South African general election, 1948
Encyclopedia
The parliamentary election in South Africa
on 26 May 1948 represented a turning point in the country's history. The United Party
, which had led the government since its foundation in 1933 and its leader, incumbent Prime Minister
Jan Smuts
was ousted by the Reunited National Party
(Herenigde Nasionale Party in Afrikaans
), led by Daniel Francois Malan
, a Dutch Reformed
cleric. During the election battle, both the UP and the NP formed coalitions with smaller parties. The UP was aligned with the left-leaning Labour Party
, while the Afrikaner Party
sought to advance Afrikaner rights by allying with the HNP. Due to legislation relating to franchise requirements, very few people of Coloured and Asian descent were able to vote in this election, whereas Africans were banned altogether since the late 1930s, with the limited number of Africans meeting qualifications electing four "own" white MPs separately.
The HNP, realizing that many White South Africans felt threatened by black political aspirations, pledged to implement a policy of strict racial segregation in all spheres of living if victorious. The Nationalists labelled this new system of government 'apartheid', the name by which it became universally - and infamously - known.
In contrast to this consistent, straightforward platform, the UP supported vague notions of slowly integrating the different racial groups in SA. Furthermore, white dissatisfaction with domestic and economic problems in South Africa after World War II, the NP's superior organization and gerrymandering all proved to be significant challenges to the UP campaign.
against a combined total of 74 won by the UP and the Labour Party. The Nationalist coalition subsequently formed a new government and ushered in the era of formal, legally-binding apartheid. In 1951, they merged to form the National Party (NP). On April 27, 1994, the African National Congress
won South Africa’s first fully democratic elections and ousted the NP from government, ending 46 years of consecutive NP rule.
while the Sauer Commission
informed the NP's stance.
The putative policy of apartheid proposed by the NP served the economic interests of certain groups of white South Africans. Farmers from the northern portions of the country relied on cheap black labour to maximize profits while working class whites living in urban areas feared the employment competition that would follow an urban influx of black South Africans. Many commercial and financial Afrikaner interests based on agriculture saw the value of apartheid in promoting growth in this sector. The UP failed to realize the enormous economic benefits of apartheid to these large and influential groups and did not prioritize segregation as much as the NP.
In terms of election tactics, the NP was extremely adroit at exploiting white fears while campaigning in the 1948 election. Because the UP had seemed to take a fairly lukewarm stance towards both integration and segregation, the NP was able to argue that a victory for the UP would ultimately lead to a black government in South Africa. NP propaganda linked black political power to Communism, an anathema to many white South Africans at the time. Slogans such as 'Swart Gevaar' (Black Peril ), 'Rooi Gevaar' ("Red Peril"),'Die kaffer
op sy plek' ("The Kaffir in his place") and 'Die koelies
uit die land' ("The coolies out of the country") played upon and amplified white anxieties. Much was made of the fact that Smuts had developed a good working relationship with Joseph Stalin during World War II, when South Africa and the USSR were allies in the fight against Nazi Germany. Smuts had once remarked that he "doffs his cap to Stalin" and the NP presented this remark as proof of Smuts’s latent Communist tendencies.
The Smuts government's controversial immigration programme served to further inflame Afrikaner disquiet. Under this programme numerous British immigrants had moved to South Africa and were perceived to have taken homes and employment away from (white) South African citizens. Moreover, it was claimed that the intention behind such plans was to swamp the Afrikaners, who had a higher birth rate than English South Africans, with British immigrants so that Afrikaners could be outnumbered at the polls in future elections.
In preparation for the 1948 election, the NP moderated its stance on republicanism. Because of the immense and abiding national trauma caused by the Anglo-Boer War, transforming South Africa into a republic and dissolving all ties between South Africa and the United Kingdom had been an important mission for earlier incarnations of the NP. English speaking South Africans tended to favour a close relationship with the UK and so the republican project became a source of conflict between the two largest white groups in South Africa. A staunchly pro-republic stance alienated moderate Afrikaners who had supported South Africa's participation in World War II and wished to achieve reconciliation between their own people and English speakers. When the NP agreed to compromise its fiercely republican standpoint, conceding that South Africa should remain a dominion
within the Commonwealth
, many Afrikaner UP supporters switched allegiance.
