Three Rivers (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Three Rivers
Drie Riviere
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Cape of Good Hope
Electorate	6,045 (1928 by)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1929
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Frank Gibaud (SAP)

Three Rivers (Afrikaans: Drie Riviere) was a constituency in the Cape Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1929. It covered the Algoa Bay coast north of Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), including the mouths of the Swartkops, Coega and Sundays rivers (hence the name of the seat). 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 the rest of the Eastern Cape, Three Rivers had a largely English-speaking electorate and was a stronghold of the pro-British side of South African politics. For nearly the entire existence of the seat, it was represented by one MP: Daniel Maclaren Brown, who was first elected as a Unionist but joined the South African Party after the Unionist Party merged with them. Brown left office in November 1927, and the ensuing by-election was won by his party colleague Frank Gibaud, who would represent the seat until its abolition just over a year later.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	D. M. Brown	Unionist
	1915
	1920
	1921		South African
	1924
	1928 by	Frank Gibaud
	1929	constituency abolished

^[2]

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

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

General election 1910: Three Rivers

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	D. M. Brown	Unopposed
	Unionist win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Three Rivers

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	D. M. Brown	1,171	41.0	N/A
	South African	J. Wynne	868	30.4	New
	National	A. H. du Preez	815	28.6	New
Majority			303	10.6	N/A
Turnout			2,854	80.0	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Three Rivers

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	D. M. Brown	1,305	60.6	+19.6
	South African	W. T. Fowler	734	34.1	+3.7
	Independent	J. H. van der Wyver	114	5.3	New
Majority			571	26.5	+15.9
Turnout			2,153	55.6	−24.4
	Unionist hold		Swing	+7.9

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

General election 1921: Three Rivers

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	D. M. Brown	1,576	67.3	+6.7
	Labour	K. Bremer	532	22.7	New
	National	W. T. Fowler	234	10.0	New
Majority			571	44.6	N/A
Turnout			2,342	59.6	+4.0
	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.