Ficksburg (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Ficksburg was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1929. Named after the town of Ficksburg, the seat covered a rural area in the southeast of the province, along the border with Lesotho. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly.

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 Orange River Colony, and its predecessor the Orange Free State, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Orange Free State 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]

Ficksburg, like most of the Orange Free State, was a highly conservative seat throughout its existence and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was held throughout its existence by Jan Gerhard Keyter, who initially represented the provincial Orangia Unie party, but joined the National Party when J. B. M. Hertzog founded it in 1914. The constituency was very safe for the NP, as were most rural Free State seats, but unlike some of them, it never went unopposed. It was abolished in 1929, at which point Keyter retired from parliament.

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