Occasional papers, no. 19

The focus here is upon the 1 169 white men and the twelve white women who were elected or nominated to the South African Parliament in Cape Town between 1910 and the conclusion of the 1970 general and Senate elections.1 Because of the integrated nature of government at the national level in South Africa, an examination of all parliamentarians concurrently produces information on all cabinet ministers during the same period, and for most if not all of the top leaders of the major political parties as well. Hence, recognizing the unitary structure of the South African regime - sometimes expressed in the principle of the 'sovereignty of Parliament' - it seems possible to designate these 1 181 persons as the formally ascendant South African political elite during the country's first six decades. Moreover, there is no reason to doubt that this number includes nearly all of the persons who exercised disproportionately great real power during these years, excepting, of course, those few non-whites who may be thought to have been politically influential at the national level. Every indication is that political life in South Africa centred on these individuals, or at least on some of them, for clearly not all were of equal political importance. Yet even the leaders within this select group, whom we shall also consider separately in detail, frequently (although not in every case) rose to prominence within the institution of Parliament, in part on the basis of their ability to influence and control its deliberations. An understanding of the backgrounds of all parliamentarians thus not only helps to describe the body itself, but may also contribute a new appreciation of the political power of the country's top leadership.Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER