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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2010-05 > 1274820717


From: "Steve Hayes" <>
Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] m manning full voting rights
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 22:53:56 +0200
References: <AANLkTinpiXO03zqC_vrGj5MtkN_8OKYFUsp270W1f5Aj@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTik6b7PKTt8DYApNSnlU9_JsRMhNZRO76B7pm1bI@mail.gmail.com>


On 25 May 2010 at 21:23, Maureen Brady wrote:

> Oh dear, Jackie: you've gone and changed the subject line (BAD IDEA!), so now
> none of the previous posts relate to this particular thread, which means none
> of us can easily remind ourselves about what went before without resorting to
> the List archives (who has the time?). Still, it's fairly fresh in the memory
> (for now). This man was an acting veldkornet (field cornet), more of a Boer
> ranking than a British one. But I can't remember what the dates of the
> original post were: was this man working for the Boers or the Brits? Many
> Irish were Boer sympathisers -- the British might have regarded them as
> "aliens", but the Boers certainly wouldn't have.

The best way to find out would be to have a look at the file that the
archival reference refers to.

But the government of the ZAR was under pressure from the British, in the
1890s, to grant voting rights to Uitlanders, whop were mainly foerigners who
had participated in the gold rush and worked on the mines in Johannesburg.
This the ZAR government was reluctant to do, partly because they regarded the
gold miners as birds of passage, just there fore the money, and with no real
interest in the long-term welfare of the country.

But they did, in response to the pressure, create a second Volksraad, for
which foreigners were elegible to vote after a short period of residence, I
think two years. But they kept raising the qualifications for voting in the
first Volksraad. Reading between the lines, it seems that the applicant was
requesting full voting rights (ie for the First Volksraad) since he held a
responsible government position (Veldkornet).


--
Keep well,
Steve Hayes
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/famhist1.htm
http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com
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