House of Assembly (South Africa)

The House of Assembly (known in Afrikaans as the Volksraad, or "People's Council") was the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa from 1910 to 1981, the sole parliamentary chamber between 1981 and 1984, and latterly the white representative house of the Tricameral Parliament from 1984 to 1994, when it was replaced by the current National Assembly. Throughout its history, it was exclusively constituted of white members who were elected to office predominantly by white citizens, though until 1960 and 1970, respectively, some Black Africans and Coloureds in the Cape Province voted under a restricted form of suffrage.

House of Assembly of South Africa Volksraad van Suid-Afrika
Coat of arms
Type
Type	Lower house (1910–1981) Unicameral (1981–1984) White representative house (1984–1994)
History
Established	1910
Disbanded	1994
Succeeded by	National Assembly
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
First election	15 September 1910
Last election	6 September 1989
Meeting place
Houses of Parliament Cape Town Cape Province, South Africa

The House of Assembly

The old House of Assembly chamber was severely damaged in a fire in January 2022.^[1]

Method of election

The members were elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member electoral divisions. Following the abolition of the Senate in 1981, the membership of the House of Assembly was increased included 12 additional members, of whom four were appointed by the State President and eight were elected by the directly elected members.^[2] The elected additional members were chosen by proportional representation, by means of the single transferable vote.^[3]

Franchise

The South Africa Act 1909 provided that the franchise in each province should be the same as that in the corresponding colony before the Union, until altered by the Union Parliament. The Act included entrenching clauses, providing that black and coloured voters could only be removed from the common voters roll in the Cape of Good Hope, by legislation passed by a two-thirds majority by both houses of Parliament in joint session.^[4]

The franchise, in all parts of the Union, was initially limited to men over the age of 21. White women were enfranchised in 1929 and the remaining property and income qualifications affecting white men were abolished in 1930.^[5] The voting age was reduced to 18 in the 1960s. There were some additional qualifications and disqualifications which varied between provinces.

The voters in the Orange Free State, Transvaal and South West Africa had to be qualified white people, throughout the whole period when those areas were represented in the House of Assembly.

Cape Franchise

Main article: Cape Qualified Franchise

The Cape of Good Hope had a franchise based on property and wage qualifications, open to people of all races. At the time of the National Convention in 1908, which drafted the terms of what became the South Africa Act, "22,784 Native and Coloured persons out of a total of 152,221 electors" were entitled to vote in Cape elections.

From 1930, the traditional Cape franchise only affected non-white electors. The 1929 and 1930 extensions of white voting rights were not granted to the non-white majority of the population.

Until 1937, a small number of blacks in the Cape Province were included on the common voters' roll. Under the Representation of Natives Act (1936), three white members were elected to represent black voters in the province, with the voters' roll being limited to only 11 000.^[6] In 1960, these seats were abolished.^[7]

Similarly the coloured voters in Cape Province were removed from the common (or general roll), under the Separate Representation of Voters Act 1951, although as the Act was challenged during the Coloured vote constitutional crisis and not completely enforced until the later 1950s, the last year to see non-whites participate in a general election was in 1953. Coloured electors complying with qualifications were subsequently given four white MPs between 1958 and 1970. These seats were abolished in 1968 through the Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, 1968, enacted on behalf of Prime Minister B. J. Vorster. This removed all political representation for non-whites in South Africa; Indians had never had any parliamentary representation.

Natal Franchise

Natal had a theoretically non-racial franchise, which was similar to (but different in detail) from the property and income based franchise of the Cape. In practice, few non-white electors ever qualified to vote under it. It was estimated, in 1908, that "200 non-Europeans out of a total of 22,786 electors had secured franchise rights".^[8]

In 1935, there was one black elector in Natal. He retained the general roll franchise when the Cape black voters lost it.^[9]

South West Africa

In 1949, the South West Africa Affairs Amendment Act extended parliamentary representation to South West Africa's white minority, who elected six MPs to the House of Assembly.^[10] They were first elected in 1950, with the territory being represented in the South African Parliament until 1977.^[11] South West Africa's representation in the South African Parliament was abolished in 1977 to pave the way for independence for the territory.^[12] However, this would not occur until 1990.

