Wepener (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Senekal
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Orange Free State
Electorate	2,559 (1929)
Former constituency
Created	1924
Abolished	1938
Number of members	1
Last MHA	J. C. de Wet (UP)
Created from	Rouxville
Replaced by	Ladybrand

Senekal was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1924 to 1938. Named after the town of Wepener, the seat covered a rural area in the southeast of the province, bordering Lesotho. 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

Like most of the Orange Free State, Wepener was a highly conservative seat and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. All three elections contested in the seat were won by the National Party, whose candidates never got below seventy percent of the vote. In 1933, like many incumbent MPs across South Africa, Wepener MP Jan Cloete de Wet was re-elected unopposed, and in 1934 he followed J. B. M. Hertzog and the majority of Nationalists into the United Party. Wepener was abolished for the 1938 general election, but de Wet stood for election in neighbouring Ladybrand, whose MP C. R. Swart had sided with the hardline Purified National Party. In the battle of incumbents, de Wet was narrowly victorious, and represented Ladybrand for the next five years.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1924	Daniël Hugo	National
	1929	F. D. du Toit
	1933	J. C. de Wet
	1934		United
	1938	constituency abolished

^{[2] [3]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1920s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1924 South African general election § Wepener.[ edit ]

General election 1924: Wepener

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Daniël Hugo	1,464	74.5	New
	South African	G. J. van der Riet	483	24.6	New
Rejected ballots			18	0.9	N/A
Majority			981	49.9	N/A
Turnout			2,014	59.4	N/A
	National win (new seat)

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1929 South African general election § Wepener.[ edit ]

General election 1929: Wepener

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	F. D. du Toit	1,466	77.1	+2.6
	South African	G. L. Steytler	415	21.8	−2.8
Rejected ballots			20	1.1	+0.2
Majority			1,051	55.3	+5.4
Turnout			1,901	74.3	+14.9
	National hold		Swing	+2.7

Elections in the 1930s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1933 South African general election § Wepener.[ edit ]

General election 1933: Wepener

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. C. de Wet	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).