Mossel Bay (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Mossel Bay
Mosselbaai
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Mossel Bay within South Africa (1981)
Province	Cape of Good Hope
Electorate	15,204 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1933
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	H. M. J. van Rensburg (NP)
Replaced by	Western Cape

Mossel Bay (Afrikaans: Mosselbaai) was a constituency in the Cape Province of South Africa, which existed from 1933 to 1994. It covered a part of the Garden Route centred on the town of Mossel Bay. 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

Like many constituencies in the rural Cape, the electorate of Mossel Bay was largely Afrikaans-speaking and conservative, and the seat was held nearly throughout its existence by the National Party. Its first MP, Jacobus Johannes Scholtz, followed J. B. M. Hertzog and the majority of Nationalists into the United Party in 1934, and was defeated for re-election in 1938 by Petrus Johan van Nierop, of the hardline Purified National Party. Van Nierop remained Mossel Bay's MP until 1964, and the National Party continued to hold the seat until the end of apartheid.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1933	J. J. Scholtz	National
	1934		United
	1938	P. J. van Nierop	GNP
	1943		HNP
	1948
	1953		National
	1958
	1961
	1964 by	M. J. Rall
	1966
	1970
	1974
	1977	H. M. J. van Rensburg
	1981
	1987
	1989
	1994	constituency abolished

^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1930s

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

General election 1933: Mossel Bay

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. J. Scholtz	3,129	57.5	New
	Independent	H. C. Muller	2,214	40.7	New
Rejected ballots			101	1.8	N/A
Majority			915	16.8	N/A
Turnout			5,444	80.7	N/A
	National 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. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 6705. 19 October 1979. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.
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.
8. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 12206. 8 December 1989. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.