Parliamentary delimitation in South Africa, 1910-1980¶
A. J. Christopher (1983). Parliamentary delimitation in South Africa, 1910-1980. Political Geography Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 3. Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | descriptive quantitative |
| Period studied | 1910–1980 |
| Regions | South Africa, Cape Province, Transvaal, Natal, Orange Free State |
| Themes | politics ideology elections, origins segregation, demography urbanisation |
| Citation key | christopher1983a |
Argument¶
Christopher examines the 14 delimitation commissions (1910-1980) that drew South African House of Assembly constituencies, testing Gudgin and Taylor's charge that they made 'a mockery of democracy'. Provincial seat allocation and a permitted 15 per cent deviation (30 per cent for Special Electoral Divisions since 1966) built in a rural-over-urban bias that favoured the Afrikaans-speaking, rurally based National Party. The commissions often treated permitted deviations as injunctions to deviate, and Parliament later pegged provincial quotas. He concludes that territorial bias was real but limited, and that the main cause of unequal electoral contests was the language- and race-based nature of white politics, not the commissions.
Evidence and method¶
Delimitation Commission reports 1910-1980, the South Africa Act 1909 and the 1961 Republic constitution, parliamentary debates and select committee reports, census and voter-registration figures, the 1960 republic referendum results, and the electoral literature (Heard, Schoeman, Lemon). Presented in descriptive tables and figures.
Place in the debates¶
- Whether delimitation commissions gerrymandered South African elections (Gudgin and Taylor's 'mockery of democracy') (see White electoral politics, delimitation and party systems). Partly agrees: the rural unloading and urban loading gave a persistent bias to a rural-based party, but he argues the bias was limited and the commissions were relatively unimportant compared with language- and race-based politics.
Findings¶
-
The white electorate became entirely white by 1966, after Black and Coloured voters were removed from the common roll. (p. 2)
In 1936 Black voters were taken off the common roll and in 1956 Coloured voters in the Cape Province were removed, leaving a virtually all-White electorate.
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Initial apportionment disadvantaged the Cape, which was under-represented until 1932. (p. 5)
Until the latter date the Cape was under-represented by from four to seven seats and Natal over-represented by from one to six seats
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Post-1961 rules reversed the pattern by favouring sparsely populated regions, through Special Electoral Divisions allowing 30 per cent unloading. (p. 6)
Special Electoral Divisions which were defined as extensive constituencies of over 25 000 km*, where the electorate could be unloaded by 30 per cent from the provincial average number of voters per constituency.
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By pegging seats to the 1974 delimitation, the Transvaal was under-represented in 1980. (p. 6)
Thus the Transvaal, which at the latter date was entitled, on the basis of registered voters, to 84 seats or over half the membership of the Assembly, was awarded only 76 seats
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Commissioners often treated permitted deviations as targets, producing clustering of constituency sizes at the extremes. (p. 7)
the permitted deviations have often been taken as injunctions to achieve such a deviation from quotas
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The share of seats deviating by more than 10 per cent from provincial quotas rose sharply over time. (p. 9)
Thus in 1923 only 6.7 per cent of seats differed in size by more than 10 per cent from their respective provincial quotas. In 1953 the figure had risen to 46.7 per cent
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Loading and unloading benefited a rural-based party; the National Party won in 1948 and 1953 on a minority of votes. (p. 10)
The National Party was able to win elections in 1948 and 1953 on a minority of votes, and the same is possibly true of the 1958 election
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In the 1960 republic referendum, a narrow popular majority translated into a much larger share of constituencies. (p. 10)
with a 52.1 per cent vote in South Africa in favour of the establishment of a republic (Schoeman, 1977). If the votes are translated into constituency terms then 65.3 per cent of constituencies would have returned republican
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Homeland 'independence' forced redrawing of constituency boundaries and removal of the homelands from the electoral map. (p. 11)
Constituency boundaries were redrawn to coincide with the independent Black state boundaries and the states themselves were excised from the South African electoral map
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Delimitation contributed to imbalance, but race- and language-based politics was the major cause of disparities. (p. 12)
the Delimitation Commissions contributed to an imbalance in parliamentary representation, but that the peculiar nature of politics in the country, which is based not on economic or social grounds, but predominantly on language and race
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delimitation Commission Reports 1910-1980 (First to Fourteenth Commissions) | commission or official report | 1910-1980 | Source of seats per province, number of voters, average voters per seat and coefficient of variation in Table 1, and of Commissioners' statements on loading/unloading and the criteria applied. |