Demarcation of electoral district boundaries favoured the NP. Most of the 70 seats won by the National Party during the 1948 election were in rural areas, while most of the 65 seats won by the United Party were in the urban areas. According to the Constitution that South Africa had at the time, the constituencies in the rural areas were smaller than those in urban areas. This meant that there were more rural constituencies than urban ones. This was to the benefit of the National Party, since it tended to do well in rural areas in terms of votes. Despite winning 140 000 fewer votes than the UP, the NP/ Afrikaner Party coalition gained the plurality of seats in Parliament. It has been calculated that if rural and urban votes had been of equal value, Smuts would have won 80 seats, Malan 60 seats, and other parties the remainder seats, thus giving the United Party a majority.
Smuts and his cabinet were blamed for many of the hardships that occurred as a result of South Africa's participation in World War II. Shortages of meat, the unavailability of white bread, the rate of inflation and the government's dismal housing record all provided ammunition for the NP.
The UP at the time has been characterized as cumbersome and lacking vigour while the NP displayed energy and superior organizational skills. The Second World War had a bonding effect on the UP and white South Africans generally. Once this external uniting force fell away, Smuts lost a great deal of control over the UP as more and more voters considered alternatives to his tired regime;humiliatingly, the Prime Minister lost his parliamentary seat (Standerton) to a NP challenger. As can be seen from the final tally of seats, Smuts and his party proved unable to counter the many grievances raised by the NP in an effective way, and this inability lead to a narrow NP victory.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
on 26 May 1948 represented a turning point in the country's history. The United Party
United Party (South Africa)
The United Party was South Africa's ruling political party between 1934 and 1948. It was formed by a merger of most of Prime Minister Barry Hertzog's National Party with the rival South African Party of Jan Smuts, plus the remnants of the Unionist Party...
, which had led the government since its foundation in 1933 and its leader, incumbent Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Jan Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
was ousted by the Reunited National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
(Herenigde Nasionale Party in Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
), led by Daniel Francois Malan
Daniel François Malan
Daniel François Malan , more commonly known as D.F. Malan, was the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. He is seen as a champion of Afrikaner nationalism. His National Party government came to power on the program of apartheid and began its comprehensive implementation.- Biography...
, a Dutch Reformed
Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk
The Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighboring countries, such as Namibia, Swaziland, and parts of Botswana and Zimbabwe...
cleric. During the election battle, both the UP and the NP formed coalitions with smaller parties. The UP was aligned with the left-leaning Labour Party
Labour Party (South Africa)
The South African Labour Party, formed in March 1910 following discussions between trade unions and the Independent Labour Party of Transvaal, was a professedly democratic socialist party representing the interests of the white working class.-History:...
, while the Afrikaner Party
Afrikaner Party
The Afrikaner Party was a South African political party from 1941 to 1951.-Origins:The roots of the party can be traced back September 1939, when South Africa declared war on Germany at the start of World War II. General J.B.M...
sought to advance Afrikaner rights by allying with the HNP. Due to legislation relating to franchise requirements, very few people of Coloured and Asian descent were able to vote in this election, whereas Africans were banned altogether since the late 1930s, with the limited number of Africans meeting qualifications electing four "own" white MPs separately.
The HNP, realizing that many White South Africans felt threatened by black political aspirations, pledged to implement a policy of strict racial segregation in all spheres of living if victorious. The Nationalists labelled this new system of government 'apartheid', the name by which it became universally - and infamously - known.
In contrast to this consistent, straightforward platform, the UP supported vague notions of slowly integrating the different racial groups in SA. Furthermore, white dissatisfaction with domestic and economic problems in South Africa after World War II, the NP's superior organization and gerrymandering all proved to be significant challenges to the UP campaign.
