Benoni (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Benoni
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Benoni within the Witwatersrand (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	20,281 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1915
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	J. J. Lemmer (NP)
Replaced by	Gauteng

Benoni was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1915 to 1994. It covered a part of the East Rand centred on the town of Benoni. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Transvaal Provincial Council.

Franchise notes

When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, the electoral qualifications in use in each pre-existing colony were kept in place. In the Transvaal Colony, and its predecessor the South African Republic, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Transvaal Province were held on a whites-only franchise from the beginning. The franchise was also restricted by property and education qualifications until the 1933 general election, following the passage of the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 and the Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931. From then on, the franchise was given to all white citizens aged 21 or over. Non-whites remained disenfranchised until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994. ^[1]

History

The mines of the Witwatersrand were an early stronghold of South African trade unionism, and this made Benoni a safe seat for the Labour Party. Its first and longest-serving MP, Walter Madeley, was a cabinet minister in J. B. M. Hertzog's Nationalist-Labour pact government until he was fired for recognising the racially-integrated Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union. He then led the anti-Pact "National Council" faction, and was the undisputed leader of the party from 1933 until his death in 1947. By then, Labour were in an electoral pact with the United Party, who allowed them a free run in Benoni until 1958. In that year, after Labour leader Alex Hepple had broken the pact and begun to move the party in a more openly socialist and anti-apartheid direction, the UP fielded a candidate against them and won the seat.

From 1958 until 1977, Benoni was a fiercely-contested marginal seat, but the white working class was moving in a more conservative direction all across South Africa, and from 1977 onwards, the governing National Party were dominant. In the 1980s, the left-wing (Progressive/Democratic) and right-wing (Conservative) opposition parties were about equally strong in the constituency, allowing the NP to come through the middle by very safe margins.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1915	Walter Madeley	Labour
	1920
	1921
	1924
	1929
	1933
	1938
	1943
	1947 by	T. W. B. Osborn
	1948
	1949 by	Leopold Lovell
	1953
	1958	D. G. Ross	United
	1961
	1966	P. Z. J. van Vuuren	National
	1970	H. J. van Eck	United
	1974
	1977	C. R. E. Rencken	National
	1981
	1987	J. J. Lemmer
	1989
	1994	Constituency abolished

^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1915 South African general election § Benoni.[ edit ]

General election 1915: Benoni

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Walter Madeley	1,427	54.6	New
	South African	G. M. Botha	648	24.8	New
	National	G. van N. Schonken	539	20.6	New
Majority			779	29.8	N/A
Turnout			2,614	77.3	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

Elections in the 1920s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1920 South African general election § Benoni.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Benoni

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Walter Madeley	1,114	51.2	−3.4
	National	H. P. Venter	653	30.1	+9.5
	Unionist	George Rennie	331	15.2	New
	Independent	W. H. Andrews	78	3.6	New
Majority			461	21.1	−8.7
Turnout			2,176	60.8	−16.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-4.4

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1921 South African general election § Benoni.[ edit ]

General election 1921: Benoni

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Walter Madeley	1,233	63.1	+11.9
	National	H. P. Venter	721	36.9	+6.8
Majority			512	26.2	+5.1
Turnout			1,954	59.2	−1.6
	Labour hold		Swing	+2.6

References

1. "EISA South Africa: Historical franchise arrangements". Eisa.org.za. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
2. Schoeman, B.M. (1977). Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976. Pretoria: Aktuele Publikasies.
3. Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa (1972). "House of Assembly" (vol. 5, pp. 617–636). Cape Town: Nasionale Opvoedkundige Uitgewery (Nasou).
4. South Africa 1980/81: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications.
5. South Africa 1983: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications.
6. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 10751. 22 May 1987. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.
7. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 12109. 20 September 1989. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.