During
1960 South Africa's white minority government held a
referendum on whether or not the then
Union of South Africa should abandon its status as a
Commonwealth realm and become a
republic. The
Afrikaner-dominated
National Party, which came to power in
1948, was avowedly
republican, and regarded South Africa's status as a Commonwealth realm as a relic of
British imperialism.
Background
Prior to the referendum, Verwoerd had lowered the voting age for whites to 18, and had also included the white voters of
South West Africa, now
Namibia, on the electoral roll. Afrikaners, who were more likely to favour a republic than English-speaking white South Africans, were also on average younger than them, having a higher birth rate. Similarly in South West Africa, the Afrikaners and
German-speaking whites outnumbered English-speaking ones.
Whites in the former
Boer republics of the
Transvaal and
Orange Free State voted decisively in favour, as did ones in South West Africa. In the
Cape Province there was a smaller majority, while
Natal, which had more
English-speaking whites than
Afrikaans-speaking ones, voted against. Some whites in Natal even called for secession from the Union, but this was never seriously considered. The opposition
United Party actively campaigned for a 'No' vote, while the smaller
Progressive Party appealed to supporters of the proposed change to 'reject
this republic', arguing that South Africa's membership of the
Commonwealth, with which it had privileged...
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