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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Max96 (talk | contribs) at 00:19, 26 December 2024 (Max96 moved page Cape Town Hanover Street (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency) to Cape Town Castle (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency): Constituency was renamed for one election only, and I believe the Hanover Street period does not warrant its own page). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Cape Town Hanover Street
Kaapstad-Hanoverstraat
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Cape Town Hanover Street within Cape Town (1924)
Province	Cape of Good Hope
Electorate	4,538 (1924)
Former constituency
Created	1924
Abolished	1929
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Morris Alexander (CD)
Created from	Cape Town Castle
Replaced by	Cape Town Castle

Cape Town Hanover Street was a constituency in the Cape Province of South Africa, which existed only for the 1924 general election. It was named after Hanover Street, a major thoroughfare in Cape Town’s District Six, and covered an area north of Table Mountain and east of the Cape Town CBD. It elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Cape 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. 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 the rest of Cape Town, Hanover Street was a largely English-speaking seat and loyal to the pro-British side of South African politics. Its predecessor seat of Cape Town Castle had been held by a single MP – the Jewish liberal Morris Alexander – throughout its existence, and when Alexander’s 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 when Castle was recreated in 1929, he did not stand for re-election and the seat was won by the SAP.

Members

Detailed results

Elections in the 1920s

References

1. "EISA South Africa: Historical franchise arrangements". Eisa.org.za. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
2. ^ Schoeman, B.M. (1977). Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976. Pretoria: Aktuele Publikasies.

• Cape Town
• Former constituencies of South Africa
• 1924 establishments in South Africa
• 1929 disestablishments in South Africa
• Constituencies disestablished in 1929