Wakkerstroom (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Wakkerstroom
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	9,925 (1972 by)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1974
Number of members	1
Last MHA	W. L. Weber (NP)
Replaced by	Ermelo

Wakkerstroom was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1974. It covered a rural area in the eastern Transvaal, centred on the town of Wakkerstroom. 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, Wakkerstroom was a conservative seat and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was first taken by the National Party in 1924, and when the NP merged into the United Party in 1934, Wakkerstroom's MP Pieter van der Merwe Martins joined neither the UP nor the dissident Purified National Party. He instead stood for re-election in 1938 as an independent, and lost out to the United Party's William Richard Collins, former MP for Ermelo. Collins died in 1944, and the resulting by-election saw the seat fall to the Herenigde Nasionale Party, four years ahead of the party's nationwide election victory in 1948.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	J. A. Joubert	Het Volk
	1913 by	N. J. de Wet	South African
	1915	G. A. Kolbe
	1920	James van der Merwe
	1921
	1924	A. S. Naudé	National
	1929
	1933	P. v. d. M. Martins
	1934		Independent
	1938	W. R. Collins	United
	1943
	1944 by	J. G. W. van Niekerk	HNP
	1948
	1952 by	H. E. Martins	National
	1953
	1958
	1961
	1966
	1970
	1972 by	W. L. Weber
	1974	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 § Wakkerstroom.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Wakkerstroom

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Het Volk	J. A. Joubert	Unopposed
	Het Volk win (new seat)

Wakkerstroom by-election, 1 November 1913 ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet	Unopposed
	South African win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Wakkerstroom

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	G. A. Kolbe	1,311	64.0	N/A
	National	A. Kuit	739	36.0	New
Majority			572	28.0	N/A
Turnout			2,050	78.1	N/A
	South African hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Wakkerstroom

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	James van der Merwe	1,247	54.2	−9.8
	National	A. Kuit	1,053	45.8	+9.8
Majority			194	8.4	−19.6
Turnout			2,300	73.5	−4.6
	South African hold		Swing	-9.8

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

General election 1921: Wakkerstroom

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	James van der Merwe	1,327	50.9	−3.3
	National	A. Kuit	1,276	49.1	+3.3
Majority			51	1.8	−6.6
Turnout			2,603	76.6	+3.1
	South African hold		Swing	-3.3

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.