Smithfield (known for part of its history as Smithfield-Rouxville) was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. Named after the town of Smithfield, the seat covered a large rural area in the south of the province, bordering the Cape Province as well as Lesotho. 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. In the Orange River Colony, and its predecessor the Orange Free State, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Orange Free State 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]
Smithfield, like most of the Orange Free State, was a highly conservative seat throughout its existence and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. Its most notable MP was J. B. M. Hertzog, who represented the seat from 1910 until his retirement from politics in 1939. It was then captured by the National Party, who held it until its fall (along with several other rural Free State seats) to the Conservative Party in the 1989 general election, the last held under apartheid.
