Namaqualand (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Namaqualand
Namakwaland
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Namaqualand within South Africa (1981)
Province	Cape of Good Hope
Electorate	9,947 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	E. van der Merwe Louw (NP)
Replaced by	Northern Cape

Namaqualand (Afrikaans: Namakwaland) was a constituency in the Cape Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. The constituency covered much of the Namaqualand region of the Northern Cape, and was centred on the town of Springbok. 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 rural constituencies across the Cape, Namaqualand was a conservative seat with a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was a safe seat for the National Party through most of its existence, with the exception of its early years. Its first MP, Sir David Graaff, served in Louis Botha’s cabinet, and was re-elected by a wide margin in 1915, but on his retirement in 1920, the Nationalist J. P. Mostert took the seat. Mostert was in turn defeated in 1929 by independent candidate W. P. Steenkamp, who held Namaqualand as an independent until 1938 and then moved to neighbouring Calvinia, where he won election as a United Party candidate. In that year, Namaqualand was won by the Purified National Party’s W. A. Booysen, and the NP would hold the seat until the end of apartheid.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	Sir David Graaff, Bt.	South African
	1915
	1920	J. P. Mostert	National
	1921
	1924
	1929	W. P. Steenkamp	Independent
	1933
	1938	W. A. Booysen	GNP
	1943		HNP
	1948	D. J. Scholtz
	1953		National
	1958
	1961	G. de Kock Maree
	1966
	1970
	1974
	1977	H. M. Janse van Rensburg
	1981	E. van der Merwe Louw
	1987
	1989
	1994	constituency abolished

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

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1910 South African general election § Namaqualand.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Namaqualand

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Sir David Graaff, Bt.	Unopposed
	South African win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Namaqualand

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Sir David Graaff, Bt.	1,140	55.0	N/A
	National	A. H. Stander	708	34.1	New
	Independent	J. Studer	226	10.9	New
Majority			432	20.9	N/A
Turnout			2,074	77.6	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 § Namaqualand.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Namaqualand

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. P. Mostert	1,459	66.3	+32.2
	South African	A. M. J. Roux	741	33.7	−21.3
Majority			718	32.6	N/A
Turnout			2,200	65.7	−11.9
	National gain from South African		Swing	+26.8

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

General election 1921: Namaqualand

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. P. Mostert	1,481	69.7	+3.4
	South African	E. B. Watermeyer	643	30.3	−3.4
Majority			718	39.4	+6.8
Turnout			2,124	61.2	−4.5
	National hold		Swing	+3.4

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.