TheSouth African Party was a political party in theCape Colony.

The party had its origins in the liberal tradition that arose in the western half of the Cape Colony in its early parliamentary history. In the 1890s, the liberal Afrikaans politicianJacobus W. Sauer led a "South African Political Association" in an attempt to unite the Cape's anti-imperialist opposition.^[1]

As a formal party however, it was first founded byWilliam Philip Schreiner, as a means of countering the aggressive imperialist policies ofCecil Rhodes.

The party's platform brought together many of the policies that dated back to theMolteno Ministry, the first elected government of the Cape Colony, such as an emphasis on locally driven development, anti-imperialism, free trade, compulsory education, peaceful relations with neighbouring states and an inclusive attitude to race relations. Supporters of such policies had frequently needed to align with the more extremeAfrikaner Bond in order to counter the powerful pro-imperialistProgressive Party, but the alliance was an uneasy one, as there were major differences with the Afrikaner nationalism of the Bond.

Under its leaderJohn X. Merriman, the South African Party governed Cape Colony in a unity government withAfrikaner Bond from 1908 until the formation of theUnion of South Africa in 1910.

During theNational Convention on Union, Merriman and other South African Party representatives fought to extend theCape'smulti-racial franchise system (whereby minor property and literacy suffrage qualifications applied equally to all male citizens, regardless of race) to the rest ofSouth Africa, post-union. This failed, as it was strongly opposed by the other constituent states which were determined to preservewhite rule.

In the Union parliament, the South African Party, theAfrikaner Bond,Het Volk of the Transvaal andOrangia Unie of the Orange Free State merged to form a new Union-wideSouth African Party.

After the merger, the policies of the larger Afrikaner parties came to predominate and the distinctiveness of the original South African Party was subsumed. The Afrikaner statesman,Louis Botha, formed and led the new government, while Merriman declined to accept a post in government.

Election	Party leader	Seats	+/–	Position	Result
1904	James Tennant Molteno	42 / 95	New	2nd	Opposition
1908	John X. Merriman	69 / 107	27	1st	Majority government

• Liberal parties in South Africa
• Political parties disestablished in 1910
• Politics of the Cape Colony
• Defunct political parties in South Africa
• 1910 disestablishments in South Africa
• Anti-racism in South Africa

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