Report of the Twelfth Delimitation Commission (Verslag van die Twaalfde Afbakeningskommissie), with Proclamation No. 36 of 1966¶
Potgieter, H. J.; Ollie, P. M.; De Wet, H. F. (1966). Report of the Twelfth Delimitation Commission (Verslag van die Twaalfde Afbakeningskommissie), with Proclamation No. 36 of 1966. Government Gazette Extraordinary, Vol. 19, No. 1364 (Buitengewone Staatskoerant), 7 February 1966. Government Printer, Pretoria.
| Type | primary source |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | primary document |
| Period studied | 1957–1965 |
| Regions | South Africa, Cape Province, Transvaal, Natal, Orange Free State, Transkei, Witwatersrand |
| Themes | politics ideology elections, demography urbanisation, bantustans removals influx, mining migrant labour, agriculture land |
| Citation key | potgieter1966 |
Argument¶
This official bilingual report records the 1965 redrawing of the 160 white parliamentary constituencies (up from 150) and of the Cape Coloured constituencies. It sets a single Republic-wide quota of White voters and permits departures of up to 15 per cent, with a larger permitted 'unload' for constituencies of 10,000 sq miles or more. Loading is applied to dense urban areas and unloading to sparse rural ones, and this shapes where seats are placed. New seats follow white voter growth on the Rand, in Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth, the Cape Peninsula and the Free State goldfields. The document is a source on the geography of the white franchise, not an economic analysis.
Evidence and method¶
Commission's own reasoning and numbers: voter rolls as at 1 June 1965 supplied by the Chief Electoral Officer, quota calculations, load/unload percentages per constituency, public meetings, party submissions, inspections by car and helicopter. Appendices give polling-district lists and boundary descriptions. No economic data series.
Place in the debates¶
- Weighting of rural versus urban white votes (loading and unloading) (see White electoral politics, delimitation and party systems). The Commission rejects any fixed formula. It follows previous commissions in loading dense urban areas and unloading sparse ones, and it applies the new amendment so that rapidly developing areas carry fewer voters.
Findings¶
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The Republic is divided into 160 constituencies, up from 150, and the number of seats per province is the outcome of delimitation rather than a mathematical allocation. (p. 3)
the Republic now has to be divided into one hundred and sixty electoral divisions instead of one hundred and fifty as was previously the case."} ,
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The White electorate on 1 June 1965 totalled 1,840,530, giving a Republic quota of 11,503 and a ±15% band of 9,778 to 13,228. (p. 4)
The quota of the Republic referred to in section forty-three, namely that obtained by dividing the total number of White voters by one hundred and sixty, is therefore 11,503.
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Registered White voters by province show the Transvaal and Cape dominate the white electorate. (p. 4)
Cape Province ... 596,017 Transvaal ... 875,245 Orange Free State ...... 165,454 Natal ........ 203,814 1,840,530
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Seats are allocated to follow the growth of white voters in urban and mining zones; the Transvaal gets 73 seats and the Cape 54. (p. 5)
the outcome of the delimitation as a whole showed that a satisfactory delimitation could be effected only if the Cape Province were divided into fifty-four electoral divisions and the Transvaal into seventy-three.
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Large sparsely populated Cape constituencies are deliberately unloaded, which in turn forces heavy loading of Witwatersrand urban seats. (p. 28)
as a result of using a quota for the Republic the unloads in the Cape electoral divisions which exceed 10,000 square miles are to a certain extent responsible for high loads in the urban electoral divisions of the Witwatersrand.
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The Free State goldfields received an extra seat (Virginia) because of the largest voter increase there, and the area is treated as a 'controlled area' with a community of interests. (p. 17)
your Commission therefore decided that the fifteenth electoral division should be created in the vicinity of the Free State Goldfields where the greatest increase in voters had taken place.
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Mining towns were deliberately grouped into compact mining-interest constituencies on the western Rand (Stilfontein, Carletonville), separated from rural farming seats. (p. 30)
the advantages of removing mining towns and areas from purely rural electoral divisions, of creating the compact electoral divisions of Stilfontein and Carletonville with mining interests
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Rural white voter numbers lagged urban growth, so the Cape platteland was depopulated of white voters and would have lost seats absent the constitutional change. (p. 9)
the Cape Province would have lost electoral divisions as has been the case since the seventh delimitation because the numbers of voters on the platteland has not increased at the same rate as in the cities.
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Heavily overloaded urban seats existed before redrawing, with Pretoria East 77.1% and Vanderbijlpark 65% above quota, evidencing rapid white urban-industrial growth. (p. 35)
Pretoria East was the most heavily loaded electoral division in the Republic (77·1 per cent).
