Vredefort (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Vredefort
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Orange Free State
Electorate	10,158 (1960 ref)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1966
Number of members	1
Last MHA	H. J. Klopper (NP)
Replaced by	Parys

Vredefort was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1966. Named after the town of Vredefort, the seat covered a large rural area in the north of the province, bordering the Transvaal. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly.

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 Orange River Colony, and its predecessor the Orange Free State, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Orange Free State 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

Vredefort, like most of the Orange Free State, was a highly conservative seat throughout its existence and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was held nearly throughout its existence by the National Party, whose founding leader, J. B. M. Hertzog, was enormously popular with the Free State's Afrikaner population. In 1915, the NP first won Vredefort with Colin Fraser Steyn, who resigned the seat after the 1921 general election due to also being elected in the less-safe seat of Bloemfontein South. The resulting by-election saw fellow Nationalist John Henry Munnik hold the seat unopposed.

Hoopstad remained a safe Nationalist seat for the next twenty years, until 1934, when the party split in two after Hertzog decided to join forces with Jan Smuts to create the United Party. While many conservative Afrikaners broke away from the new party to form the Purified National Party under D. F. Malan's leadership, Hoopstad MP Edwin Alfred Conroy stayed loyal to Hertzog and successfully defended his seat at the 1938 general election. Like many of his ex-Nationalist colleagues, however, he broke away once Smuts took over the party and led South Africa into World War II, joining Nicolaas Havenga's Afrikaner Party and contesting his seat under that label in 1943. In that election, Conroy placed third and the Herenigde Nasionale Party took the seat with Henning Klopper, who would hold it until its abolition in 1966, serving as Speaker of the House of Assembly from 1961. When the Vredefort seat was abolished, Klopper stood for and won the new seat of Parys, which covered largely the same area, and which he would continue to represent until 1974.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	J. A. P. van der Merwe	Orangia Unie
	1915	Colin Fraser Steyn	National
	1920
	1921
	1921 by	J. H. Munnik
	1924
	1929
	1933	E. A. Conroy
	1934		United
	1938
	1940		Afrikaner
	1943'	Henning Klopper	HNP
	1948
	1953		National
	1958
	1961
	1966	constituency abolished

^{[2] [3]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

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

General election 1910: Vredefort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Orangia Unie	J. A. P. van der Merwe	Unopposed
	Orangia Unie win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Vredefort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Colin Fraser Steyn	1,133	60.2	New
	South African	J. A. P. van der Merwe	749	39.8	N/A
Majority			384	20.4	N/A
Turnout			1,882	73.1	N/A
	National gain from South African		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Vredefort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Colin Fraser Steyn	1,205	65.3	+5.1
	South African	G. H. Claassens	639	34.7	−5.1
Majority			566	30.6	+10.2
Turnout			1,844	63.1	−10.0
	National hold		Swing	+5.1

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

General election 1921: Vredefort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Colin Fraser Steyn	1,270	70.3	+5.0
	South African	G. H. Claassens	537	29.7	−5.0
Majority			733	40.6	+10.0
Turnout			1,807	59.4	−3.7
	National hold		Swing	+5.0

Steyn was elected both in Vredefort and Bloemfontein South, and chose to represent Bloemfontein South.

Vredefort by-election, 9 March 1921 ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. H. Munnik	Unopposed
	National hold

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).