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Report of the Ninth Delimitation Commission (Verslag van die Negende Afbakeningskommissie), with Proclamation No. 18 of 1948

Literature › Works

Murray, John M.; De Villiers, J. E.; De Wet, J. C. (1948). Report of the Ninth Delimitation Commission (Verslag van die Negende Afbakeningskommissie), with Proclamation No. 18 of 1948. Government Gazette Extraordinary / Buitengewone Staatskoerant of the Union of South Africa, Vol. CLII, No. 3931, 13 February 1948. Government Printer, Pretoria.
Type primary source
Scope Wider apartheid literature
Method primary document
Period studied 1946–1948
Regions Union of South Africa, Transvaal, Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State
Themes politics ideology elections, demography urbanisation, agriculture land, origins segregation, business and state
Citation key murray1948

Argument

The Commission reallocates the 150 white House of Assembly seats among the four provinces on the 1946 census count of European adult Union nationals and redraws constituencies from the 1947 voters' lists. Seat numbers are fixed by arithmetic. Within each province the Commission uses its statutory 15 per cent load/unload discretion, weighing community of interest, communications, physical features, existing boundaries and density of population. It rejects any 'right' of rural seats to a maximum unload, yet in practice loads the cities and unloads the countryside. The Transvaal gains two seats, one for the Pretoria urban area and one for the Witwatersrand, at the expense of the Cape and the Orange Free State. Constituency changes are justified mainly by rural depopulation relative to urban growth. The report is a technical administrative record of the electoral geography on the eve of the 1948 election. It contains no economic analysis.

Evidence and method

Census certificate of European adult Union nationals (May 1946 census); current voters' lists as amended to May 1947; public hearings and submissions from political parties; site visits; comparative practice in Canada, New Zealand and Australia; appended boundary descriptions and maps.

Place in the debates

  • Rural over-representation (load and unload) in delimitation (see White electoral politics, delimitation and party systems). The Commission rejects the claim that rural seats are 'as of right' entitled to a substantial unload up to the maximum at the expense of urban seats. Loading and unloading is a discretionary tool, but in practice it keeps a systematic rural unload and urban load.
  • Treatment of Cape Coloured voters in the provincial quota (see White electoral politics, delimitation and party systems). It notes that Coloured voters, though excluded from the apportionment of the 150 seats, count in the Cape's per-division quota, raising that quota. It declines to recommend legislative change as outside its terms of reference.

Findings

  • Census count of white adult Union nationals by province, the basis of seat allocation (p. 4)

    Cape Province ... ... ... . .. 602,068 Natal,., .,. ...... ,., .. . 142,367 Transvaal ... ... ... . .. ' ... 595,(il8 Orange Free State , .. 115,277 TOTAL ..•.....•... ...... 1,355,330

  • Seat allocation: Transvaal gains two seats at the expense of the Cape and the Orange Free State (p. 4)

    allotment to the Cape Province of 55 seatR in the Hous.e of Assembly, to Natal 16 seats, to the 'l'ransvaal ()6 seats and the Oraug'e Free State 13 seats.

  • Cape quota is higher because of Coloured male voters, who count in the divisional quota but not in the provincial seat apportionment (p. 6)

    a large number of non-European male ('oloured yoter;;; is registered in the Cape Provinee· (there being' none at all in the 'l'ransvaal and Orange Free State mid only a neglig'ible numher in Natal)

  • Natal's census count of whites is inflated by non-Europeans classifying themselves as European, a sign of the racial boundary in the census (p. 6)

    large number of pel'sons who though in truth non-European, elaim to be European and designate themselves as such in eensus forms completed by them.

  • The Commission rejects an automatic right of rural seats to maximum unload (p. 7)

    unable to suh­s{~ribe to the gel\eral principII' suggested to them that rural seats were as of right entitled to a .~uhstantial unload, even up to the maximum

  • The load and unload system is not used in Canada, was abolished in New Zealand in 1945 and still operates in Australia (p. 8)

    the principle of discretionary loading and unloading, according to information supplied to y(,ur Commissioners, has at no tiIlle exi~ted in the Dominion of Canada.

  • Transvaal: urban load versus rural unload by area, showing the urban-rural vote weighting in practice (p. 12)

    The rural area of the Transvaal, unloaded in 1942 to an extent of approximately 13·2 per cent., now possesses an average voting strength of 7,620 for each of its twenty-five existing seats

  • The Commission explains the rising provincial quota by general growth in registered voters, not a drift of rural votes to the towns (p. 12)

  • Rural Transvaal seats lost relative voting strength, so the rural seat Zwartruggens is abolished (p. 13)

    the creation of a new constituency made up in roughly equal proportions of these purely urban and these . semi-urban or semi-rural voters;

  • Parties unanimously asked for heavy urban loads in Bloemfontein, East London and Durban so as to keep urban voters out of rural seats (p. 9)

    unusually hcavy urban loads were imposed at Bloemfontein, Easii I,ondon and Durban in cOllseguence of a unanimous expression of opinion-particIpated in by represen­tatives of all political parties

  • The Cape loses two rural seats: Prieska is abolished and the Transkeian divisions are merged, while a new urban seat is created at Parow (p. 34)

    Every (;onsideration pointed to the pro­priety of securing the necessaI'y loss of one Cape rural seat by amalgamating- these two constituencies into an essentiall~' Transkeian seat

Evidence ledger

Inference

Quantification: Descriptive tables.

Administrative arithmetic and judgment: provincial seats allocated by census proportion, quotas computed from voters' lists, then division-by-division comparison of 1942 and 1947 loads/unloads, with discretionary adjustments justified by community of interest and party and local representations.

Key claims

Claim Basis Strength
Voting strength growth since 1942 was concentrated in urban areas (Pretoria 20.9% above quota, Witwatersrand 11.9%) while Transvaal rural seats fell to 13.1% below quota. (p. 12) Voters' lists compared with 1942 loads and unloads, tabulated division by division. Systematic data
Loads and unloads imposed: Witwatersrand average 7.1% load, Transvaal rural average 11.9% unload, Cape Peninsula 8.2% load, Natal Durban seats about 10.4% load with rural seats about 12.9% unload, Bloemfontein seats 12.4% and 10.5% loads. (p. 8) Computed from voters' lists and quota; listed seat by seat and in Appendices 4. Systematic data
Two Cape rural seats were abolished (Prieska; East Griqualand and Tembuland merged into Transkeian Territories), one OFS rural seat disappeared through the merger of Boshof and Hoopstad, and new seats were created at Parow, Edenvale, Maraisburg, Koedoespoort and Groblersdal. (p. 10) Voters' list figures per division, party submissions and hearings; Commission's decisions summarised in para 31. Partial data

The author's caveats

The Commission says it fixed the voters' lists as at May 1947 for uniformity and ignored later amendments. It notes that census returns are not corrected by officials, so the Natal gap reflects census misclassification, and that some local requests could not be met because of quota effects elsewhere. It also notes the Director of Census delay due to staff difficulties.

Gaps in the evidence

As an official administrative report, it presents no independent data on population composition, race, or economic geography beyond voter counts. Evidence on the effects of urban loading and rural unloading on representation would need disaggregated total-population and non-white population figures by division. The published 1946 census and electoral rolls exist, as do Hansard debates and party submissions, but only the voter counts are reproduced here; the hearing transcripts and party schemes are not cited in detail.

Replicability: Data described but not public.