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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
Cape Town Castle was one of the four constituencies created out of the multi-member Cape Town seat for the Cape Parliament. At the time, it extended from Adderley Street in the west to the then-city limit, now in the suburb of Woodstock, in the east and Table Mountain in the south. It changed extent quite frequently in its early years, gaining most of Vredehoek in 1915 but losing it again in 1920 and becoming a much more CBD-focused seat. In 1924, the Castle itself was moved into the neighbouring seat of Salt River, for which reason Cape Town Castle was renamed to Cape Town Hanover Street. However, this was undone in the following election, and for most of its later history, the seat covered the eastern half of the City Bowl.
Like the rest of Cape Town, it was a largely English-speaking seat and loyal to the pro-British side of South African politics. Its first and most notable MP, Morris Alexander, was a leader of Cape Town’s Jewish community, and enjoyed wide popularity in the seat. When his Unionist Party merged with the South African Party, he rejected the merger and sat as a “Constitutional Democrat” independent. Alexander was re-elected under this label for Hanover Street in 1924, but in 1929 opted to run as a Labour candidate in neighbouring Cape Town Gardens, leaving Castle to the SAP candidate A. J. McCallum. However, he returned in 1933, representing first the SAP and then the United Party, and only leaving parliament on his death in 1946. The MP elected in the by-election, A. Bloomberg, would represent the seat until its abolition in 1958.
Location of Cape Town Castle within Cape Town (1910)