Wonderboom (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Wonderboom was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1920 to 1994. It covered an area in the northern suburbs of Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, centred on the suburb of Wonderboom. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Transvaal Provincial Council.

When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, the electoral qualifications in use in each pre-existing colony were kept in place. In the Transvaal Colony, and its predecessor the South African Republic, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Transvaal Province were held on a whites-only franchise from the beginning. The franchise was also restricted by property and education qualifications until the 1933 general election, following the passage of the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 and the Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931. From then on, the franchise was given to all white citizens aged 21 or over. Non-whites remained disenfranchised until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994.^[1]

Wonderboom was first created in 1920, as part of a general increase in representation for the Transvaal. Unlike the three pre-existing Pretoria seats, it was a safe seat for the National Party, which held it almost throughout its existence. In a 1933 by-election, it became the first South African constituency to elect a female MP, Mabel Malherbe, in a contested election - Leila Reitz had won Parktown in the general election earlier that year, but she was unopposed.

Two of its MPs served in cabinet: M. D. C. de Wet Nel, who held various positions under J. G. Strijdom and Hendrik Verwoerd, and Pik Botha, who represented the seat early in his career and later became Foreign Minister under P. W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk. Its last few MPs faced stiff challenges from the Conservative Party, but the NP held the seat until the end of apartheid, by which time it was one of the biggest constituencies in South Africa with more than 30,000 electors.

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