Klerksdorp (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. 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.^[1]

Like most of the rural Transvaal, Klerksdorp had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. For most of its history, it was a safe seat for the National Party, which took it for the first time in 1920 and held it until its abolition with the exception of the 1934-40 period. During these years, the nascent United Party, led by J. B. M. Hertzog and then Jan Smuts, dominated Transvaal politics, and Klerksdorp was no exception. However, when Hertzog left the party in protest at South Africa joining the Second World War, Klerksdorp MP Jan Wilkens followed him back into the Herenigde Nasionale Party. From then until the end of apartheid, Klerksdorp was represented by only three MPs: Wilkens until 1953, then Petrus Cornelius Pelser until 1974, and finally Amie Venter for the last twenty years. Pelser and Venter both served in cabinet, the former under John Vorster and the latter under P. W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk.

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