1989 South African general election

1989 South African general election

← 1987 6 September 1989 1994 →
All 166 elected seats in the House of Assembly All 80 elected seats in the House of Representatives All 40 elected seats in the House of Delegates
Turnout	69.5% ( 2.02pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader F. W. de Klerk Andries Treurnicht Collective Party National Conservative DP Leader since 1989 1982 1989 Leader's seat Vereeniging Waterberg Did not stand Last election 123 22 20 Seats won 94 39 33 Seat change 29 17 13 Popular vote 1,039,704 680,131 431,444 Percentage 48.2% 31.5% 20.0%
House of Assembly after the 1989 election
Acting State President before election F. W. de Klerk National State President F. W. de Klerk National

Politics of South Africa
Constitution Bill of Rights
Executive President Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President David Mabuza Cabinet Departments Shadow Cabinet
Legislative National Council of Provinces Chairperson Amos Masondo National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise Leader of the Opposition John Steenhuisen
Judiciary Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng Deputy Chief Justice Ray Zondo Courts Constitutional Court Supreme Court of Appeal President: Mandisa Maya High Court Magistrate's courts Electoral Court
Elections General 1910 1915 1920 1921 1924 1929 1933 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1961 1966 1970 1974 1977 1981 1984 1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024 Municipal 2000 2006 2011 2016 2021 Referendums 1960 1983 1992 Political parties
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Related topics Human rights National debt Political assassinations Protests Repression Social Welfare Taxation
Provincial Politics Politics of the Eastern Cape Politics of KwaZulu-Natal Politics of Limpopo Politics of Mpumalanga Politics of the Northern Cape Politics of the Western Cape
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General elections were held in South Africa on 6 September 1989, the last under apartheid. Snap elections had been called early (no election was required until 1992) by the recently elected head of the National Party (NP), F. W. de Klerk, who was in the process of replacing P. W. Botha as the country's president, and his expected program of reform to include further retreat from the policy of apartheid. The creation of the Conservative Party had realigned the NP as a moderate party, now almost certain to initiate negotiations with the black opposition, with liberal opposition (the PFP) openly seeking a new constitutional settlement on liberal democratic and federalist principles.

Although the National Party won a comfortable majority of seats (94 of 166) in the House of Assembly, the governing party suffered a setback and received only 48% of the popular vote, the first elections since 1961 in which the NP failed to win a majority of the vote. However, the first-past-the-post system, and a severely fractured opposition as well as the twelve appointed and indirectly elected members entrenched the NP's majority, allowing it to comfortably remain in power.

The Conservative Party (CP), which opposed any form of power-sharing with other races, failed to accomplish a breakthrough beyond its conservative Afrikaner backing as some had expected, but remained the official opposition with 39 seats. By some estimates, the party had received the backing of a slim majority of Afrikaners particularly in the Orange Free State, once the NP's heartland, but with very limited support among English-speaking voters.^[1]

Before the elections, the liberal Progressive Federal Party (PFP) had dissolved itself and regrouped as the Democratic Party (DP), winning 33 seats, six seats short of retaking its position as the official opposition. In terms of vote share, it fell a quarter million votes behind the CP, but was favoured by its stronghold in the Cape Province and Natal.

House of Assembly (white)[]

The White Chamber of Parliament had 178 members, 166 of whom were directly elected (including a seat from Walvis Bay annexed from South West Africa, which was added in 1981) with 8 members indirectly elected by the directly elected members on the basis of proportional representation and four nominated by the State President (one from each province).^[2]

The results of the election were interpreted by the government (based on support for the NP and the DP together) as a mandate from the white electorate to reform the apartheid system and seek a compromise with the African National Congress and its leader Nelson Mandela. Mandela was released half a year later, and the 1989 elections were the last under the limited, whites-only franchise and the Tricameral Parliament introduced in 1984.

Of the twelve appointed and indirectly-elected seats, nine were taken by the National Party, two by the Conservative Party and one by the Democratic Party.^[3]

House of Representatives (coloured)[]

All five appointed and indirectly-elected seats were taken by the Labour Party.^[2]

House of Delegates (Indian)[]

Of the five appointed and indirectly-elected seats, three were taken by Solidarity, one by the National People’s Party and one by the Merit People's Party.^[2]

References[]