🧵 Thread: The Cape Qualified Franchise – A Historical Overview 🏛️
1/ The Cape Qualified Franchise was a voting system introduced in the Cape Colony in 1853, allowing men of all races to vote if they met certain property and income requirements.
2/ The system was part of the Cape's 1853 Constitution, which prohibited discrimination based on race or colour, making it one of the earliest examples of non-racial suffrage in Southern Africa.
3/ During the negotiations for the creation of the Union, the Cape's last Prime Minister, John X. Merriman, fought unsuccessfully to have the multi-racial franchise system extended to the rest of South Africa. The attempt failed in face of opposition from other regions.
4/ Various legislation in the later Union and Republic of South Africa would severely restrict the Cape Franchise to White voters in most constituencies, and would remove Black people off the commons voters role under the 1936 Representation of Natives Act.
5/ The Apartheid Government would put a final end to the Multi-Racial Franchise and Cape's Non-Racial tradition in 1951 after Coloured people were struck off the voter roll with large scale protests gaining 75000 attendees
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