Results
Together, the HNP and the Afrikaner Party won seventy-nine seats in the House of AssemblyHouse of Assembly of South Africa
The House of Assembly was the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa from 1910 to 1984, and latterly the white representative house of the Tricameral Parliament from 1984 to 1994, when it was replaced by the current National Assembly...
against a combined total of 74 won by the UP and the Labour Party. The Nationalist coalition subsequently formed a new government and ushered in the era of formal, legally-binding apartheid. In 1951, they merged to form the National Party (NP). On April 27, 1994, the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
won South Africa’s first fully democratic elections and ousted the NP from government, ending 46 years of consecutive NP rule.
| Party | Votes | %Votes | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herenigde Nasionale Party Herenigde Nasionale Party The Herenigde Nasionale Party was a political party in South Africa during the 1940s. It was the product of the reunion of Daniel François Malan's Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party and J.B.M. Hertzog's breakaway Afrikaner nationalist faction of the United Party in 1940.In 1934, J.B.M... |
401,834 | 37.70% | 70 | |
| Afrikaner Party Afrikaner Party The Afrikaner Party was a South African political party from 1941 to 1951.-Origins:The roots of the party can be traced back September 1939, when South Africa declared war on Germany at the start of World War II. General J.B.M... |
41,885 | 3.93% | 9 | |
| Herenigde Nasionale Party Herenigde Nasionale Party The Herenigde Nasionale Party was a political party in South Africa during the 1940s. It was the product of the reunion of Daniel François Malan's Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party and J.B.M. Hertzog's breakaway Afrikaner nationalist faction of the United Party in 1940.In 1934, J.B.M... -Afrikaner Party Afrikaner Party The Afrikaner Party was a South African political party from 1941 to 1951.-Origins:The roots of the party can be traced back September 1939, when South Africa declared war on Germany at the start of World War II. General J.B.M... Coalition |
443,719 | 41.63% | 79 | |
| United Party United Party (South Africa) The United Party was South Africa's ruling political party between 1934 and 1948. It was formed by a merger of most of Prime Minister Barry Hertzog's National Party with the rival South African Party of Jan Smuts, plus the remnants of the Unionist Party... |
524,230 | 49.18% | 65 | |
| South African Labour Party | 27,360 | 2.57% | 6 | |
| Independents | 70,662 | 6.63% | 3 | |
| Total valid | 1,065,971 | 100.00% | 153 | |
| Spoilt votes | 7,393 | |||
| Total votes | 1,065,971 | 80.2% | ||
Reasons for the National party victory
One of the central issues facing the white electorate in the 1948 election was that of race. The United Party (UP) and the National Party (NP) presented voters with differing answers to questions relating to racial integration in SA. Smuts and his followers were in favour of a pragmatic approach, arguing that racial integration was inevitable and that the government should thus relax regulations which sought to prevent black people moving into urban areas. While still seeking to maintain white dominance, the UP argued in favour of gradually reforming the political system so that black South Africans could eventually, at some unspecified point in the future, exercise some sort of power in a racially integrated South Africa. In contrast to this seemingly vague ideology, the NP advanced the notion of further, strictly enforced segregation between races and the total disempowerment of black South Africans. Rural to urban movement by blacks was to be discouraged. The UP position was supported by the Fagan CommissionFagan Commission
The Native Laws Commission, commonly known as the Fagan Commission, was appointed by the government of South Africa in 1946 to investigate changes to the system of segregation....
while the Sauer Commission
Sauer Commission
The Sauer Commission , was created in 1947 largely in response to the Fagan Commission. It was appointed by the Herenigde Nasionale Party and favoured even stricter segregation laws....
informed the NP's stance.
