Ventersdorp (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Ventersdorp
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Ventersdorp within South Africa (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	16,911 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1920 1981
Abolished	1966 1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	S. P. van Vuuren (CP)
Replaced by	Carletonville (1966) North West (1994)

Ventersdorp was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1920 to 1966 and again from 1981 to 1994. Named after the town of Ventersdorp, it covered a rural area in the western Transvaal. 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 the rural Transvaal, Ventersdorp was a conservative seat with a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. In its early years it was a marginal seat, with the South African and National parties fighting several close contests, but that era ended with the election of independent Jacob Wilkens in 1933. Wilkens was re-elected in 1938 for the United Party, but left that party alongside J. B. M. Hertzog in 1939, and was defeated for re-election by a new UP candidate in 1943. He returned one final time in 1948, this time for the Herenigde Nasionale Party, which took the seat as part of their sweep of the rural Transvaal. In 1966, the constituency was abolished and its MP, Johannes Casper Greyling, moved to the new seat of Carletonville.

Ventersdorp was recreated in 1981, and won by Benjamin Hugh Wilkens for the National Party, but in 1987 it was one of many rural Transvaal seats to fall to Andries Treurnicht's new hard-right Conservative Party. Stefanus Petrus van Vuuren, the Conservative MP elected in 1987, would represent Ventersdorp until the end of apartheid.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1920	B. I. J. van Heerden	South African
	1921
	1924	L. J. Boshoff	National
	1929
	1933	Jacob Wilkens	Independent
	1938		United
	1939		HNP
	1943	H. J. Visser	United
	1948	Jacob Wilkens	HNP
	1953	J. C. Greyling	National
	1958
	1961
	1966	Constituency abolished

Election		Member	Party
	1981	B. H. Wilkens	National
	1987	S. P. van Vuuren	Conservative
	1989
	1994	Constituency abolished

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

Detailed results

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Ventersdorp

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	B. I. J. van Heerden	1,025	52.0	New
	National	L. J. Boshoff	945	48.0	New
Majority			80	4.0	N/A
Turnout			1,970	70.7	N/A
	South African win (new seat)

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

General election 1921: Ventersdorp

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	B. I. J. van Heerden	1,124	51.9	−0.1
	National	L. J. Boshoff	1,042	48.1	+0.1
Majority			82	3.8	−0.2
Turnout			2,166	71.0	+0.3
	South African hold		Swing	-0.1

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.