The Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931, was an act of the

Parliament of South Africa The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature; under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameral Parliament comprises a National Assembly and a National Council of Provinces. The current twenty-seve ...

which removed all property and educational

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

qualifications applying to

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

men. It was passed a year after the

Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 The Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930, was an act of the Parliament of South Africa which granted white women aged 21 and older the right to vote and to run for office. It also had the effect of diluting the limited voting power of non-white pe ...

, which extended the franchise to all white women. These two acts entitled all white people over the age of 21 (except for those convicted of certain crimes and those declared mentally unsound by a court) to vote in the elections of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

. The act retained the property and educational qualifications for

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

and

coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

men, who were in any case only eligible to vote in the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

. The result was a further dilution of the electoral power of the non-white population. The act was repealed in 1946 when the franchise laws were consolidated into the Electoral Consolidation Act, 1946.

References

* {{cite book , first=Ian , last=Loveland , title=By Due Process of Law: Racial Discrimination and the Right to Vote in South Africa 1855–1960 , year=1999 , publisher=Hart Publishing , location=Oxford , isbn=9781841130491 , page=164 Repealed South African legislation Women's suffrage in South Africa 1931 in South African law Election law in South Africa