Parktown (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Parktown
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Parktown within Johannesburg (1915)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	18,010 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1915
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Zach de Beer (DP)
Created from	Braamfontein
Replaced by	Gauteng

Parktown was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1915 to 1994. It covered parts of the inner northern suburbs of Johannesburg centred on the suburb of Parktown. 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 Johannesburg's northern suburbs, Parktown had a largely English-speaking and liberal electorate. Among other things, it was notable for being the first constituency to elect a woman - Leila Reitz - to serve in parliament, in 1933, at the first election after women were granted the vote. Reitz, like all her predecessors, was elected for the South African Party, and joined the United Party on its formation in 1934 - that party would supply her successors for thirty years after her resignation in 1943. In 1974, it was one of a handful of north Johannesburg seats to reject the UP in favour of the more outspokenly anti-apartheid Progressive Party, and in 1977 it elected its final MP - Zach de Beer, who at the time represented the Progressive Party's successor, the Progressive Federal Party. In 1988, de Beer became leader of the PFP, and went into the final whites-only general election as co-leader of the new Democratic Party, which aimed to unite the liberal opposition to the governing National Party - this met with only marginal success, but de Beer held his seat by a strong margin, and represented it until the end of apartheid.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1915	Richard Feetham	Unionist
	1920
	1921		SAP
	1923 by	Willie Rockey
	1924
	1929
	1933	Leila Reitz
	1934		United
	1938
	1943	J. R. Stratford
	1948	E. J. W. Henderson
	1953	J. P. Cope
	1958
	1961	Samuel Emdin
	1966
	1970
	1974	R. M. de Villiers	Progressive
	1977	Zach de Beer	PFP
	1981
	1987
	1989		Democratic
	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 1915 South African general election § Parktown.[ edit ]

General election 1915: Parktown

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Richard Feetham	2,001	80.3	New
	National	Oswald Pirow	299	12.0	New
	Labour	A. W. Barlow	192	7.7	New
Majority			1,702	68.3	N/A
Turnout			2,492	74.4	N/A
	Unionist win (new seat)

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Parktown

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Richard Feetham	Unopposed
	Unionist hold

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

General election 1921: Parktown

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Richard Feetham	Unopposed
	South African hold

Parktown by-election, 26 September 1923 ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Willie Rockey	1,797	78.0	N/A
	Labour	J. George	208	22.0	New
Majority			1,289	56.0	N/A
Turnout			2,305	61.2	N/A
	South African 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.
8. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 13061. 15 March 1991. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.