When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, the electoral qualifications in use in each pre-existing colony were kept in place.

[1] Bezuidenhout was created in 1915, largely out of the abolished seat of Jeppes, and was closely fought between the Labour and Unionist (later South African) parties throughout its early history.

In its first election, Unionist candidate L. Blackwell narrowly defeated Labour leader Frederic Creswell, and after a short-lived Labour victory in 1920, the seat was retaken by Blackwell for the SAP, which (along with its descendants) would hold it for nearly the entire rest of its existence.

After being expelled from the Progressive Federal Party for supporting P. W. Botha’s constitutional reforms, Basson left the House of Assembly in 1981, but the seat stayed with the PFP.

In 1987, along with several other Johannesburg seats, it fell to the Nationals, but the newly-founded Democratic Party regained it in 1989 and held it until the end of apartheid.