Milner proposes conditional voting rights for ‘non-Whites’ in SA

A year after the Treaty of Vereeniging, which signalled the end of the Anglo-Boer War 2, the British High Commissioner to South Africa, Lord Alfred Milner, proposed that educated and prosperous 'non-Whites' should be allowed to vote in the country's local elections. In the treaty, Britain promised to return the two former colonies to self-rule as soon as it was practical, while a decision on voting rights for Blacks was postponed until such self-rule was returned. Of the four colonies that would later make up the Union of South Africa (Transvaal, the former ZAR, the Free State, Natal and the Cape) the latter was the only one where citizens other than Whites could vote. But even there, this franchise was reserved for those who met the stringent qualifications of prosperity and education. Milner's proposal was rejected. Sources: Cameron, T. & Spies S.B. (eds)(1986). An illustrated history of South Africa, Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. Pretorius, F. (1985). The Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, Cape Town: Don Nelson.