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
Germiston District was created in 1943 out of the previous Germiston North and South seats, alongside the recreated Germiston constituency. Its first MP, J. G. N. Strauss, had previously represented Germiston South, and was a protégé of Jan Smuts who took over as leader of the United Party upon Smuts' death in 1950. Strauss was ousted as party leader in 1956 and left parliament two years later, but the UP continued to hold the seat until 1966.
In 1982, a hardline faction around Andries Treurnicht broke off from the governing National Party to form the Conservative Party, and Germiston District MP E. M. Scholtz was among those who defected to the new party. He was defeated for re-election in 1987 by NP candidate Jacobus Frederik Bosman, who held the seat until the end of apartheid. It was the last seat in South Africa with "District" as part of its name, all other peripheral seats having been abolished at the 1974 delimitation.
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