The 1961 General Election in the Republic of South Africa
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THE 1961 GENERAL ELECTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA. by AN'l'HONY JOHN MC CONNACHIE submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the subject HISTORY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR PROF JCH GROBLER JOINT SUPERVISOR : MRS BM THERON NOVEMBER 1999. SUMMARY. On August 1, 1961, the Prime Minister, Dr HF Verwoerd, announced that a general election would be held on October 18, 1961, eighteen months prematurely. The announcement of the early election did not come as a great surprise to most of the opposition parties. Although the National Party did not greatly increase its representation in parliament, it did win nearly all its seats with increased majorities. The Progressive Party suffered a very severe reverse with the loss 0£ all but one 0£ its seats in parliament. The newly-formed National Union Party also acquitted itself very poorly in the election, winning only one parliamentary seat. The results 0£ the election helped to strengthen Verwoerd's position as leader 0£ the National Party and appeared to vindicate his decision to lead South Africa out 0£ the British Commonwealth. Key Terms South African general elections, South African politics, National Party, United Party, Progressive Party, Liberal Party, National Union Party, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, Sir de Villiers Graaf£, The republican referendum 0£ 1960, The 1961 general election in South Africa, The 1958 general election in South Africa, Statistics concerning South African general elections. 3 24.968061 Mcco 11111111111~~11111 0001760655 LIST OF CONTENTS. Title. Page. List of abbreviations List of tables Introduction (i) Chapter 1 An overview of the 1958 9eneral election 1 Chapter 2 Prelude to the 1958 general election 38 Significant developments after 1958 Chapter 3 The National Party from 1958 to 1961 78 Chapter 4 The United Party in the period leading 123 up to the 1961 general election Chapter 5 The part played by other political 156 parties from 1958 to 1961 Chapter 6 Policies of the political parties 197 prior to the 1961 general election Chapter 7 The 1961 general election 224 Chapter 8 The results of the 1961 general election 282 Chapter 9 The significance of the 1961 general 313 election List of sources 318 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. NP National Party UP United Party pp Progressive Party NUP National Union Party AP Afrikaner Party CA Central Archives, Pretoria SAL South African Library, Cape Town UCT Library of the University of Cape Town UNI SA Library of the University of South Africa, Pretoria CACT Cape Archives, Cape Town INCH Institute of Contemporary History, Bloemfontein WCL William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand LIST OF TABLES. Table 1 Ratio of Afrikaans-speaking whites to English-speaking whites in various age groups as shown by the 1951 population census. Page 154 } Table 2 A comparison of the number of "wasted votes" won by the respective parties in the general elections between 1948 and 1961. ( Page 305 } Table 3 Correlation coefficients between voter turn-out and percentage support for the UP and pp in the general elections between 1948 and 1961. I Page 307 } Table 4 A comparison of the percentage support given to the NP in various constituencies in the 1958 and 1961 general elections. Page 308 } Table 5 Distribution of the sizes of the majorities won by the National Party in the various constituencies during various general elections between 1948 and 1961. ( Page 310 } Table 6 Percentage swings away from the NP that would have been required to unseat the party after every general election between 1948 and 1961. ( Page 311 } INTRODUCTION. The 1961 general election has not received much publicity over the years possibly because it was overshadowed by the referendum of the previous year. It was regarded at the time as being a comparatively unexciting election with a predictable result and it did not produce any really great change in the number of seats held by the National Party (NP) Most of what excitement was engendered by the election lay in the conflict between the United Party (OP) and the Progressive Party (PP). There has also been comparatively little written about this election. Stultz and Butler wrote one short article on the 1961 election and Kenneth Heard also wrote a chapter about it in his study of South African general elections between 1943 and 1970. In his memoirs entitled My Lewe in die Politiek, Ben Schoeman devoted very little space to the 1961 general election, and much of what appeared on pages 281 and 282 dealt with Japie Basson and the performance of the National Union Party (NOP) as well as the way that English-speaking whites seemed to have accepted the idea of the republic. In his memoirs, Sir