The putative policy of apartheid proposed by the NP served the economic interests of certain groups of white South Africans. Farmers from the northern portions of the country relied on cheap black labour to maximize profits while working class whites living in urban areas feared the employment competition that would follow an urban influx of black South Africans. Many commercial and financial Afrikaner interests based on agriculture saw the value of apartheid in promoting growth in this sector. The UP failed to realize the enormous economic benefits of apartheid to these large and influential groups and did not prioritize segregation as much as the NP.
In terms of election tactics, the NP was extremely adroit at exploiting white fears while campaigning in the 1948 election. Because the UP had seemed to take a fairly lukewarm stance towards both integration and segregation, the NP was able to argue that a victory for the UP would ultimately lead to a black government in South Africa. NP propaganda linked black political power to Communism, an anathema to many white South Africans at the time. Slogans such as 'Swart Gevaar' (Black Peril ), 'Rooi Gevaar' ("Red Peril"),'Die kaffer
Kaffir (racial term)
The word kaffir, sometimes spelled kaffer or kafir, is an offensive term for a black person, most common in South Africa and other African countries...
op sy plek' ("The Kaffir in his place") and 'Die koelies
Coolie
Historically, a coolie was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century...
uit die land' ("The coolies out of the country") played upon and amplified white anxieties. Much was made of the fact that Smuts had developed a good working relationship with Joseph Stalin during World War II, when South Africa and the USSR were allies in the fight against Nazi Germany. Smuts had once remarked that he "doffs his cap to Stalin" and the NP presented this remark as proof of Smuts’s latent Communist tendencies.
The Smuts government's controversial immigration programme served to further inflame Afrikaner disquiet. Under this programme numerous British immigrants had moved to South Africa and were perceived to have taken homes and employment away from (white) South African citizens. Moreover, it was claimed that the intention behind such plans was to swamp the Afrikaners, who had a higher birth rate than English South Africans, with British immigrants so that Afrikaners could be outnumbered at the polls in future elections.
In preparation for the 1948 election, the NP moderated its stance on republicanism. Because of the immense and abiding national trauma caused by the Anglo-Boer War, transforming South Africa into a republic and dissolving all ties between South Africa and the United Kingdom had been an important mission for earlier incarnations of the NP. English speaking South Africans tended to favour a close relationship with the UK and so the republican project became a source of conflict between the two largest white groups in South Africa. A staunchly pro-republic stance alienated moderate Afrikaners who had supported South Africa's participation in World War II and wished to achieve reconciliation between their own people and English speakers. When the NP agreed to compromise its fiercely republican standpoint, conceding that South Africa should remain a dominion
Commonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
within the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
, many Afrikaner UP supporters switched allegiance.
Demarcation of electoral district boundaries favoured the NP. Most of the 70 seats won by the National Party during the 1948 election were in rural areas, while most of the 65 seats won by the United Party were in the urban areas. According to the Constitution that South Africa had at the time, the constituencies in the rural areas were smaller than those in urban areas. This meant that there were more rural constituencies than urban ones. This was to the benefit of the National Party, since it tended to do well in rural areas in terms of votes. Despite winning 140 000 fewer votes than the UP, the NP/ Afrikaner Party coalition gained the plurality of seats in Parliament. It has been calculated that if rural and urban votes had been of equal value, Smuts would have won 80 seats, Malan 60 seats, and other parties the remainder seats, thus giving the United Party a majority.
Smuts and his cabinet were blamed for many of the hardships that occurred as a result of South Africa's participation in World War II. Shortages of meat, the unavailability of white bread, the rate of inflation and the government's dismal housing record all provided ammunition for the NP.
The UP at the time has been characterized as cumbersome and lacking vigour while the NP displayed energy and superior organizational skills. The Second World War had a bonding effect on the UP and white South Africans generally. Once this external uniting force fell away, Smuts lost a great deal of control over the UP as more and more voters considered alternatives to his tired regime;humiliatingly, the Prime Minister lost his parliamentary seat (Standerton) to a NP challenger. As can be seen from the final tally of seats, Smuts and his party proved unable to counter the many grievances raised by the NP in an effective way, and this inability lead to a narrow NP victory.