By contrast, Walvis Bay was transferred back to the Cape Province, thereby making it an exclave.^[13] From 1980, it formed part of the Green Point constituency in Cape Town, before becoming a separate constituency in 1982.^[14]

Tricameral Parliament

In the Tricameral Parliament, the House of Assembly (by this time numbering 178 members) was retained as the Whites-only chamber while the House of Representatives and House of Delegates were designated to Coloureds and Asians respectively.

Composition by election, province, and type

Election	No.	Cape	Nat	OFS	SWA	Tvl	Total gen.	CCRM	CNRM	Total MPs
1910, 15 September	1	51	17	17	–	36	121	–	–	121[15]
1915, 20 October	2	51	17	17	–	45	130	–	–	130
1920, 20 March	3	51	17	17	–	49	134	–	–	134
1921, 8 February	4	51	17	17	–	49	134	–	–	134
1924, 19 June	5	51	17	17	–	50	135	–	–	135
1929, 14 June	6	58	17	18	–	55	148	–	–	148
1933, 17 May	7	61	16	16	–	57	150	–	–	150
1938, 18 May	8	59	16	15	–	60	150	–	3	153[16]
1943, 17 July	9	56	16	14	–	64	150	–	3	153
1948, 26 May	10	55	16	13	–	66	150	–	3	153[17]
1953, 15 April	11	54	15	13	6	68	156	–	3	159[18]
1958, 16 April	12	52	16	14	6	68	156	4	3	163[19]
1961, 8 October	13	52	16	14	6	68	156	4	–	160[20]
1966, 30 March	14	54	18	15	6	73	166	4	–	170[21]
1970, 22 April	15	54	18	15	6	73	166	–	–	166[22]
1974, 24 April	16	55	20	14	6	76	171	–	–	171[23]
1977, 30 November	17	55	20	14	–	76	165	IE	Nom	165[24]
1981, 29 April	18	55	20	14	–	76	165	8	4	177[25]
1987, 6 May	19	56	20	14	–	76	166	8	4	178[26]
1989, 6 September	20	56	20	14	–	76	166	8	4	178[27]

Abbreviations and notes:

• General roll electoral divisions (contested at general elections)
• Cape: Cape of Good Hope
• Nat: Natal
• OFS: Orange Free State
• SWA: South West Africa (represented in the House 1950–1977)
• Tvl: Transvaal
• Non-general roll seats (not filled at general elections)
• CCRM: Cape Coloured representative members (represented in the House 1958–1970)
• CNRM: Cape Native representative members (represented in the House 1937–1960)
• IE: Indirectly elected, by the directly elected MPs (represented in the House January 1981 – 1994)
• Nom: Nominated by the State President, one per province (represented in the House January 1981 – 1994)

Election results

The following table reflects only those members elected from general roll electoral divisions.

