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. The Cape Colony had implemented a "colour-blind" franchise known as the Cape Qualified Franchise, which included all adult literate men owning more than £75 worth of property (controversially raised from £25 in 1892), and this initially remained in effect after the colony became the Cape Province. As of 1908, 22,784 out of 152,221 electors in the Cape Colony were "Native or Coloured". Eligibility to serve in Parliament and the Provincial Council, however, was restricted to whites from 1910 onward.
The first challenge to the Cape Qualified Franchise came with the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 and the Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931, which extended the vote to women and removed property qualifications for the white population only – non-white voters remained subject to the earlier restrictions. In 1936, the Representation of Natives Act removed all black voters from the common electoral roll and introduced three "Native Representative Members", white MPs elected by the black voters of the province and meant to represent their interests in particular. A similar provision was made for Coloured voters with the Separate Representation of Voters Act, 1951, and although this law was challenged by the courts, it went into effect in time for the 1958 general election, which was thus held with all-white voter rolls for the first time in South African history. The all-white franchise would continue until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994. [1]
History
Like many constituencies in the rural Cape, the electorate of Colesberg was largely Afrikaans-speaking, but in its first incarnation the seat was more marginal than many of its neighbours. This seems to have been in large part due to its first MP, George Albertijn Louw of the South African Party, who successfully defended the seat against the National Party in several close contests, finally losing out to Dutch Reformed minister Hendrik Adriaan Lamprecht in 1929. Lamprecht died in 1932, but his party colleague C. W. M. du Toit would hold the seat until its abolition in 1938, and was elected to represent the Transvaal seat of Marico in a by-election soon thereafter.
Colesberg was recreated in 1966, out of part of the De Aar-Colesberg seat, and in this incarnation was a safe seat for the ruling National Party. Its first MP, Michiel Jacobus de la Rey Venter, had previously represented the seat of De Aar-Colesberg since 1950, and the by-election to replace him in 1973 was won unopposed by his party colleague R. F. van Heerden, who would go on to represent the De Aar seat after Colesberg's abolition the following year.
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