Lichtenburg (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Lichtenburg
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Lichtenburg within South Africa (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	16,004 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Ferdi Hartzenberg (CP)
Replaced by	North West

Lichtenburg was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. Named after the town of Lichtenburg, it covered a rural area in the western Transvaal. 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 the rural Transvaal, Lichtenburg had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was an early safe seat for the National Party in the Transvaal, helped by the fact that its Nationalist MP was Tielman Roos, a senior cabinet minister in J. B. M. Hertzog's Nationalist-Labour Pact government. Following Roos' departure from the seat, it was held by a succession of Nationalist, then United Party, then Nationalist MPs, culminating in 1970 with the election of Ferdi Hartzenberg, who would represent the seat for the remainder of its existence. Hartzenberg started his career on the right end of the National Party, and later joined Andries Treurnicht in breaking away from the NP to form the new Conservative Party. After Treurnicht's death in 1993, Hartzenberg took over as leader of the party, and thus as Leader of the Opposition in the whites-only House of Assembly. He maintained this position until the non-racial 1994 general election, which he and the Conservative Party boycotted, thus ending his parliamentary career.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	H. C. W. Vermaas	Het Volk
	1915	Tielman Roos	National
	1920
	1921
	1924
	1929	A. J. Swanepoel
	1933
	1934		United
	1938
	1939 by	A. P. Swart
	1943	A. I. Ludick	HNP
	1948
	1953	M. C. van Niekerk	National
	1958
	1961
	1966
	1970	Ferdi Hartzenberg
	1974
	1977
	1981
	1982		Conservative
	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 § Lichtenburg.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Lichtenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Het Volk	H. C. W. Vermaas	Unopposed
	Het Volk win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Lichtenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Tielman Roos	1,449	60.7	New
	South African	E. H. Matthews	939	39.3	N/A
Majority			510	21.4	N/A
Turnout			2,388	77.2	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 § Lichtenburg.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Lichtenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Tielman Roos	1,458	68.2	+7.5
	South African	J. G. Cilliers	679	31.8	−7.5
Majority			779	36.4	+15.0
Turnout			2,137	72.6	−4.6
	National hold		Swing	+7.5

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

General election 1921: Lichtenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Tielman Roos	1,516	72.1	+3.9
	South African	B. C. Creyling	587	27.9	−3.9
Majority			929	44.2	+7.8
Turnout			2,103	65.5	−7.1
	National hold		Swing	+3.9

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.