Heidelberg (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Heidelberg was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1974. Named after the town of Heidelberg, it covered a rural area in the southern Transvaal. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Transvaal Provincial Council.

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, Heidelberg had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. It was a marginal seat early in its history, but as with most of rural South Africa, it became more and more safe for the National Party over time. Its most famous MP by far, representing the seat from 1958 until his assassination in 1966, was Hendrik Verwoerd, "architect of apartheid" and Prime Minister for nearly his entire time in parliament. His replacement, Willem Lodewicus van der Merwe, only represented Heidelberg for two terms before it was abolished, moving to the new seat of Meyerton in 1974.

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