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This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

1853. Cape Constitution

According to the CAPE CONSTITUTION of 1853: "All males living permanently within the colony who possessed property worth £25 were permitted to vote, a vote which until 1887 did not take place under a secret ballot. The property qualification to be elected to the Legislative Council... was set at £1,000 in unencumbered property, while £25 was sufficient to be elected to the House of Assembly" (Crais 1992: 192; see also Simons & Simons 1969: 23).

See also the CAPE PARLIAMENTARY REGISTRATION ACT of 1887 (which excluded tribal forms of property) and the CAPE FRANCHISE & BALLOT ACT of 1892 (which raised the property qualification from £25 to £75), as well as the REPRESENTATION OF NATIVES ACT of 1936.

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