Kuruman (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

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. == History ==

Like many constituencies in the rural Cape, the electorate of Kuruman was largely Afrikaans-speaking and conservative, and with the exception of the 1938 general election, the seat was won at every election by the National Party. It largely replaced the seat of Barkly when created in 1929, and Barkly MP W. B. de Villiers stood for election in both Kuruman and Stellenbosch. He chose to represent Stellenbosch, causing an immediate by-election in Kuruman, which was won by fellow Nationalist Hendrik Jacobus Cornelis de Jager. When the majority of the National Party went into the United Party in 1934, Kuruman MP Ignatius van Wijk Raubenheimer followed J. B. M. Hertzog into the new party, and was re-elected by a safe margin, but died in office in 1939. The resulting by-election was won by Philippus Jacobus Olivier of the Herenigde Nasionale Party, the first election contested by the party under that label. The HNP and the refounded National Party would hold Kuruman for most of the rest of its history. Jan Hendrik Hoon, Kuruman's last MP, defected to Andries Treurnicht's Conservative Party and was defeated for re-election in 1987 by the National Party candidate, but he recaptured the seat at the last whites-only general election in 1989. == Members ==

Elections in the 1920s Elections in the 1930s Elections in the 1940s == References ==