| South Africa Act 1909 (as published by Transvaal, TG 14-1910) and the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act 1961 | legislation gazette | 1909-1961 | Establishes the legal basis, criteria and apportionment rules governing delimitation. |
| Constitution and Elections Amendment Act of 1973 and Report of the Select Committee on the Constitution and Elections Amendment Bill, SG 5-1973 | legislation gazette | 1973 | Shows that parliament pegged the House size and provincial seat allocation, leaving the Transvaal under-represented in 1980. |
| Constitution Amendment Act of 1965 | legislation gazette | 1965 | Instructed Commissioners to create Special Electoral Divisions with up to 30 per cent unloading. |
| Population censuses 1904, 1911, 1946, 1951 (White adult male population counts) | population census | 1904-1951 | 1904 census adult White males used as initial apportionment basis; Cape's loss of White males 1904-1911 explains under-representation; Afrikaans urban majority between 1946 and 1951. |
| Cape of Good Hope 1883 Comparative statistics on representation and Report of the Redistribution of Seats Commission 1897-8 (G.8-1898) | commission or official report | 1883-1898 | Shows colonial criteria for constituency delimitation and recognition that rural areas required over-representation. |
| Report of the Parliamentary Redistribution and Electoral Reform Commission, 1907 (Natal Government Gazette No. 3627) | commission or official report | 1907 | Evidence that the principle of rural unloading was accepted in Natal before Union. |
| Assembly Debates, Vol. 8 (1980) | parliamentary debates | 1980 | Documents rejection of parliamentary proposals to reduce the range of constituency sizes or equalise them. |
| 1960 Republic Referendum results (compiled in Schoeman 1977, Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976) | election returns | 1960 | Only complete national voting set, used to estimate how many constituencies would return republican candidates versus the vote share. |
| Heard, General Elections in South Africa 1943-1970 | secondary literature compilation | 1943-1970 | Cited for uncontested safe seats confusing whether the National Party won 1958 on a minority of votes. |
New data¶
Table 1 compiles delimitation statistics (seats by province, voters, average per seat, coefficient of variation) for the 14 delimitations 1910-1980, and figures show constituency size deviations from the quota, drawn from Commission reports.
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Descriptive historical analysis of the statutory rules and successive Commission reports, with a tabulated time series of seats and electorate sizes, comparison across provinces and Commissions, and a comparison of the 1960 referendum vote with the constituency-level result to gauge bias.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Initial apportionment on the 1904 census and the Cape's loss of White males left the Cape under-represented and Natal over-represented until 1932. (p. 5) | Table 1 and Table 2 from Delimitation Commission reports and the 1904/1911 censuses. | Systematic data |
| After 1961 parliament deliberately reintroduced malapportionment (Special Electoral Divisions, pegging of seats), over-representing the Cape and under-representing the Transvaal. (p. 6) | Constitution Amendment Act 1965, 1973 Act, and Commission reports for 1966-1980. | Systematic data |
| Commissioners often treated permitted deviations as injunctions, producing loading of urban and unloading of rural seats, with the share of seats deviating over 10 per cent rising from 6.7 per cent (1923) to 56.9 per cent (1966). (p. 9) | Delimitation Commission reports and constituency size distributions. | Systematic data |
| Loading/unloading advantaged the rural-based National Party, which won 1948 and 1953 on a minority of votes; the 1960 referendum gave a 52.1 per cent republican vote but 65.3 per cent of constituencies. (p. 10) | Schoeman 1977 referendum figures translated into constituency terms; Lemon and Heard for earlier elections. | Partial data |
| Territorial bias exists but is limited; the major cause of unequal contests is the language and race basis of South African politics rather than the Commissions. (p. 12) | Interpretive synthesis of Commission criteria and electoral history; no direct counterfactual. | Asserted |
| Non-density criteria (community of interest, communications, existing boundaries) were secondary and applied inconsistently, with usually less than one-tenth of constituencies surviving a delimitation unchanged. (p. 11) | Commission reports of 1919, 1948, 1953, 1980 quoted as illustrations. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Coloured and Black voters on the common roll were of limited influence as they rarely formed more than one-fifth of any constituency electorate. (p. 12) | Asserted from franchise history; no cited data. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
Notes that before 1958 the apportionment figures did not correspond to the actual electorate, and that the 1960 referendum is the only complete national voting set; uncontested seats confuse inference from general elections.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument that bias is limited lacks a quantitative seats-votes or counterfactual simulation, e.g. recomputing election outcomes under equal-sized constituencies using constituency-level results, which existed in election returns. Racial composition of constituency rolls (Coloured and African voters) is asserted rather than tabulated. Linking language-group residential data from censuses to constituencies would test the claim that politics rather than delimitation drove disparities.
Replicability: Data described but not public.