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 franchise used in the Natal Colony, while theoretically not restricted by race, was significantly less liberal than that of the Cape, and no more than a few hundred non-white electors ever qualified. In 1908, an estimated 200 of the 22,786 electors in the colony were of non-European descent, and by 1935, only one remained. [1] By 1958, when the last non-white voters in the Cape were taken off the rolls, Natal too had an all-white electorate. 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, which remained the case until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994. [2]
History
As in most of Durban, the electorate of Umlazi was largely English-speaking. Like neighbouring Umbilo, its economy was dominated by the Port of Durban, but its politics were slightly more conservative. Its first MP, who represented the seat throughout its first iteration, was Alfred Fawcus, who was first elected as an independent (Natal having had no party system prior to unification) but later joined the governing South African Party. On Umlazi's abolition in 1920, Fawcus stood for the newly-created seat of Illovo, but lost to Unionist candidate J. S. Marwick.
Umlazi returned in 1929, and the SAP took it once again with F. H. Acutt, who would represent it for one term before standing down. In 1933, the SAP entered an electoral pact with the National Party to support the government of Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog. This was wildly unpopular in staunchly pro-British Durban, and Umlazi was one of two seats in the city where an anti-SAP "Home Rule" candidate was able to defeat the official candidate. Samuel Sidney Sutton, Umlazi's new MP, only served a single term, but he was replaced by Abraham Goldberg of the similarly-minded Dominion Party. Goldberg was followed by Norman George Eaton of the Labour Party, who was elected thanks to a pact with the UP, and would go on to represent neighbouring Umhlatuzana as a UP member starting in 1958. At that same election, the UP took Umlazi, and held it until their dissolution in 1977. By then, Umlazi was a reliably conservative seat, and the National Party was able to capture it with Cornelius Botha. Botha, an ally of F. W. de Klerk, was appointed Administrator of Natal in 1990, which triggered a by-election at a highly sensitive point in South Africa's transition period. The NP's Piet Matthee faced stiff opposition from the staunchly pro-apartheid Conservative Party, but was able to hold the seat and represented it until its abolition in 1994.
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