How can we preserve the Cape's multiracial franchise, and even extend it to South Africa and the rest of British Africa in time?
Actaully many Africans did own property, the Cape Colony legally recognized communal tenure which allowed many Africans to vote in the eastern cape. Once more coutituncies started becoming more black Rhodes and his ilk changed property laws so that communal tenure was no longer recognized and as a result the majority of Africans in the eastern cspe lost their right to land and the right to vote.It's not that hard, really. While blacks, e.g., had the right to vote - it was only if they owned land or capital, which few did.
You do need to keep the Afrikaaner movement out of power for longer, but a general extension, together with a ratcheting up of requirements (e.g. a literacy test in 'either of the national languages' (English or Afrikaans)) should be possible to sell. I don't know enough of the history to know what pragmatic (read slimy) politician could sell that, and it's not terribly likely, but I think it ought to be possible.
Simple, get rid of Rhodes, he was the one who started weakening the black franchise by increasing their threshold and changing property laws so that blacks could no longer claim communal property as a means to vote.
To be honest get rid of Rhodes and you change a lot of South African history.
But another issue though is that the Cape franchise was never meant to allow non whites to over take whites. The change to the franchise vote came from the fact that their were a few countitunvies in the eastern cape that had gained a majority black electorate, this pissed of both Rhodeses supporters who were mainly white eastern Cape farmers who saw blacks as not only infererior but also economic competetion(black peasant farmers out produced white commercial farmers) and Afrikaaners who genrally had more conservative views on race.
Is there a way to reduce the racial paranoia? On a logical basis I don't know why farm X being owned by a black guy is any more competition than being owned by a white guy.