Seven Circles Act

In fear of dominance by Cape Town, the Eastern Province leaders came to demand greater British Imperial control, and a long-running separatist movement arose.

Persistent disputes included frontier issues, with the Eastern Province leaders favouring a far harsher and more expansionist policy towards the neighbouring Xhosa people.

The Western Province was dominated by liberals who were less expansionist and were accused by Eastern leaders of favouring the Xhosa in their frontier policy.

[2][3] From the outset, a serious problem was that the two constituencies were geographically so enormous, that it was practically impossible for any candidate to canvas the electorate across a significant area of their province.

Such impracticalities, as well as irregularities that caused just two cities (Cape Town and Grahamstown) to account for over 50% of the electoral strength in their respective provinces, meant that interest in the Council elections was minimal.

In addition, the demographics of the country had substantially changed since the original provinces were constituted, in size, in economic development, and in distribution.

[1] The act divided the Cape of Good Hope into seven electoral provinces (or "circles"), with each being entitled to elect three representatives to the Legislative Council.

[7] In subdividing the country, Molteno had decided that seven was a sufficiently high number to allow for stable disagreement between the divisions, without causing lasting polarisation.

He had insisted on an uneven number so as to avoid political deadlock, and had rejected an earlier suggestion of three, as it would allow for a persistent marginalisation of one of the three.

A proposal for five was worked out in details but more minor objections were raised, and in the end it was decided that seven was the ideal number so as to ensure stability.