1938 South African general election


The 1938 South African general election was held, on 18 May 1938, for the 150 seats in the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa. The United Party won an absolute majority.

Party changes since the last general election

The National Party and the South African Party were in coalition at the time of the 1933 South African general election.
After the election the two coalition parties fused, to become the United South African National Party. The formal launch of the new party took place on 5 December 1934.
Those members of the National Party who did not accept the fusion, constituted themselves as the Purified National Party in June 1934. The leader of the new party was Dr D.F. Malan, who had been the National Party leader in Cape Province. Eighteen MPs joined the PNP caucus. Dr Malan became the Leader of the Opposition, in the House of Assembly.
The members of the South African Party who rejected the fusion, formed the Dominion Party. Its leader was Colonel C.F. Stallard.

Changes to the franchise and representation

Under the Representation of Natives Act 1936, all registered black voters in the Cape Province were removed from the common voters' lists and placed on a special Cape Natives voters' roll. This served to effectively dismantle the traditional multi-racial "Cape Qualified Franchise" system.
Black voters had never been entitled to vote in Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Few had ever qualified in Natal.
The voters' rolls, for 1935, were broken down by race in each province.
ProvinceWhiteNativeColouredAsiatic
Cape382,10310,62821,5961,401
Natal91,762134310
Transvaal349,400---
Orange FS101,089---

No black voters were eligible to participate in the 1938 general election, apart from the one from Natal. The three Native Representative Members from Cape Province were elected on a different date, for a term unaffected by dissolutions of Parliament.
The first group of native representatives had been elected in June 1937. The term for which they were elected expired on 30 June 1942. The representatives took their seats in the House of Assembly in 1938, and sat as Independent MPs.

Delimitation of electoral divisions

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division. The representation by province, under the seventh delimitation report of 1937, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.
ProvincesCapeNatalOrange Free StateTransvaalTotal
Divisions59 1615 60 150

The above table does not include the three Native representative seats in Cape Province, which were not included in the delimitation of the general roll seats under the South Africa Act 1909.

Nominations

Candidates nominated for the election, by party, were United 150, Purified National 103, Labour 37, Dominion 33, Independent 31, Greyshirts 3 and Socialists 3. Total 360.

Results

The vote totals in the table below may not give a complete picture of the balance of political opinion, because of unopposed elections and because contested seats may not have been fought by a candidate from all major parties.
The total registered electorate was 1,052,652. The votes cast were 835,378.
The overall composition of the House, set out by province and party and excluding the native representative seats, after the general election was as below.
ProvinceUnitedPurified NationalDominionLabourSocialistTotal
Cape38201--59
Natal7-71116
Orange FS96---15
Transvaal571-2-60
Total11127831150