Lydenburg (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Lydenburg
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Lydenburg within South Africa (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	16,925 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	A. A. B. Bruwer (CP)
Replaced by	Mpumalanga

Lydenburg, known as Lydenburg-Barberton between 1958 and 1966, was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. Named after the town of Lydenburg, it covered a rural area in the eastern 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, Lydenburg had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. In its early years, it was a marginal seat with a slight lean towards the South African Party, but over time it became more and more conservative and safe for the National Party, which held it from 1953 until 1989. Its final Nationalist MP, P. T. C. "Pietie" du Plessis, served in cabinet under P. W. Botha. He resigned from parliament in 1989, partly due to a growing financial scandal that would eventually see him convicted of fraud and sentenced to prison in 1993, and in its final election the seat was won by the hard-right Conservative Party.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	C. J. J. Joubert	Het Volk
	1915	J. L. Schurink	South African
	1920
	1921	Jacobus Nieuwenhuize
	1924
	1929	Elias de Souza	National
	1933
	1934		United
	1938	N. J. Schoeman
	1943	F. J. Maré
	1948	J. L. V. Liebenberg	Afrikaner
	1953		National
	1958	E. C. A. Hiemstra
	1961
	1966	J. J. P. Erasmus
	1970	P. T. C. du Plessis
	1974
	1977
	1981
	1987
	1989	A. A. B. Bruwer	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 § Lydenburg.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Het Volk	C. J. J. Joubert	Unopposed
	Het Volk win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	J. L. Shurink	1,384	68.0	N/A
	National	S. Hiemstra	651	32.0	New
Majority			723	36.0	N/A
Turnout			2,035	71.4	N/A
	South African hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	J. L. Shurink	986	56.0	−12.0
	National	F. P. Hoogenhout	776	44.0	+12.0
Majority			210	12.0	−24.0
Turnout			1,762	63.5	−7.9
	South African hold		Swing	-12.0

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

General election 1921: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Jacobus Nieuwenhuize	1,003	54.5	−1.5
	National	F. P. Hoogenhout	836	45.5	+1.5
Majority			167	9.0	−3.0
Turnout			1,839	64.2	+0.7
	South African hold		Swing	-1.5

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1924 South African general election § Lydenburg.[ edit ]

General election 1924: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Jacobus Nieuwenhuize	1,108	49.8	−4.7
	National	E. de Souza	1,100	49.4	+3.9
Rejected ballots			18	0.8	N/A
Majority			8	0.4	−8.6
Turnout			2,226	82.2	+18.0
	South African hold		Swing	-4.3

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1929 South African general election § Lydenburg.[ edit ]

General election 1929: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Elias de Souza	1,184	55.2	+5.8
	South African	Jacobus Nieuwenhuize	946	44.1	−5.7
Rejected ballots			18	0.8	N/A
Majority			238	11.1	N/A
Turnout			2,144	85.2	+3.0
	National gain from South African		Swing	+5.8

Elections in the 1930s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1933 South African general election § Lydenburg.[ edit ]

General election 1933: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Elias de Souza	Unopposed
	National hold

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1938 South African general election § Lydenburg.[ edit ]

General election 1938: Lydenburg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United	N. J. Schoeman	2,683	63.6	N/A
	Purified National	H. Neethling	1,416	33.6	New
	Independent	A. Op't Hof	94	2.2	New
Rejected ballots			26	0.6	N/A
Majority			1,357	30.0	N/A
Turnout			4,219	82.9	N/A
	United 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.