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 Randfontein constituency was one of a handful of new seats created on the Witwatersrand for the 1915 general election and abolished just five years later. Its first election saw eccentric mining magnate Sir Joseph Robinson elected as an independent, facing mainly Labour opposition. He left parliament on the seat's abolition, but later became known for his attempt to buy a peerage from the British government.
Randfontein returned to the electoral map in 1948, just in time to help vote the Herenigde Nasionale Party into government, and for the next forty years would be a safe seat for the governing party. Its dominating personality almost throughout that period was Connie Mulder, who was first elected as Randfontein's MP in 1958 and became a close ally of John Vorster during the latter's premiership. In 1977, he was caught up in the Muldergate scandal, and was expelled both from Parliament and from the NP as a result - however, he remained active in right-wing politics, and in 1987 made a comeback as MP for Randfontein, now representing the Conservative Party. By then, he was dying of cancer, and in 1988 the by-election to replace him was won by his son, Corné Mulder. The latter remains active in politics to this day, becoming the leader of Freedom Front Plus in 2025, and as of 2025 is the longest continuously serving MP in South Africa.
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