Term	Election	Total seats	Parties
			South African			Unionist	Labour	Others	Independent
1st	15 September 1910	121	67			39	4	—	11
			National		South African	Unionist	Labour	Others	Independent
2nd	20 October 1915	130	27		54	39	4	—	6
3rd	20 March 1920	134	44		41	25	21	—	3
			National		South African		Labour	Others	Independent
4th	8 February 1921	134	45		79		9	—	1
5th	19 June 1924	135	63		53		18	—	1
6th	14 June 1929	148	78		61		8	—	1
7th	17 May 1933	150	75		61		2	2 Roos	10
			Purified National	United		Dominion	Labour	Others	Independent
8th	18 May 1938	150	27	111		8	3	1 Socialist	—
			Reunited National		United	Dominion	Labour	Others	Independent
9th	17 July 1943	150	43		89	7	9	—	2
			Afrikaner	Reunited National	United		Labour	Others	Independent
10th	26 May 1948	150	9	70	65		6	—	—
			National		United		Labour	Others	Independent
11th	15 April 1953	156	94		57		5	—	—
12th	16 April 1958	156	103		53		—	—	—
			National		United	Progressive	Others		Independent
13th	8 October 1961	156	105		59	1	1 National Union		—
14th	30 March 1966	166	126		39	1	—		—
15th	22 April 1970	166	118		47	1	—		—
16th	24 April 1974	171	123		41	7	—		—
			National		New Republic	Progressive Federal	Others		Independent
17th	30 November 1977	165	134		10	17	3 South African		1
18th/19th	29 April 1981	165	131		8	26	—		—
			Conservative	National	New Republic	Progressive Federal	Others		Independent
20th	6 May 1987	166	22	123	1	19	—		1
			Conservative	National	Democratic		Others		Independent
21st	6 September 1989	166	39	94	33		—		—

See also

• Senate of South Africa
• Volksraad

References

1. "South Africa's national assembly chambers destroyed in parliament fire". Stuff. 2 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
2. The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, Volume 13, Institute of Foreign and Comparative Law, University of South Africa, 1981, page 354
3. SOUTH AFRICA Date of Elections: 29 April 1981, International Parliamentary Union
4. Section 35 of the South Africa Act 1909
5. The South African Constitution, by H.J. May (3rd edition 1955, Juta & Co) pp 92–93
6. Natives in South Africa^{[permanent dead link]}, The Glasgow Herald, 16 June 1937^{[dead link]}
7. The South African Constitution, pp 101–109 (for the details of the native representative seats)
8. Discussion of the franchise and the quotations about numbers of voters are from The South African Constitution, page 10
9. The South African Constitution, page 95: H.J. May, writing in 1955, discussed the qualification for non-Europeans in Natal to be voters on the common (or general) roll. "There was only one Native in Natal (and only one therefore in the whole of the Union) on the general voters' list in 1945, and now there are none".
10. Official Documents of the 4th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, United Nations, 1949, page 11
11. Mediating Conflict: Decision-making and Western Intervention in Namibia, Vivienne Jabri, Manchester University Press, 1990, page 46
12. South Africa 1978: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, Volume 5, State Department of Information, 1978, page 141
13. The Green and the dry wood: The Roman Catholic Church (Vicariate of Windhoek) and the Namibian socio-political situation, 1971-1981, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1983, page 6
14. Sub-Saharan Africa Report, Issues 2578-2584, Foreign Broadcast Information Service., 1982, page 48
15. (Distribution of seats 1910–1933) The South African Constitution, pp. 79–82; South Africa 1982, page 129.
16. (Distribution of seats 1938–1943) The South African Constitution, pp. 79–82 and 104–109, South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1943–1946, pp. 6005–6008.
17. (Distribution of seats 1948) The South African Constitution, pp. 79–82 and 104–109, South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1946–1948, page 9297.
18. (Distribution of seats 1953) The South African Constitution, pp. 79–82, 104–109 and 406–408, South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1952–1954, page 13005.
19. (Distribution of seats 1958) South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1957–1958, page 16169.
20. (Distribution of seats 1961) South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1961–1962, page 18449.
21. (Distribution of seats 1966) South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1965–1966, pp. 21375-21376.
22. (Distribution of seats 1970) South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1969–1970, page 23971.
23. (Distribution of seats 1974) South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1974, pp. 25641-25643.
24. (Distribution of seats 1977) South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1978, page 28813.
25. (Distribution of seats 1981) South Africa 1982, page 129 and Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1981, page 30973.
26. (Distribution of seats 1987) Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1987, page 35298.
27. (Distribution of seats 1989) Keesing's Contemporary Archives 1989, page 36880.

• Keesing's Contemporary Archives (various volumes)
• South Africa 1982: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications
• The South African Constitution, by H.J. May (3rd edition 1955, Juta & Co)