Historic South African election results
Aug 7, 2016 15:18:59 GMT
No Offence Alan, finsobruce, and 2 more like this
Post by john07 on Aug 7, 2016 15:18:59 GMT
I have been looking back at elections in South Africa from the formation of the Union in 1910 till the fall of apartheid.
The first thing that struck me was how similar the party system looked to that of the Irish Free State and the Irish Republic From 1920 onwards. There were two large conservative (almost tribal parties) and a small Labour Party. This is probably not that surprising given that the fight for independence in Ireland was operating in parallel with the fight for self determination by the Transvaal. In both cases a negotiated settlement was reached (lead by Collins and Smuts) that was less than universally accepted. The fate of the South African Labour Party and their failure to gain much ground also has parallels with the situation in Ireland both north of and south of the border.
The compromises from Colonial Britain involved giving Dominion status to the Irish Free State and the Union of South Africa.
Smuts's South Africa Party (later the United Party) had the support of the English speakers and much of the business and industrial sector. The Nationalist Party drew most of its support from the Afrikaans speakers from Transvaal and the Free State. The Labour Party represented the interests of the white working class. Labour opposed anything that would threaten the interest of its voters, hence it was not likely to support the rights of Black workers. It also was unhappy about the importation of indentured labourers from South East Asia to the Cape, and from South Asia to Natal. Labour did side from time to time with the Nationalists on these issues and indeed formed a coalition with Hertzog's National Party in opposition to Smuts in 1924.
This subsequently led to a split within Labour after Walter Madeley, a Labour Minister, received a delegation from an unrecognised trade union which had black members. He was sacked. The majority faction left the Government while a minority including the Labour Party leader Frederic Cresswell stayed on. Cresswell's group were eventually effectively absorbed into the Nationalist Party.
Madeley took over leadership and eventually after a merger and demerger between The South Africa Party (now called United Party) and the Nationalists, found himself in coalition with the United Party under Jan Smuts as Minister of Labour. John Christie followed Madeley as leader of the Labour Party as the Nationalists consolidated themselves as the party of Government. On the death of Christie, Alex Hepple took over and began to pursue policies more associated with democratic socialism. This included making contacts with Black leaders and opposing apartheid. This effectively destroyed Labour and all their seats were lost in 1958. Hepple eventually moved to the UK. His son Bob Hepple was part of Nelson Mandela's defence team in 1962.
South African Labour suffered the same fate as Democrats in the US Deep South. Doing the honourable thing does not mean election all rewards.
The first thing that struck me was how similar the party system looked to that of the Irish Free State and the Irish Republic From 1920 onwards. There were two large conservative (almost tribal parties) and a small Labour Party. This is probably not that surprising given that the fight for independence in Ireland was operating in parallel with the fight for self determination by the Transvaal. In both cases a negotiated settlement was reached (lead by Collins and Smuts) that was less than universally accepted. The fate of the South African Labour Party and their failure to gain much ground also has parallels with the situation in Ireland both north of and south of the border.
The compromises from Colonial Britain involved giving Dominion status to the Irish Free State and the Union of South Africa.
Smuts's South Africa Party (later the United Party) had the support of the English speakers and much of the business and industrial sector. The Nationalist Party drew most of its support from the Afrikaans speakers from Transvaal and the Free State. The Labour Party represented the interests of the white working class. Labour opposed anything that would threaten the interest of its voters, hence it was not likely to support the rights of Black workers. It also was unhappy about the importation of indentured labourers from South East Asia to the Cape, and from South Asia to Natal. Labour did side from time to time with the Nationalists on these issues and indeed formed a coalition with Hertzog's National Party in opposition to Smuts in 1924.
This subsequently led to a split within Labour after Walter Madeley, a Labour Minister, received a delegation from an unrecognised trade union which had black members. He was sacked. The majority faction left the Government while a minority including the Labour Party leader Frederic Cresswell stayed on. Cresswell's group were eventually effectively absorbed into the Nationalist Party.
Madeley took over leadership and eventually after a merger and demerger between The South Africa Party (now called United Party) and the Nationalists, found himself in coalition with the United Party under Jan Smuts as Minister of Labour. John Christie followed Madeley as leader of the Labour Party as the Nationalists consolidated themselves as the party of Government. On the death of Christie, Alex Hepple took over and began to pursue policies more associated with democratic socialism. This included making contacts with Black leaders and opposing apartheid. This effectively destroyed Labour and all their seats were lost in 1958. Hepple eventually moved to the UK. His son Bob Hepple was part of Nelson Mandela's defence team in 1962.
South African Labour suffered the same fate as Democrats in the US Deep South. Doing the honourable thing does not mean election all rewards.
