Seven Circles Act
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The Seven Circles Act, 1874, was an act of the Cape Parliament that divided the Cape Colony into seven provinces (or "circles") for the Legislative Council elections.
Previously, the country had been divided into two large provinces, the Western and the Eastern Provinces, which had led to decades of polarisation and competition. The act was important in that it ended the bitter political schism that had divided the Cape for much of the 19th century. It formed part of the 1874 Constitutional Amendment Bill.[1]
The Western Province
The Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope was bicameral, with a lower house (Legislative Assembly) and an upper house (Legislative Council). The latter had considerable power and influence on the lower house, and was elected according to two large provinces:
- The Western Province, centred on Cape Town
- The Eastern Province, centred on Port Elizabeth
The Western Province was larger, and was the seat of the country's capital city, Cape Town, however the electoral system gave the two entities near equal political power. (The Western province had only two more seats than the Eastern, though its voting population was very much larger.) The result was political competition, which gradually evolved into growing regional political parties, and then into severe polarisation between the two provinces. The instability of the system often paralyzed government.
The Eastern Province
In fear of dominance by Cape Town, the Eastern Province leaders came to demand greater British Imperial control, and a long-running separatist movement arose. Persistent disputes included frontier issues, with the Eastern Province leaders favouring a far harsher and more expansionist policy towards the neighbouring Xhosa people. The Western Province was dominated by liberals who were less expansionist and were accused by Eastern leaders of favouring the Xhosa in their frontier policy. The deadlock and regional polarisation was complicated by the division between the Eastern towns of Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, which began competing for political dominance within the Eastern Province.
Earlier political developments
Representative government (1854–1872)
The Cape at the time ran a system of representative government, whereby the legislature was elected, but executive power remained firmly in the hands of an unelected British Governor, who was appointed by the British Colonial Office. A resulting lack of accountability led to budget mismanagement and economic stagnation. Distrust of the Governor also led to a deadlock between the elected parliament and the unelected executive. Popular distrust also scuppered Governor Wodehouse's prior attempt (1869) to redraw the electoral districts (this was to be done by abolishing the lower house and establishing a system of alternating councils with 6 electoral districts and greater British control of nominations).
Responsible government (1872)
A movement began in the Western Province to make the Executive elected and therefore accountable (or "responsible") to the local electorate. This movement for "Responsible Government" was opposed by the Eastern leaders who feared Western Province domination (as well as by conservatives in the West). However, the split in the Eastern Province party between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, together with the mobilisation of small but growing electoral minorities such as Black African voters (who generally supported the Western Province party), allowed the Western-based leader John Molteno to institute Responsible Government in 1872.[2][3]
Factors favouring the change
From the outset, a serious problem was that the two constituencies were geographically so enormous, that it was practically impossible for any candidate to canvas the electorate across a significant area of their province. Such impracticalities, as well as irregularities that caused just two cities (Cape Town and Grahamstown) to account for over 50% of the electoral strength in their respective provinces, meant that interest in the Council elections was minimal.
Therefore, while the Council wielded significant power in the country, it was correctly perceived to be remote and far-removed from the electorate. It was also widely seen as unaccountable.
In addition, the demographics of the country had substantially changed since the original provinces were constituted, in size, in economic development, and in distribution. The two provinces were therefore even more impractical as electoral districts.
However the primary reason that the change was proposed, was the aforementioned polarisation which resulted from having only two provinces of near equal power.[4][5]
