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
Unlike most of the Eastern Cape, Cradock had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate, and tended to vote more like its neighbours to the north and west than the ones to its east. For much of its early history, the seat was closely contested between the South African and National parties, switching hands several times. In 1915, it was the first seat contested by a young D. F. Malan. Its longest-serving MP, Gerard François Hermanus Bekker, was elected in 1938 for the United Party, but switched to the Herenigde Nasionale Party on that party’s formation, and was re-elected as a Nationalist in every subsequent election until 1966. By then, Cradock was a safe seat for the National Party, who would hold it throughout the remainder of its existence, usually by large margins and sometimes unopposed. Its last MP, Tobie Meyer, served as a deputy minister under both F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela before retiring from politics in 1996.
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