UNITED PARTY TRANSVAAL PROVINCIAL OFFICE: 1905-1987

Abstract

In terms of an agreement with the United Party in 1969, Unisa Library became the official custodian and processor of the Party’s political archive. The Archives also include the United Party’s predecessors and its successor the New Republic Party and the records of parties which broke away from the UP e.g. the Progressive Party (later the Progressive Federal Party). The Collection continued to grow even after the dissolution of the UP in 1977 and the final meeting of the trustees of the New Republic Party in 1989.

The scope of the archival records The Transvaal Provincial Office, councils, constituencies and information files consist of 66 linear metres of records (large format volumes and 400 boxes). The Transvaal Provincial Office is part of the larger - approximate 500 linear metres - United Party Archives which are available to national as well as international researchers. The Archives are of particular value in that the records are the official documents of a white South African political party who ruled for 38 years and who were the official opposition for 39 years.

In addition to official party documents, the United Party itself also collected biographical information and materials on other political parties. The Transvaal Provincial Office collected information resources on issues and persons who played a role in South African politics and society. These files contain valuable reports, pamphlets and press cuttings. The file on Charles W Clark, who gave up his Pretoria East parliamentary seat in favour of Gen Smuts in 1948, gives the researcher some insight into the life of a politician who represented the United Party for twenty years. Other interesting files are those on Soweto, Pretoria and Reef townships, Doornkloof Society, the Vereeniging Hospital Commission of Inquiry, the Progressive Party and Progressive Reform Party as well as the 1958 Johannesburg City Council Report of the Riots Commission in which Oliver Tambo gave evidence on behalf of the of the African National Congress.

The constituency files are important as they show the social changes of communities over time. After the nineteen-fifties, the urban population grew in sharp contrast to the diminishing rural population. As a result of urbanization, successive Delimitation Commissions created new urban constituencies and abolished or merged rural constituencies.

In the Transvaal Province political parties also contested municipal elections. The South African Party and its successor, the United Party, played key roles in the development of municipal services on the Witwatersrand