Maraisburg (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Last updated
Maraisburg
Former constituency
for the South African House of Assembly
Rand-1981-Maraisburg.png
Location of Maraisburg within the Witwatersrand (1981)
Province Transvaal
Electorate20,405 (1989)
Former constituency
Created 1915
1948
Abolished 1920
1994
Number of members1
Last MHA  P. H. de la Rey (CP)
Replaced by Gauteng (1994)

Maraisburg was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1915 to 1920 and again from 1948 to 1994. It covered a part of the West Rand centred on the Maraisburg section of Roodepoort. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Transvaal Provincial Council.

Contents

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

The Maraisburg constituency was one of a handful of new seats created on the Witwatersrand for the 1915 general election and abolished just five years later. At its first election, it was won relatively comfortably by the governing South African Party's candidate, Willem van Hulsteyn, who had previously stood in Yeoville in 1910. It was abolished in 1920, at which point van Hulsteyn left parliament.

Maraisburg returned to the electoral map in 1948, just in time to help vote the Herenigde Nasionale Party into government. It was a safe seat for the governing party for most of its second iteration, and its longest-serving MP, Ben Schoeman, served as Minister of Transport from 1954 until his retirement in 1974. He was followed by a rapid succession of MPs, and in 1989, the seat fell to the Conservative Party. In its final boundaries, Maraisburg included much of Soweto, making it one of the largest constituencies in South Africa by total population, but its all-white electorate was not exceptionally large.

Members

ElectionMemberParty
1915 Willem van Hulsteyn South African
1920 Constituency abolished
ElectionMemberParty
1948 Ben Schoeman HNP
1953 National
1958
1961
1966
1970
1974 A. C. van Wyk
1977
1981 P. H. Pretorius
1987 J. J. Vilonel
1989 P. H. de la Rey Conservative
1994 constituency abolished

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]


Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1915: Maraisburg
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
South African Willem van Hulsteyn 862 44.4 New
National J. Francken56229.0New
Labour N. Toomey51626.6New
Majority 30015.4N/A
Turnout 1,94071.6N/A
South African win (new seat)

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.