Cape Liberal Tradition The Cape has had a long tradition of holding liberal values. For example, the Cape Qualified Franchise before the Union of South Africa.
Cape Qualified Franchise The Cape Qualified Franchise was the system of non-racial
franchise that was adhered to in the
Cape Colony, and in the
Cape Province in the early years of the
Union of South Africa. Qualifications for the right to vote at parliamentary elections were applied equally to all men, regardless of race. This local system of multi-racial suffrage was later gradually restricted, and eventually abolished, under various
National Party and
United Party governments. In 1930,
white women were enfranchised, and in 1931
property qualifications for white voters were removed. In 1936,
black voters were then removed from the common voters' rolls and
allowed only to elect separate members in 1936, and subsequently
denied all representation in the
House of Assembly in 1960.
Coloured voters
similarly followed in
1958 and
1970, respectively.
Contribution of the Western Cape in the National Youth Uprisings The
Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960. The BCM represented a social movement for political consciousness. In December 1968, the
South African Student Organization (SASO) was formed at a conference held in Marianhill, Natal. The conference was exclusively attended by Black students. After its launch, SASO became the medium through which black consciousness ideology spread to schools and other university campuses across the country. In 1974, South African Minister of Bantu Education and Development MC Botha, constituted the imposition of using
Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools, effective with students in Grade 7 (Standard 5) upwards. As early as March 1976, students began passive resistance against Afrikaans, fueling the outbreak of the
Soweto Uprising on 16 June 1976. Consequently, the student protests spread to other parts of the country, and
Cape Town became a pivotal site for Western Cape student revolt. Student leaders at the
University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the
University of Cape Town (UCT) organised marches. Poster parades by UWC and Black Power Salute marches by UCT was broken by the police, resulting in 73 students getting arrested and detained at
Victor Verster Prison, near Paarl. On 1 September 1976, the unrest spread to the city of Cape Town itself. Approximately 2000 black students from Western Cape townships, namely Langa, Nyanga and Gugulethu, matched the Cape Town central business district (CBD). Coloured students also contributed to the protests by peacefully marching to the city, but were blockaded by the police in the CBD. The protests turned violent when coloured students started burning schools, libraries and a magistrate's court in support of the student revolt. Thereafter, 200,000 coloured workers partook in a two-day strike staying away from work in the Cape Town area. According to a report by the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the Western Cape experienced the second highest number of deaths and casualties associated with the 1976 uprising protests.
1994 and the Western Cape post-apartheid In 1994, at the introduction of the
Interim Constitution and the
first non-racial election, South Africa's original provinces and
bantustans were abolished and
nine new provinces were established. The former
Cape Province was divided into the Western Cape,
Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and part of
North West. In the 1994 election, the Western Cape was one of two provinces that did not elect an
African National Congress (ANC) provincial government (the other being
KwaZulu-Natal). The
National Party (NP) won 53% of the votes and 23 seats in the 42-seat provincial legislature, and
Hernus Kriel, a former Minister of Law and Order, was elected
Premier. He resigned in 1998 and was replaced by
Gerald Morkel. The
1999 election marked the beginning of a period of great turbulence in Western Cape politics. No party achieved an absolute majority in the provincial parliament, as the ANC won 18 seats while the
New National Party (NNP), successor to the NP, won 17. The NNP went into coalition with the
Democratic Party (DP), which won 5 seats, to form a government, and Morkel remained Premier. In 2000 the DP and the NNP formalised their coalition by forming the
Democratic Alliance (DA). In 2001, however, the NNP broke with the DA over the removal of
Peter Marais from office as
Mayor of Cape Town by DA leader
Tony Leon. The NNP instead went into coalition with the ANC; Gerald Morkel, who was opposed to the split, resigned as Premier and was replaced by Peter Marais. In 2002 Marais resigned as Premier due to a sexual harassment scandal, and was replaced by NNP leader
Marthinus van Schalkwyk. During the
2003 floor-crossing period four members of the provincial parliament crossed to the ANC, giving it an absolute majority of 22 seats in the 42-seat house. However, the ANC remained in coalition with the NNP and van Schalkwyk remained as Premier. In the
2004 election, there was again no absolute winner in the provincial parliament; this time the ANC won 19 seats, the DA won 12, and the NNP won 5. The ANC-NNP coalition continued in power, but van Schalkwyk took up a ministerial post in the national cabinet and was replaced as Premier by the ANC's
Ebrahim Rasool. The NNP was finally dissolved after the
2005 floor-crossing period and its members joined the ANC, again giving that party an absolute majority of 24 seats. In the
2007 floor-crossing period the ANC gained a further three members of the provincial parliament. In 2008 Rasool resigned as Premier due to internal party politics, and was replaced by
Lynne Brown. The
2009 election marked a significant change in Western Cape politics, as the Democratic Alliance won 51% of the votes and an absolute majority of 22 seats in the provincial parliament, while the ANC won 14 seats with 31% of the vote. The DA leader
Helen Zille was elected Premier. In 2010 the
Independent Democrats, which had won 3 seats with 5% of the vote, merged with the DA. In the
2014 election the DA won 59% of the votes and an absolute majority of 26 seats in the provincial parliament, while the ANC won 14 seats with 32% of the vote. In 2018 King Khoebaha Cornelius III Declared the independence of the "Sovereign State of Good Hope". In the
2019 election, the DA retained their majority in the province, but with a reduction in support. It had won 24 seats with 55%. Helen Zille was term-limited and the DA premier candidate
Alan Winde succeeded her. The ANC also lost support. It had received 12 seats with 28% support, its lowest showing since 1994. Veteran politician
Peter Marais returned to the provincial parliament as the sole representative of the
Freedom Front Plus. Patricia de Lille formed another party,
Good, and it achieved a seat. The DA continued to win a majority of the votes in the
2021 municipal elections, receiving 54% of the vote province-wide, with support in Cape Town at 58%.
Cape Independence Movement Since the late 2000s there has been growing support for Western Cape, or Greater Cape, independence from South Africa. Political parties such as the
Referendum Party,
Freedom Front Plus and organisations such as the Cape Independence Advocacy Group and CapeXit, wish to bring forth the constitutional and peaceful secession of the Western Cape. Proponents claim substantial support for the idea, with CapeXit having over 800,000 signed mandates in May 2021. Additionally, a poll conducted in 2023 by Victory Research on behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group claimed that 58% of the Western Cape's registered voters would support independence, while 68% would support a referendum on the issue. ==Law and government==