1958 South African general election

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division, for general roll voters in the four provinces. The representation by province, under the eleventh delimitation report of 1958, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1953) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.[3]

At the end of the 11th Union Parliament, when it was dissolved in 1958, the House of Assembly consisted of two types of members. White voters were represented by 156 members and black voters in Cape Province by three white MPs (known at the time as Native Representative Members). A third type of MP was about to be elected, so that four white MPs would represent coloured voters in Cape Province. They were known as the Coloured Representative Members (CRM).

The general election, on 16 April 1958, only affected the representatives of white voters. The other members were elected on different dates (see above).

The representation by party and province, at the dissolution was:-[4]

Abbreviations in the province list.

• Orange FS: Orange Free State
• SW Africa: South-West Africa
• NRM: Native Representative Members

The general election, for 156 seats in the 12th Union Parliament, was the first in South African history when only voters classified as white took part. In the eleven previous general elections, the Cape Province and Natal general electoral roll had included some black (until 1938 in the Cape), Asian (until 1948) and coloured electors.

The election saw the collapse of the South African Labour Party which lost all 5 of its seats and whose vote dropped from almost 35,000 votes in 1953 to 2,670 votes in 1958. The drop in support is largely attributed to the party leader Alex Hepple's growing outspokenness in opposition to apartheid and his co-operation with the African National Congress, positions which were not supported at the time by white workers who were the bulk of the Labour Party's electorate. Moreover, the party did not repeat its electoral alliance with the United Party, and its sole two candidates in the election - Hepple and Leo Lovell - both finished in distant third places, losing their seats to United Party candidates.

A total of 24 seats were uncontested, all of which were won by the United Party.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Party	642,006	55.54	103	+9
	United Party	492,080	42.57	53	–4
	United National South West Party	11,568	1.00	0	New
	Liberal Party	2,934	0.25	0	New
	Labour Party	2,670	0.23	0	–5
	Suid-Afrikaneese Bond	1,074	0.09	0	New
	Republican Party	85	0.01	0	New
	Christian Democratic Party	34	0.00	0	New
	Independents	3,552	0.31	0	New
Coloured Representative Members				4	New
Native Representative Members				3	0
Total		1,156,003	100.00	163	+4
Valid votes		1,156,003	99.35
Invalid/blank votes		7,573	0.65
Total votes		1,163,576	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,563,426	74.42
Source: Potgieter[5]

• General Elections in South Africa, 1943-70, by Kenneth A. Heard (London; Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1974)
• In No Uncertain Terms, by Helen Suzman (Mandarin Paperback 1994)
• Keesing's Contemporary Archives
• South Africa 1982 Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications
• The South African Constitution, by H.J. May (3rd edition 1955, Juta & Co)