Africans, and it was becoming more rigid than ever.White men maintained
an absolute monopoly of formal political power in the Transvaal and
Orange Free State republics and a virtual monopoly in the colony of Natal.
Even in the Cape Colony no black person ever became a member of the
parliament or cabinet, and laws were passed to check the increase of the
black members of the electorate, who never numbered more than 15 per-
cent of the total.
III