Bethal (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Bethal
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Bethal within South Africa (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	18,092 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1915
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	C. D. de Jager (CP)
Replaced by	Mpumalanga

Bethal, known between 1948 and 1966 as Bethal-Middelburg, was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1915 to 1994. Named after the town of Bethal, it covered a rural area in the eastern Transvaal. 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

Like most of the rural Transvaal, Bethal had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. In its early years, it was a marginal seat with a slight lean towards the South African Party, whose leader Jan Smuts was popular in the Transvaal. In 1929, it was briefly held by Tielman Roos for the National Party - however, he resigned the following year due to a health scare and the SAP retook the seat. They (and their successors the United Party) held it until 1948, at which Bethal was one of many rural seats to fall to the Herenigde Nasionale Party-led coalition. In Bethal's case, their new MP was elected for the allied Afrikaner Party, but joined the NP shortly thereafter, and the governing party would hold Bethal for the next forty years. In 1987, again like many other rural Transvaal seats, it fell to Andries Treurnicht's hardline Conservative Party, which held it until the end of apartheid.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1915	H. S. Grobler	South African
	1920
	1921
	1924
	1929	Tielman Roos	National
	1930 by	J. P. Jooste	South African
	1933
	1934		United
	1938
	1939 by	C. J. van den Berg
	1943	J. P. Fourie
	1948	J. T. Bezuidenhout	Afrikaner
	1953		National
	1958
	1961 by	J. W. Rall
	1961
	1966	Greyling Wentzel
	1970
	1974
	1977
	1981
	1987	C. D. de Jager	Conservative
	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 § Bethal.[ edit ]

General election 1915: Bethal

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	H. S. Grobler	1,360	59.7	New
	National	J. J. Scheepers	917	40.3	New
Majority			443	19.4	N/A
Turnout			2,277	76.2	N/A
	South African win (new seat)

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Bethal

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	H. S. Grobler	1,080	60.6	+0.9
	National	P. J. D. Erasmus	702	39.4	−0.9
Majority			378	21.2	+1.8
Turnout			1,782	60.4	−15.8
	South African hold		Swing	+0.9

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

General election 1921: Bethal

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	H. S. Grobler	1,182	57.5	−3.1
	National	C. S. Raath	875	42.5	+3.1
Majority			307	15.0	−6.2
Turnout			2,057	64.7	+4.3
	South African hold		Swing	-3.1

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.