Von Brandis (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Von Brandis
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Von Brandis within Johannesburg (1910)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	13,674 (1977)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1981
Number of members	1
Last MHA	R. B. Durrant (NP)

Von Brandis was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1981. It covered the eastern half of the Johannesburg CBD. 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

Von Brandis, like many other Johannesburg seats, had a largely English-speaking and liberal electorate. Its parliamentary history was dominated by just two MPs: Emile Nathan, who was first elected as a Unionist in 1910 and stayed in the seat until 1932, having joined the South African Party along with most other Unionists in 1921, and John Waterston Higgerty, who was first elected for the SAP in 1933, joined the United Party shortly thereafter, and stayed in parliament until 1970, frequently going unopposed in the later part of his career. After Higgerty's retirement, the UP continued to hold the seat by a safe margin, but its electorate was divided after the party dissolved in 1977, with the majority supporting the Progressive Federal Party but a sizeable minority going to the more conservative New Republic Party, the UP's legal successor. This allowed the governing National Party to come through the middle in what was their biggest-ever nationwide victory. Robert Badenhorst Durrant of the NP would turn out to be Von Brandis' final MP, as the seat was abolished in the final delimitation of constituencies ahead of the 1981 general election.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	Emile Nathan	Unionist
	1915
	1920
	1921		South African
	1924
	1929
	1932 by	T. F. Allen
	1933	J. W. Higgerty
	1934		United
	1938
	1943
	1948
	1953
	1958
	1961
	1966
	1970	I. F. A. de Villiers
	1974
	1977	R. B. Durrant	National
	1981	Constituency abolished

^{[2] [3] [4]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

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

General election 1910: Von Brandis

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Emile Nathan	1,330	64.6	New
	Independent	R. W. Jackson	729	35.4	New
Majority			601	29.2	N/A
	Unionist win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Von Brandis

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Emile Nathan	1,179	65.9	+1.3
	Labour	W. J. McIntyre	611	34.1	New
Majority			568	31.8	N/A
Turnout			1,790	70.8	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 § Von Brandis.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Von Brandis

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Emile Nathan	1,064	67.0	+1.1
	Labour	T. G. Jones	525	33.0	−1.1
Majority			568	34.0	+2.2
Turnout			1,589	49.9	−20.9
	Unionist hold		Swing	+1.1

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

General election 1921: Von Brandis

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Emile Nathan	1,235	73.3	+6.3
	Labour	M. J. Green	449	26.7	−6.3
Majority			568	46.6	+12.6
Turnout			1,684	51.2	+1.3
	South African hold		Swing	+6.3

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.