Waterberg (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Waterberg
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Waterberg within South Africa (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	18,776 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Andries Treurnicht (CP)
Replaced by	Limpopo

Waterberg was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. It covered the Waterberg region of 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, Lichtenburg had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate, and it was a highly conservative seat throughout its existence. Its political history was dominated by two MPs, both originally elected for the National Party. The first, J. G. Strijdom, was first elected in 1929 and served until his death in 1958. He was the only Transvaal MP to join D. F. Malan's Purified National Party in 1934, and kept the loyalty of his electorate through the Smuts years, when the United Party was dominant elsewhere in the province. In 1954, on Malan's death, he was made Prime Minister by the NP caucus, and served in that role until his own death four years later. He was replaced as MP for Waterberg by Joost Heystek, who served until 1971 and was replaced by the seat's other dominant figure: Andries Treurnicht. Treurnicht, who had previously been a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church (NGK), quickly established himself as a leader of the National Party's hardline right-wing faction, including a stint as Deputy Minister for Education where his decision to implement Afrikaans-medium education in black schools triggered the Soweto uprising. When P. W. Botha moved toward limited reforms in the early 1980s, Treurnicht challenged him for the NP leadership in 1982, and upon losing, formed the Conservative Party alongside 22 like-minded parliamentary colleagues. The new party saw significant gains in both the 1987 and 1989 elections, and Treurnicht served as Leader of the Opposition from 1987 until his death in 1993, about a year before the non-racial 1994 general election. No by-election was held to replace him, making him Waterberg's final MP.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	H. C. W. Vermaas	Het Volk
	1915	P. W. le Roux van Niekerk	National
	1920
	1921
	1924
	1929	J. G. Strijdom
	1933
	1934		GNP
	1938
	1939		HNP
	1943
	1948
	1953		National
	1958
	1958 by	Joost Heystek
	1961
	1966
	1970
	1971 by	Andries Treurnicht
	1974
	1977
	1981
	1982		Conservative
	1987
	1989
	1994	Constituency abolished

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

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

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

General election 1910: Waterberg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Het Volk	R. G. Nicholson	Unopposed
	Het Volk win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Waterberg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	P. W. le Roux van Niekerk	997	50.1	New
	South African	R. G. Nicholson	994	49.9	N/A
Majority			3	0.2	N/A
Turnout			1,991	78.5	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 § Waterberg.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Waterberg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	P. W. le Roux van Niekerk	1,185	61.0	+10.9
	South African	F. F. Pienaar	757	38.9	−10.9
Majority			458	22.0	+21.8
Turnout			1,942	72.3	−6.2
	National hold		Swing	+10.9

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

General election 1921: Waterberg

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	P. W. le Roux van Niekerk	1,211	64.5	+3.5
	South African	F. F. Pienaar	667	35.5	−3.5
Majority			544	29.0	+7.0
Turnout			1,878	67.4	−4.9
	National hold		Swing	+3.5

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.