Johannesburg North (Afrikaans: ) was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1920 to 1994. As the name indicates, it covered parts of the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. 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.
History Like most of Johannesburg's northern suburbs, Johannesburg North had a largely English-speaking and liberal electorate. It was a safe seat for each main pro-British party in South Africa, first the Unionists, then the South African Party and finally the United Party. Its most notable MP during this era was Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, cabinet minister and close ally of Jan Smuts, who died just a few months after Smuts and the UP lost the 1948 general election. His successor, Bailey Bekker, was kicked out of the UP in 1954 for proposing a compromise with the government over the Coloured vote question, and founded the short-lived centrist National Conservative Party. The party went nowhere and Bekker retired at the 1958 general election, which was won handily by the UP candidate.
In 1974, Johannesburg North was one of five seats lost by the UP to the growing Progressive Party, which took a clearer stance against apartheid and folded into the Progressive Federal Party after the UP's dissolution in 1977. The PFP and their successors, the Democratic Party, held the seat by strong margins until the end of apartheid.
Members ElectionMemberParty 1920 Lourens Geldenhuys SAP 1921 1924 1929 1929 by Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr 1933 1934 United 1938 1943 1948 1949 by P. B. Bekker 1953 1954 NCP 1958 R. P. Plewman United 1961 U. M. Weiss 1966 D. J. Marais 1970 1974 Gordon Waddell Progressive 1977 J. F. Marais PFP 1981 1987 P. G. Soal 1989 Democratic 1994 Constituency abolished Schoeman, B.M. (1977). Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976. Pretoria: Aktuele Publikasies. Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa (1972). "House of Assembly" (vol. 5, pp. 617–636). Cape Town: Nasionale Opvoedkundige Uitgewery (Nasou). South Africa 1980/81: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications. South Africa 1983: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 10751. 22 May 1987. Pretoria: Government of South Africa. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 12109. 20 September 1989. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.
Detailed results Elections in the 1920s
Elections in the 1930s
References