Johannesburg North (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Johannesburg North
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Johannesburg North within the Witwatersrand (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	19,114 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1920
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	P. G. Soal (DP)
Replaced by	Gauteng

Johannesburg North (Afrikaans: Johannesburg-Noord) was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1920 to 1994. As the name indicates, it covered parts of the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. 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 Johannesburg's northern suburbs, Johannesburg North had a largely English-speaking and liberal electorate. It was a safe seat for each main pro-British party in South Africa, first the Unionists, then the South African Party and finally the United Party. Its most notable MP during this era was Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, cabinet minister and close ally of Jan Smuts, who died just a few months after Smuts and the UP lost the 1948 general election. His successor, Bailey Bekker, was kicked out of the UP in 1954 for proposing a compromise with the government over the Coloured vote question, and founded the short-lived centrist National Conservative Party. The party went nowhere and Bekker retired at the 1958 general election, which was won handily by the UP candidate.

In 1974, Johannesburg North was one of five seats lost by the UP to the growing Progressive Party, which took a clearer stance against apartheid and folded into the Progressive Federal Party after the UP's dissolution in 1977. The PFP and their successors, the Democratic Party, held the seat by strong margins until the end of apartheid.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1920	Lourens Geldenhuys	SAP
	1921
	1924
	1929
	1929 by	Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr
	1933
	1934		United
	1938
	1943
	1948
	1949 by	P. B. Bekker
	1953
	1954		NCP
	1958	R. P. Plewman	United
	1961	U. M. Weiss
	1966	D. J. Marais
	1970
	1974	Gordon Waddell	Progressive
	1977	J. F. Marais	PFP
	1981
	1987	P. G. Soal
	1989		Democratic
	1994	Constituency abolished

^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1920s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1920 South African general election § Johannesburg North.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Johannesburg North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Lourens Geldenhuys	591	32.4	New
	Labour	C. J. McCann	467	25.6	New
	National	H. A. Butler	458	25.1	New
	Unionist	J. C. Sheridan	307	16.8	New
Majority			124	6.8	N/A
Turnout			1,823	64.4	N/A
	South African win (new seat)

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

General election 1921: Johannesburg North

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Lourens Geldenhuys	1,215	60.4	+28.0
	National	H. A. Butler	797	39.6	+14.5
Majority			418	20.8	N/A
Turnout			2,012	64.9	+0.5
	South African 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).
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.