Jaargang 8, nommer 2 – Augustus 2011 - LitNet

LitNet Akademies Jaargang 8(2) – Augustus 2011
Hertzog, Dr D.F. Malan and Sen. F.S. Malan, but these sources did not shed much light on the
research question. Consequently the article is based primarily on contemporary, secondary,
official and periodic publications. Due to the fact that the struggle regarding the coloured
franchise was waged primarily in Parliament, extensive use was made of the Debates of the
Assembly.
The author concludes that the political policy of the National Party was dominated by two
considerations: the struggle to maintain Afrikaner nationalism against British imperialism,
and the struggle to protect white supremacy against the perceived threat of the Black Peril.
All other considerations were subordinate to these two driving forces. From the second decade
of the 20th century the National Party regarded itself as the representative of Afrikaner
nationalism, while the South African Party, and later the United South African Party, were
perceived as representative of British imperialism. In the Cape Province the coloured vote was
decisive in a number of key constituencies. Because the coloureds voted overwhelmingly in
favour of the English­oriented political parties they were regarded as a threat to Afrikaner
nationalism. In the process the coloured voters found themselves in the arena of the struggle
between Afrikaner nationalism and British imperialism.
The Coloured Persons’ Rights Bill and the establishment of the Afrikaanse Nasionale Bond
were attempts by the National Party to woo the coloured vote and to promote Afrikaner
nationalism in the process. The Bill was also an attempt to drive a wedge between coloureds
and blacks to ensure the perpetuation of white supremacy in South Africa. From 1925 to 1929
the National Party actively wooed the coloured vote. However, during the 1929 elections the
coloureds voted overwhelmingly in favour of the South African Party. After that election the
National Party could end its attempt to win the coloured vote and actively contribute towards
the erosion of the coloured vote. A contributory factor was the fact that by 1930 it was evident
that the National Party’s attempt to use the coloureds as a bulwark against the threat of
black domination had been unsuccessful.
After the 1929 elections the National Party decided to increase its support at the polls by
other means, among others by extending the franchise to white women and minimising the
power of the coloured and black vote, as indicated above. Various dubious reasons were
proffered for why the franchise could not be extended to coloured women and why the
political equalisation of white men and women was imperative even though it removed the
National Party even further from attaining its expressed goal of political equality with the
coloureds. In 1930 and 1931 it became obvious that both Hertzog en Malan regarded the
coloureds as culturally inferior to the whites, and therefore not entitled to political equality
with the whites. Culture was thus used as an excuse to erode the political rights of the
coloureds. It is doubtful whether the National Party had ever committed itself to political
equality between coloureds and whites.
Contrary to Hertzog’s Smithfield speech in 1925 and subsequent public declarations of topranking
officials of the National Party before the 1929 elections the Coloured Persons’ Rights
Bill did not represent an attempt to place coloured and white voters on an equal political
footing. In fact, if it had been enacted it would have resulted in greater disparities between
coloured and white voters. The Bill can, therefore, be regarded as a deliberate attempt to
mislead the coloured voters. Hertzog tried to obscure the fact that the policy of the National
Party regarding the coloured franchise issue had drastically changed by emphasising the fact
that the National Party was still consistently in favour of the presence of male coloured voters
on the common voters’ rolls in the Cape Province and Natal. Malan had also initially resisted
attempts by the conservative nationalists to have the coloureds placed on separate voters’
rolls – not on the basis of principled considerations, but because it could be used by the South
African Party to garner the support of dissident coloured voters who had previously
supported the National Party.
After Fusion and the establishment of the Purified National Party the agitation to remove the
coloureds from the common voters’ rolls became official party policy under the leadership of
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