Bethlehem (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Bethlehem
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Bethlehem within South Africa (1981)
Province	Orange Free State
Electorate	16,268 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	P. J. Farrell (NP)
Replaced by	Free State

Bethlehem was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. Named after the town of Bethlehem, the seat covered a large rural area in the east of the province, bordering Natal as well as Lesotho. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly.

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 Orange River Colony, and its predecessor the Orange Free State, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Orange Free State 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

Bethlehem, like most of the Orange Free State, was a highly conservative seat throughout its existence and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. Its first MP, Abraham Fischer, was the leader of the provincial Orangia Unie party (which later became the Free State branch of the South African Party) and had served as Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony prior to unification. Fischer won the seat unopposed, as did a number of his party colleagues, but he died in 1913, at which point the tensions between Louis Botha and J. B. M. Hertzog had led to Hertzog breaking away to form the National Party. Hertzog was extremely popular in the Free State, and his party quickly took over the Orangia Unie's dominant position. The by-election caused by Fischer's death was won unopposed by the new party, giving Bethlehem the distinction of being the first constituency to elect a Nationalist MP under that label, and the party would hold the seat throughout the remainder of its existence.

In 1934, Hertzog joined forces with Jan Smuts and the SAP to create the United Party, a move that was controversial with his Afrikaner base, and nineteen Nationalist MPs broke away to form the Purified National Party under D. F. Malan's leadership. One of the nineteen was Roelof Abraham Theodorus van der Merwe, MP for Bethlehem, and he held the seat against a UP challenger in one of very few close elections in the seat's history. It was only in the 1980s that the seat began to see serious contests again, as first the Herstigte Nasionale Party and then the Conservative Party began to challenge the NP from the right. Unlike several other Free State seats, however, Bethlehem continued to elect Nationalist MPs right up until the end of apartheid.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	Abraham Fischer	Orangia Unie
	1914 by	J. H. B. Wessels	National
	1915
	1920
	1921
	1924
	1927 by	D. G. Conradie
	1929	R. A. T. van der Merwe
	1933
	1934		PNP
	1938
	1939		HNP
	1943	C. J. O. Wessels
	1948	A. J. R. van Rhyn
	1952 by	G. J. Knobel	National
	1953
	1958
	1961
	1966
	1968 by	L. J. Botha
	1970
	1974
	1977
	1981	C. V. van der Merwe
	1985 by	P. J. Farrell
	1987
	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 1910 South African general election § Bethlehem.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Bethlehem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Orangia Unie	Abraham Fischer	Unopposed
	Orangia Unie win (new seat)

Bethlehem by-election, 9 February 1914 ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. H. B. Wessels	Unopposed
	National hold

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

General election 1915: Bethlehem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. H. B. Wessels	1,307	66.6	New
	South African	J. J. Booysen	655	33.4	N/A
Majority			652	33.2	N/A
Turnout			1,962	72.9	N/A
	National gain from South African		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Bethlehem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. H. B. Wessels	1,430	68.3	+1.7
	South African	O. A. I. Davel	665	31.7	−1.7
Majority			765	36.6	+3.4
Turnout			2,095	70.6	−1.3
	National hold		Swing	+1.7

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

General election 1921: Bethlehem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. H. B. Wessels	1,467	70.1	+1.8
	South African	E. C. D. Roos	625	29.9	−1.8
Majority			842	40.2	+3.6
Turnout			2,092	66.6	−4.0
	National hold		Swing	+1.8

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.