Brits (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Brits
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Brits within South Africa (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	18,936 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1929
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Andrew Gerber (CP)
Replaced by	North West

Brits was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1929 to 1994. It covered a rural area west of Pretoria, centred on the town of Brits. 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, Brits was a conservative seat with a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was held for nearly its entire existence by the National Party, with two exceptions. The first exception was the period from 1934 to 1943, after J. B. M. Hertzog and Jan Smuts joined forces to create the United Party. Brits' Nationalist MP, Jan Harm Grobler, joined the new party and successfully defended his seat in 1938 against Purified National Party opposition. He left the party after South Africa joined World War II, and stood for re-election in 1943 as an independent, but the Herenigde Nasionale Party took the seat with Jacobus Ernst Potgieter as their candidate. Potgieter held the seat until 1977, becoming one of South Africa's longest-serving parliamentarians.

In 1977, Potgieter retired and Johannes Petrus Grobler took over as MP for Brits. He served two terms and retired in 1987, at which point the rising Conservative Party took the seat with Andrew Gerber - one of many rural Transvaal seats to fall to the new party.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1929	Hjalmar Reitz	National
	1933	J. H. Grobler
	1934		United
	1938
	1943	J. E. Potgieter	HNP
	1948
	1953		National
	1958
	1961
	1966
	1970
	1974
	1977	J. P. Grobler
	1981
	1987	Andrew Gerber	Conservative
	1989
	1994	Constituency abolished

^{[2] [3]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1920s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1929 South African general election § Brits.[ edit ]

General election 1929: Brits

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Hjalmar Reitz	1,472	59.4	New
	Independent	C. C. Logan	954	38.5	New
Rejected ballots			52	2.1	N/A
Majority			518	20.9	N/A
Turnout			2,478	78.2	N/A
	National win (new seat)

Elections in the 1930s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1933 South African general election § Brits.[ edit ]

General election 1933: Brits

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. H. Grobler	2,545	63.4	+4.0
	Roos	J. E. Donkin	1,447	36.1	New
Rejected ballots			21	0.5	-1.6
Majority			1,098	27.3	N/A
Turnout			4,013	74.4	−3.8
	National hold		Swing	N/A

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).