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Coloured voters in the Cape were delimited separately: 30,086 registered voters in four House of Assembly seats with a quota of 7,521. (p. 8)
there were 30,086 persons registered in the Cape Coloured voters' list as at 1st June, 1965
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered White voters' lists as at 1 June 1965, furnished by the Chief Electoral Officer | official statistical series | 1 June 1965 | Establishes the national total of 1,840,530 White voters and the quota of 11,503 (max 13,228, min 9,778) on which all divisions are delimited. |
| Certificate of the Secretary for the Interior on the Cape Coloured voters' list | official statistical series | 1 June 1965 | Gives 30,086 registered Coloured voters and the division counts (Boland, Karoo, Outeniqua, Peninsula) that set the Coloured quota of 7,521. |
| Republic of South Africa Constitution Act No. 32 of 1961, ss. 42-44, as amended by Act No. 85 of 1965 | legislation gazette | 1961-1965 | Supplies the legal rules: 160 divisions, Republic-wide quota, 15% loading/unloading limit, seven factors, and the 10,000 sq mile proviso. |
| Separate Representation of Voters Act No. 46 of 1951, s. 6, as amended | legislation gazette | 1951-1965 | Mandates delimiting four Coloured House of Assembly and two Provincial Council divisions on the Coloured voters' list within a 15% margin. |
| Reports of previous Delimitation Commissions (Tenth 1953?, Eleventh 1957) and 1957 voter figures | commission or official report | 1957 | Provides the baseline for comparison: 1957 boundaries retained in ten divisions, and voter growth (OFS 136,556 to 165,454; Natal 160,408 to 203,814). |
| Polling district and block voter registers, as basis for per-division counts | official statistical series | 1965 | Supplies the voter numbers moved between divisions (e.g. 1,417 voters from Bergvliet to Constantia) and resulting load/unload percentages. |
| Maps and boundary descriptions prepared by the Surveyors-General (Appendices 2 and 3) | maps spatial data | 1965-66 | Certifies the exact boundary descriptions and maps of every electoral division. |
| Representations and submissions by political parties at public meetings (Pretoria 27 July 1965 to Bloemfontein 30 Nov 1965; further meetings at Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London) | interviews oral history | July-November 1965 | Evidence on community of interest and competing proposals (e.g. Potgietersrus, Cradock-Fort Beaufort naming, Transvaal 73 versus 74 seats). |
| Commission's inspection tours (motor and helicopter) and field visits | author survey or fieldwork | 1965 | Provides first-hand observation of geography, development and communications to judge boundaries and community of interests. |
| Interview at Umtata with the Secretary for the Interior of the Transkeian Government | interviews oral history | 1965 | Used to reject the proposal to put the whole proclaimed Transkei in one division, since many towns lie outside the proclaimed area. |
| Natural Resources Development Council declarations of Controlled Areas Nos. 1 and 5 (Orange Free State) | commission or official report | pre-1965 | Used to justify community of interests and creation of Virginia as the 15th Free State seat. |
| Previous delimitation commissions' reports for South West Africa (Walvis Bay/islands) and South-West Africa Affairs Amendment Act 1949 | legislation gazette | 1949-1965 | Sets the legal basis for assigning the Lüderitz islands (17 voters) to Green Point and recommending an amendment. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Administrative legal determination: the Commission applies the statutory quota (voters per 160 seats) with 15% tolerance and seven statutory factors, and justifies each boundary change division by division with voter counts, loads/unloads, and maps, informed by party representations and site inspections.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The Republic quota is 11,503 White voters per seat (1,840,530 voters / 160), with permitted range 9,778-13,228, and 8,052 for divisions of 10,000 sq miles or more. (p. 4) | Chief Electoral Officer voter totals by province at 1 June 1965, divided by 160 under s.43. | Systematic data |
| A Republic-wide quota, with seven statutory factors, yields 54 Cape, 73 Transvaal, 15 Free State and 18 Natal seats; Cape rural unloading in large divisions contributes to heavy loading of Witwatersrand urban seats. (p. 28) | Voter totals by province and the Commission's weighing of party schemes; the Cape/Transvaal allocation is a judgment from the whole delimitation. | Partial data |
| Voter growth since 1957 was concentrated in urban complexes and goldfields (Free State up by 28,898 to 165,454; Natal from 160,408 to 203,814), justifying new seats in Bloemfontein, Virginia, Durban and Pietermaritzburg. (p. 23) | Comparison of 1957 and 1965 registered voter totals and polling-district counts. | Systematic data |
| Platteland voter rolls have stagnated or declined relative to cities, so the Cape would have lost seats absent the constitutional amendment. (p. 9) | Commission's reading of voter rolls; no tabulated rural versus urban series given. | Asserted |
| Large rural divisions are unloaded heavily (e.g. Namaqualand 35,703 sq miles at 26.6% unload; Prieska 25.9%; Transkei 26.2%), and a new large division (De Aar) was created. (p. 16) | Voter counts and areas per division from polling district data. | Systematic data |
| Coloured Cape divisions were delimited around a 7,521 quota with Peninsula loaded 14.2% and Boland 4.4%, Karoo made up from Outeniqua's western area. (p. 8) | Secretary for the Interior certificate of 30,086 Coloured registered voters; division counts. | Systematic data |
| The Commission rejected any fixed formula for loading and unloading, treating no statutory factor as more important than another. (p. 3) | The Commission's interpretation of the Act and party submissions at public meetings. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The Commission notes that registration rises since 1 June 1965 could not alone prove probable population growth, since they may reflect party organisers' diligence. It also remarks that voters on the Lüderitz islands could not be counted because they were not registered in the Republic on 1 June 1965.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The report counts only registered White (and Cape Coloured) voters, so total population, African and Indian residents, and economic activity are absent. The 'probability of increase or decrease of population' and 'community of interests' judgments rest on inspections and party claims rather than published projections. Census and municipal growth data existed then and could have tested the growth rationale. The underlying polling-district registers and party submissions are not reproduced.
Replicability: Data described but not public.