks, planes and artillery was too fresh, and the policy change too weak and too late. The nominally pro-British party, the South African Party, lost to a coalition of the Afrikaner nationalist National Party and Labour party which sought to promote the interests of Afrikaners and white workers respectively. The National Party grew out of dissatisfaction with the direction of the South African Party, and the desire to promote the interest of Afrikaners and ensure that ties with Britain were kept to a minimum with the eventual goal of a republic. This government introduced a number of populist measures which restricted blacks participation in the workforce to menial roles and legally favoured the hiring of white workers. On top of this they ensured that white workers were paid a minimum wage, introduced improved working conditions and expanded social welfare. Dutch and English had both been official languages of the Union, however in practice very few people spoke 'proper' Dutch, with Afrikaans by this point being rather distinct. Also in practice English had a far more prominent role as an official language. In an effort towards equality, they introduced an act ensuring that Afrikaans had equal standing with English and Dutch, and promoted the use of Afrikaans in the civil service.

Years later following the impact of the Great Depression, the National Party and South African Party merged into the United Party. This would steer South Africa through the Great Depression, which further exacerbated the problem of white poverty. There was an uneasy peace between the Afrikaner nationalists and the South African Party faction, both based on a belief in white supremacy although differing in their eventual vision for the country uniting to help mitigate the effects of the depression. Following the start of the Second World War, there was considerable arguments within the party with those wanting South Africa to remain neutral lead by J.B.M Hertzog, and those wanting to join the British being lead by Jan Smuts. Following a vote the parliament decided to declare war on Germany, Hertzog resigned and Jan Smuts took leadership of the United Party and became Prime Minister. Hertzog started a breakaway nationalist party, and in his absence the United Party rather than being a coalition of white interests, increasingly became more liberal and representative of the views of those who supported relations with the Empire.

The backdrop to the 1948 election was interesting. Smuts was incredibly popular for his role as an elder statesman and his leadership of the country, and arguably even the Allies, during the war. However despite having been a general for the Boers during the Second Anglo-Boer War, and being a considerable military and political leader through both world wars, his efforts toward reconciliation with the British and his support of the British Empire made him despised by a considerable number of his kin. On the issue of race, the United Party was nominally in favour of the limited existing political representation that existed for coloureds, blacks and Indians, while vaguely acknowledging and paying lip service to an eventual racial political integration, even if not acceptable for the foreseeable future. In contrast the nationalists promised to introduce laws permanently separating whites and blacks, and enshrine white supremacy de jure. The 1940s lead to a huge moral panic over black violence and crime against whites, a part of the ''swart gevaar''. Blacks were now starting to organise more, and protest against injustices which further fed the fear of a black uprising. The nationalist used this in order to attract poorer whites voters who were scared of black crime and black political power and racial equality harming their livelihoods. Despite the United Party winning more votes, the United Party lost it's majority with a coalition of Afrikaner Nationalist parties taking power lead by D.F. Malan. By carefully targeting and playing on the concerns of urban Afrikaners and relying on the support of rural Afrikaners they were able to get a majority under first past the post. Malan would introduce harsher laws enshrining segregation against blacks, coloureds and Indians into law which is what we now know as Apartheid. The country was run by the National Party from 1948 until the first universal democratic elections in 1994.

So in summary, yes Afrikaners were at a disadvantage to English speaking South Africans following the union of South Africa, and discriminated against, even if not legally. A large bloc of poor urban Afrikaners were competing with blacks for jobs and resources, although I must insist on saying that they were still always considerably better off than the black population. This, coupled with tensions between Afrikaners and English speaking South Africans led to the rise of Afrikaner nationalism, which helped improve overall conditions for white workers but at the expense of black workers. Backlash to Jan Smuts and his pro-British stance, coupled with fears of the black population contributed to the nationalists victory in 1948, with the rise of Apartheid.

sources:

South Africa: The First Man, the Last Nation - R.W. Johnson

Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa - Martin Meredith

Churchill and Smuts: The Friendship - Richard Steyn

A History of South Africa - Leonard Thompson

Cry, the beloved country - Alan Paton (it's fiction, but I feel it helps a lot in understanding the general feeling of South Africa during the 1940s)