Df Malan was one of the architects of apartheid and naming a public high school after him is offensive and insensitive and does not reflect the the public's views.

Malan and the HNP had campaigned on a platform of Apartheid – white supremacy, racial segregation and the control of migrant Black workers – and during his six-and-a-half years in office the foundations of the Apartheid regime were laid. Legislation included the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act No 55 of 1949, the Population Registration Act No 30 of 1950, the Group Areas Act No 41 of 1950, Suppression of Communism Act No 44 1950, the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act No 52 of 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act No 68 of 1951, Native Laws Amendment Act No 54 of 1952, the Abolition of Passes Act No 67 of 1952, and the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act No 49 of 1953, and the Bantu Education Act of 1953. This legislation removed the last trace of a non-white franchise and imposed segregation on almost all aspects of South African life.

In the 1953 general election the National Party's majority grew to 94 seats out of the 150. In 1954, at age of 80, DF Malan retired and handed power over to Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom. He died in 1959.