Wodehouse (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Wodehouse
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Cape of Good Hope
Electorate	6,485 (1938)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1943
Number of members	1
Last MHA	P. K. Le Roux (UP)
Replaced by	Aliwal Cradock Queenstown

Wodehouse was a constituency in the Cape Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1943. It covered a rural area of the Eastern Cape centred on the town of Dordrecht. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Cape 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. The Cape Colony had implemented a “colour-blind” franchise known as the Cape Qualified Franchise, which included all adult literate men owning more than £75 worth of property (controversially raised from £25 in 1892), and this initially remained in effect after the colony became the Cape Province. As of 1908, 22,784 out of 152,221 electors in the Cape Colony were “Native or Coloured”. Eligibility to serve in Parliament and the Provincial Council, however, was restricted to whites from 1910 onward.

The first challenge to the Cape Qualified Franchise came with the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 and the Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931, which extended the vote to women and removed property qualifications for the white population only – non-white voters remained subject to the earlier restrictions. In 1936, the Representation of Natives Act removed all black voters from the common electoral roll and introduced three “Native Representative Members”, white MPs elected by the black voters of the province and meant to represent their interests in particular. A similar provision was made for Coloured voters with the Separate Representation of Voters Act, 1951, and although this law was challenged by the courts, it went into effect in time for the 1958 general election, which was thus held with all-white voter rolls for the first time in South African history. The all-white franchise would continue until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994. ^[1]

History

Unlike most of the Eastern Cape, Wodehouse had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate, and tended to vote more like its neighbours to the north and west than the ones to its east. In its early years, it traded hands between Jan Abraham Venter of the South African Party and Octavius Septimus Vermooten of the National Party, but in 1933, Vermooten retired from parliament and handed over to Stephanus Bekker, who would represent Wodehouse for the remainder of the seat’s existence. He joined the United Party on its formation in 1934, and stayed with that party at least as far as the 1938 general election, in which he narrowly held the seat against a Purified National Party opponent. Wodehouse was abolished in 1943 and split between the neighbouring seats of Aliwal, Cradock and Queenstown. ^[2] Bekker did not stand for re-election.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	J. A. Venter	South African
	1915	O. S. Vermooten	National
	1920
	1921	J. A. Venter	South African
	1924	O. S. Vermooten	National
	1929
	1933	Stephanus Bekker
	1934		United
	1938
	1943	constituency abolished

^[3]

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

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

General election 1910: Wodehouse

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	J. A. Venter	Unopposed
	South African win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Wodehouse

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	O. S. Vermooten	1,292	50.9	New
	South African	J. A. Venter	1,247	49.1	N/A
Majority			45	1.8	N/A
Turnout			2,539	87.3	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 § Wodehouse.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Wodehouse

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	O. S. Vermooten	1,551	50.6	−0.3
	South African	J. A. Venter	1,513	49.4	+0.3
Majority			38	1.2	−0.6
Turnout			3,064	82.2	−5.1
	National hold		Swing	-0.3

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

General election 1921: Wodehouse

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	J. A. Venter	1,636	50.9	+1.5
	National	O. S. Vermooten	1,574	49.1	−1.5
Majority			62	1.8	N/A
Turnout			3,210	80.7	−1.5
	South African gain from National		Swing	+1.5

References

1. "EISA South Africa: Historical franchise arrangements". Eisa.org.za. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
2. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 3139. 8 January 1943. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.
3. Schoeman, B.M. (1977). Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976. Pretoria: Aktuele Publikasies.