DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Cape Independence
HTML https://capexit.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: YouTube
*****************************************************
#Post#: 129--------------------------------------------------
Cape Indepenedence [Vid 01]
By: Hawk Date: June 11, 2018, 1:44 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://youtu.be/60jdjFTjPMc
The People of the Cape are Gatvol of the Communist Targeting of
the ANC & EFF .. along with their Racist attitudes towards the
minorities in SA, who are actually the Majority in the Cape. The
Cape was an Independent Country before the British forced it to
become the Union of SA in 1910. We have our own history and
culture... and we are going back to non-racialism. You can read
here more on Cape History
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Qualified_Franchise
Cape Qualified Franchise
The Cape Qualified Franchise was the system of non-racial
franchise that was adhered to in the Cape Colony, and in the
Cape Province in the early years of the Union of South Africa.
Qualifications for the right to vote at parliamentary elections
were applied equally to all men, regardless of race.
This local system of multi-racial suffrage was later gradually
restricted, and eventually abolished, under various National
Party and United Party governments. In 1930 white women were
enfranchised, and in 1931 property qualifications for white
voters were removed. In 1936 black voters were then removed from
the common voters' rolls and allowed only to elect separate
members in 1936, and subsequently denied all representation in
the House of Assembly in 1960. Coloured voters similarly
followed in 1958 and 1970, respectively.
Representative government (1853)
The Cape Qualified Franchise first appeared in 1853, when the
Cape Colony received representative government and elected its
first parliament. This was done without regard to race, and a
non-racial voters roll became part of the Cape's 1853
Constitution.
There were a range of motivations for the creation of this early
non-racial political system. Many powerful members of the Cape's
political elite in the 1850s, leaders such as John Fairbairn,
Saul Solomon, John Molteno and William Porter, genuinely seemed
to believe that it was the only fair way to run a society, and
that racial distinctions counted as unjust discrimination. In
1838, it had already been ruled in the Cape Colony that the law
was not to discriminate on the basis of race or colour. On the
other hand, there was an additional pragmatic motivation, in
that enfranchising the non-white population was seen as a way to
bring peace to the Cape's frontier and social harmony to its
cities. As such, political inclusiveness was also seen as a way
of pre-empting and forestalling black resistance in the future.
When queried by worried white voters on the issue of black
citizens voting, William Porter, the Cape attorney-general
famously responded:
Why should you fear the exercise of franchise? This is a
delicate question but it must be touched upon. I do not hesitate
to say that I would rather meet the Hottentot at the hustings,
voting for his representative, than in the wilds with his gun
upon his shoulder. Is it not better to disarm them by granting
them the privileges of the constitution? If you now blast all
their hopes and tell them they shall not fight their battles
constitutionally, do not you yourselves apply to them the
stimulus to fight their battles unconstitutionally? (quoted in
Simons and Simons, 1983: 23)
A minimum property ownership of £25 qualified the male Cape
citizen to vote or to stand in parliament. As this included all
forms of property ownership, including traditional African
communal land tenure, it was very low, relative to the suffrage
qualifications that applied elsewhere in the world at the time.
In fact, it was widely considered to be excessively low, and
there were several political movements that tried to have it
raised. The system was known as the "£25 vote". Decades later,
literacy was added as an additional criterion to qualify for
suffrage. The existence of voter qualifications was a standard
feature of early democracies, and women's suffrage was virtually
unknown in the world at the time. However while the Cape shared
these restrictive features, its explicitly colour-blind
political system was unusually inclusive.
Responsible Government (1872)
In spite of its elected legislature, the Cape was still under
the direct control of a British Governor, until 1872, when the
country attained "Responsible Government" under the leadership
of its first Prime Minister, John Molteno. This act brought all
three branches of the state's government under local control,
made the Executive democratically accountable (or "responsible"
as it was known), and thus gave the Cape Colony a degree of
independence from Britain. It also stimulated a new political
awareness among Cape residents of all backgrounds, with the most
notable immediate growth being in Black political consciousness.
The new ministry held the non-racial nature of its institutions
to be one of its core ideals, and enshrined it into its new
constitution. The commitment to treat Black African and Coloured
people as "fellow subjects with white men" was explicitly
reaffirmed by the new government, which struck down opposition
motions to restrict voting qualifications in 1874, and again in
1878. Campaigns also began in the Eastern Cape frontier region,
to register the rural Xhosa peasant farmers as voters, with
early, mission-educated Xhosa activists at the forefront.
Educational associations and Xhosa language political newspapers
such as Isigidimi sama-Xosa were founded, which assisted with
political mobilisation. Overall the Cape's Black electorate grew
rapidly during the 1870s, especially in urban areas. In
addition, traditional Xhosa forms of communal land tenure were
fully recognised by the Cape government. This made the parties
in such traditional property arrangements fully eligible as
voters. Consequently, the first Black African political
groupings such as Imbumba yama Nyama ("Unity is Strength") also
had their origins in this era.
This renewed commitment to non-racial government was not
unopposed. Some English settlers in the Eastern Cape felt
threatened by it, and their parliamentary representatives, such
as John Paterson and Gordon Sprigg, consequently pushed for the
disenfranchising of their Xhosa neighbours. This British Eastern
Cape political alliance gradually became the pro-imperialist
"Progressive Party", which later came to power under Cecil
Rhodes and Jameson. In addition, the predominantly
Afrikaans-speaking Western Cape began to see the birth of rural
Cape Dutch groups such as "Onze Jan" Hofmeyr’s Afrikaner Bond
which also had mixed opinions about African franchise. Right
wing media outlets such as the Zingari and the Lantern began the
habit of disparagingly labeling MLAs who were elected by the
Cape Coloured electorate as "Malays", regardless of their own
ethnicity.
However the Western Cape's predominantly English-speaking
political elite was still strongly in favour of the "£25 vote",
with many liberals such as Saul Solomon even supporting its
expansion into total universal franchise. This liberal Cape Town
elite was the origin of what became known as the "Cape Liberal
Tradition" and also formed the core of the later South African
Party.
Follow the Link for much more on.... WIKIPEDIA
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Qualified_Franchise
*****************************************************