Kroonstad (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Kroonstad
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Kroonstad within South Africa (1981)
Province	Orange Free State
Electorate	15,984 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Wynand Breytenbach (NP)
Replaced by	Free State

Kroonstad was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. Named after the town of Kroonstad, the seat covered a rural area in the east of the province. 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

Kroonstad, 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 Nationalist MP, Pieter Johannes Terreblanche, left parliament in January 1934, as Hertzog was in the process of merging his party with Jan Smuts' South African Party to form the new United Party. In the resulting by-election, the coalition parties agreed to nominate the SAP's George James Fullard, who was duly elected with only independent opposition. Fullard would represent three separate parties over a fairly short parliamentary career: he joined the UP on its formation shortly after he was elected, 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 Andries Steyn for the Herenigde Nasionale Party, which swept the Free State in that election.

Kroonstad continued to be a Nationalist safe seat throughout the remainder of its existence, electing two relatively prominent MPs in its later years. Alwyn Schlebusch, first elected in 1962, left the seat in 1981 in order to take up the position of Vice State President, which only existed for three years and was only ever held by him. His replacement, Wynand Breytenbach, served as a deputy minister under P. W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk, and defended the seat from strong Conservative Party challenges in 1987 and 1989. He was elected to the non-racial National Assembly for the NP in 1994, but resigned shortly afterwards.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	D. J. Serfontein	Orangia Unie
	1915	H. P. Serfontein	National
	1920	A. J. Werth
	1921
	1924
	1926 by	P. J. Terreblanche
	1929
	1933
	1934 by	G. J. Fullard	South African
	1934		United
	1938
	1940		Afrikaner
	1943	Andries Steyn	HNP
	1948
	1953		National
	1955 by	J. A. van der Merwe
	1958
	1961
	1962 by	Alwyn Schlebusch
	1966
	1970
	1974
	1977
	1981	Wynand Breytenbach
	1987
	1989
	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 § Kroonstad.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Kroonstad

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Orangia Unie	D. J. Serfontein	713	59.3	New
	Independent	N. Blignaut	489	40.7	New
Majority			224	18.6	N/A
	Orangia Unie win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Kroonstad

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	H. P. Serfontein	942	53.2	New
	South African	N. J. de Wet	828	46.8	−12.5
Majority			114	6.4	N/A
Turnout			1,770	76.2	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 § Kroonstad.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Kroonstad

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	A. J. Werth	1,379	62.0	+8.8
	South African	Hendrik Schalk Theron	846	38.0	−8.8
Majority			533	24.0	+17.6
Turnout			2,225	76.4	+0.2
	National hold		Swing	+8.8

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

General election 1921: Kroonstad

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	A. J. Werth	1,383	62.0	+−0
	South African	H. G. Stuart	849	38.0	+−0
Majority			534	24.0	+−0
Turnout			2,232	73.2	−3.2
	National hold		Swing	+-0

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.