Kimberley (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Kimberley
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Cape of Good Hope
Electorate	11,934 (1953)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1958
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Harry Oppenheimer (UP)
Replaced by	Kimberley North Kimberley South

Kimberley (known as Kimberley City (Afrikaans: Kimberley-Stad) after 1938) was a constituency in the Cape Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1958. It covered much of the urban area of its namesake city, latterly the capital of the Northern Cape province. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Cape 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. 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

As the original centre of South Africa’s diamond mining industry, Kimberley had a strong British presence from its founding, and this was reflected in the seat’s politics. Its electorate, unusually for the Northern Cape, always tended to favour the more liberal and pro-British side of South African politics, first the Unionist Party, then the South African Party and finally the United Party – these parties held Kimberley throughout its existence. The Oppenheimer family, who controlled the De Beers and Anglo American mining conglomerates, were heavily involved both in Kimberley’s economy and its politics: Ernest Oppenheimer represented the seat from 1924 until 1938, and his son Harry from 1948 until its abolition in 1958. In that year, Kimberley’s constituencies were realigned to split the city down the middle, and the new Kimberley North and South seats were both won by the governing National Party.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	H. A. Oliver	Unionist
	1915
	1920
	1921		South African
	1924	Ernest Oppenheimer
	1929
	1933
	1934		United
	1938	W. B. Humphreys
	1943
	1948	Harry Oppenheimer
	1953
	1958	constituency abolished

^[2]

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1910 South African general election § Kimberley.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Kimberley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	H. A. Oliver	1,121	65.7	New
	Labour	J. F. Trembath	584	34.3	New
Majority			537	31.4	N/A
	Unionist win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Kimberley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	H. A. Oliver	1,434	73.5	+7.8
	Labour	Frederic Creswell	516	26.5	−7.8
Majority			918	47.0	+15.6
Turnout			1,950	63.4	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	+7.8

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Kimberley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	H. A. Oliver	1,574	61.2	−12.3
	Labour	J. Wills	821	31.9	+5.4
	Independent	F. Hicks	179	7.0	New
Majority			753	29.3	−17.7
Turnout			2,574	66.3	+2.9
	Unionist hold		Swing	-8.9

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

General election 1921: Kimberley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	H. A. Oliver	1,557	61.5	+0.3
	Labour	J. Wills	976	38.5	+6.6
Majority			581	23.0	−6.3
Turnout			2,533	64.3	−2.0
	South African hold		Swing	-3.2

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.