Natal Coast (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Natal Coast (Afrikaans: Natalse Kus) was a constituency in the Natal Province of South Africa,^[1] which existed from 1920 to 1938. As the name implies, it covered an area along the coast of the province. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly.

When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, the electoral qualifications in use in each pre-existing colony were kept in place. The franchise used in the Natal Colony, while theoretically not restricted by race, was significantly less liberal than that of the Cape, and no more than a few hundred non-white electors ever qualified. In 1908, an estimated 200 of the 22,786 electors in the colony were of non-European descent, and by 1935, only one remained.^[2] By 1958, when the last non-white voters in the Cape were taken off the rolls, Natal too had an all-white electorate. 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, which remained the case until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994.^[3]

As in the rest of Natal, Natal Coast's electorate was largely English-speaking and conservative. It was held at every election by the South African Party, which dominated Natal politics through the 1920s, and went unopposed in two of its five general elections. In 1938, it was redrawn and renamed Natal South Coast, and its MP, Lewis Frank Reynolds, retired from parliament.

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