de Villiers Graaff devoted only two short paragraphs on page 185 to this election in which he mentioned the difficulties attached to fighting an election on two fronts against both the NP and the PP while simultaneously facing the reality of having lost much of the support of the English press. Sir de Villiers also discussed the way that the UP regained all but one of their seats lost to the Progressives in 1959. Memoirs and biographies of PP politicians give a much more comprehensive account of the 1961 general election, possibly Page (ii) because it was the first general election ever fought by that party as a separate political entity and also because it represented such a major political reversal. Ray Swart's Progressive Odyssey, Jeremy Lawrence's Harry Lawrence, and Helen Suzman's autobiography, In no uncertain terms, all provide interesting accounts of the 1961 general election although the account in Suzman's autobiography does not pay much attention to the Progressive campaign outside her own constituency of Houghton. Joanna Strangwayes-Booth's biography of Helen Suzman also provides very useful information on the formation and the early years of the PP. Dr FA Mouton's thesis on Margaret Ballinger is also very interesting and useful, and gives a lucid description of the dissension within the ranks of the Liberal Party. Terry Wilks's comparatively short biography of Douglas Mitchell describes Mitchell's frequent clashes with members of his own party. Some readers may, however, regard this biography as being rather skimpy on details and too flattering towards Mitchell at times. Catherine Taylor's autobiography, If courage goes, gives little detail on the 1961 general election. Unfortunately Nationalist politicians do not seem to be as prolific in writing their autobiographies as do opposition politicians. Ben Schoeman's memoirs are interesting reading, particularly as they describe the antipathy felt towards Dr Verwoerd by many Nationalist politicians in the early years of his premiership. DS Prinsloo's biography of PW Botha naturally focuses more on the years of his premiership and does not provide much new information on the NP during the period 1958 to 1961. Dirk and Johanna de Villiers' biography of Paul Sauer gives a very Page (iii) interesting account of the strained relationship between Sauer and Verwoerd. There are several useful publications on the history of the various parties, including Brian Hackland's thesis on the earlier years of the PP, and an Afrikaans study Die Verenigde Party Die Groot Eksperiment, edited by Barnard and Marais. This latter work is very informative on the dissension that was endemic within the UP for much of its existence. Also very useful were Dan O'Meara's Forty Lost Years and the book edited by R Schrire, Leadership in the Apartheid State. This dissertation has a threefold purpose. Its primary objective is to determine and describe the course, background and significance of the 1961 general election. Its second purpose is to analyse the relative position of the political parties in the years leading up to the 1961 general election. Thirdly it quantifies statistically some of the assumptions made about South African politics over the years e.g. the effect of delimitation on the successes or defeats of the National and the United Parties, the effect of the distribution of the support enjoyed by the UP on the fortunes of that party, the strength of the NP during various critical elections and the relationship between percentage turn-out of voters and support received by the UP and the PP. In many respects the 1961 general election was not as important for the NP as was the 1958 general election. The reason for this assertion is firstly that the gains made by the NP in 1961 were not nearly as significant or extensive as those made in 1958. Furthermore the 1958 general election was Page (iv) most probably one of the most decisive general elections contested by the NP as it was in this election that its position became virtually impregnable. The UP's hopes of ever being returned to office suffered a blow that can be seen as final and irreversible. However, the 1961 general election was important in that it was probably the first general election in which the NP could realistically be described as enjoying the support of more than half the white electorate. Despite the optimistic claims made by some sections of the Nationalist press after the results of the 1958 general election had been announced, the NP probably did not command the support of half the white electorate in 1958 although it came rather close to doing so. In addition the themes of the two elections do differ slightly in that in 1961 the Nationalists made a much more concerted effort to capture the votes of as many English-speaking whites as possible. Certain themes are prominent in any study of South African politics of this period.