Pietersburg (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Pietersburg
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Pietersburg within South Africa (1981)
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	22,800 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1920
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	W. J. Snyman (CP)
Replaced by	Limpopo

Pietersburg was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1920 to 1994. Named after the town of Pietersburg (now Polokwane), it covered a rural area in the northern 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, Pietersburg had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. For most of its history, it was a stronghold of the National Party, and for the first forty years of its existence, it was represented by a single MP - Tom Naudé, who was first elected on the seat's creation in 1920 and only left on his elevation to the Senate in 1960. During his time in the lower house, he served as Chief Whip, Speaker, and finally as a cabinet minister in all Nationalist governments from 1950 until 1961. He finished his career as President of the Senate, in which role he acted as State President following the death of State President-elect Eben Dönges in 1967.

Following Naudé's retirement, Pietersburg stayed a loyal Nationalist seat, but in 1982, its MP, Willem Jacobus Snyman, joined Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party, and was re-elected under that label at every subsequent election until the fall of apartheid.

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