Heilbron (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Heilbron
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Heilbron within South Africa (1981)
Province	Orange Free State
Electorate	10,597 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	C. H. Pienaar (CP)
Replaced by	Free State

Heilbron, known as Heilbron-Frankfort for the 1953 general election, was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. Named after the town of Heilbron, the seat covered a large rural area in the east of the province, bordering the Transvaal. 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

Heilbron, like most of the Orange Free State, was a highly conservative seat throughout its existence and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was an early stronghold for the National Party, whose founding leader J. B. M. Hertzog enjoyed widespread popularity with the Free State's Afrikaner population. Its long-serving Nationalist MP, Marthinus Lourens Malan, left parliament in June 1934, as Hertzog was in the process of merging his party with Jan Smuts' South African Party to form the new United Party. The resulting by-election was the last contested by the SAP and National Party as separate entities, and unlike every previous contest in the seat, the SAP won by a comfortable margin. Their MP, Johan Louis Venter Liebenberg, would represent three separate parties over a fairly short parliamentary career: he joined the UP on its formation shortly after he was elected, narrowly held the seat in 1938, then joined Nicolaas Havenga's Afrikaner Party in 1940. He contested the seat under that label in 1943, but like most Afrikaner Party candidates, placed a distant third, and the seat was taken by Pieter Willem Adriaan Pieterse for the Herenigde Nasionale Party, which swept the Free State in that election.

Heilbron would continue to be an NP safe seat until the 1980s, when the governing party began to face serious opposition from the right in a number of rural seats. The new Conservative Party came close to winning Heilbron at its first election in 1987, and it was one of a number of seats that fell to the party in 1989. Heilbron's last MP, Cehill Hercules Pienaar, eventually defected to the Inkatha Freedom Party and became a delegate to the first National Council of Provinces for that party.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	P. J. G. Theron	Orangia Unie
	1915	M. L. Malan	National
	1920
	1921
	1924
	1929
	1933
	1934 by	J. L. V. Liebenberg	South African
	1934		United
	1938
	1940		Afrikaner
	1943	P. W. A. Pieterse	HNP
	1948
	1953	G. F. van L. Froneman	National
	1958
	1961
	1966
	1970	G. F. C. du Plessis
	1974
	1977	J. J. M. J. van Vuuren
	1981	A. J. W. P. S. Terblanche
	1987
	1989	C. H. Pienaar	Conservative
	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 § Heilbron.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Heilbron

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Orangia Unie	P. J. G. Theron	788	71.6	New
	Independent	J. Pierce	312	28.4	New
Majority			476	43.2	N/A
	Orangia Unie win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Heilbron

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	M. L. Malan	1,129	63.1	New
	South African	Deneys Reitz	659	36.9	−34.7
Majority			570	26.2	N/A
Turnout			1,788	76.4	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 § Heilbron.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Heilbron

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	M. L. Malan	1,458	69.9	+6.8
	South African	L. J. Naudé	628	30.1	−6.8
Majority			830	39.8	+13.6
Turnout			2,086	69.7	−6.7
	National hold		Swing	+6.8

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

General election 1921: Heilbron

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	M. L. Malan	1,503	72.4	+2.5
	South African	L. J. Naudé	572	27.6	−2.5
Majority			931	44.8	+5.0
Turnout			2,075	65.1	−4.6
	National hold		Swing	+2.5

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.