Provinces_of_South_Africa

Provinces of South Africa

Provinces of South Africa

First-level administrative divisions of South Africa

South Africa is divided into nine provinces.[1] On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, known as Bantustans, were reintegrated into the country, and the four provinces were increased to nine by dividing Cape Province and the Transvaal into three and four, respectively. The twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments to the Constitution of South Africa changed the borders of seven of the provinces.

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History

The provinces at the creation of the Union in 1910
See also: List of administrators of former South African provinces

The Union of South Africa was established in 1910 by combining four British colonies: the Cape Colony, the Natal Colony, the Transvaal Colony and the Orange River Colony (the latter two were, before the Second Boer War, independent republics known as the South African Republic and the Orange Free State). These colonies became the four original provinces of the Union: Cape Province, Transvaal Province, Natal Province and Orange Free State Province.

Provinces and homelands, as they were at the end of apartheid

Segregation of the black population started as early as 1913, with ownership of land by the black majority being restricted to certain areas totalling about 13% of the country. From the late 1950s, these areas were gradually consolidated into "homelands", also called "bantustans". Four of these homelands were established as quasi-independent nation states of the black population during the apartheid era. In 1976, the homeland of Transkei was the first to accept independence from South Africa, and although this independence was never acknowledged by any other country, three other homelands – Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979) and Ciskei (1981) – followed suit.

On 27 April 1994, the date of the first non-racial elections and of the adoption of the Interim Constitution, all of these provinces and homelands were dissolved, and nine new provinces were established. The boundaries of these provinces were established in 1993 by a Commission on the Demarcation/Delimitation of Regions created by CODESA, and were broadly based on planning regions demarcated by the Development Bank of Southern Africa in the 1980s,[2][3] and amalgamated from existing magisterial districts, with some concessions to political parties that wished to consolidate their power bases, by transferring districts between the proposed provinces.[4][5] The definitions of the new provinces in terms of magisterial districts were found in Schedule 1 of the Interim Constitution.

On 11 July 2003, the 11th amendment to the fifth constitution renamed the Northern Province to Limpopo. On 1 March 2006, the 12th and 13th amendments altered the boundaries of 7 provinces. On 3 April 2009 the 16th amendment altered the boundaries of the North West and Gauteng provinces.

Government

Johannesburg City Hall, now the seat of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature
Main article: Provincial governments of South Africa

South Africa's provinces are governed, in different ways, on a national, provincial and local level.[6]

Nationally, there is the National Council of Provinces, one of the houses of Parliament. Then there is the provincial government and, below that, the administration of district and metropolitan municipalities.

National Council of Provinces

Main article: National Council of Provinces

South Africa has two houses of parliament: the National Assembly, and the National Council of Provinces.[6] The second exists to ensure that the interests of each province are protected in the laws passed by the National Assembly.

Each one of South Africa's nine provinces sends 10 representatives to the National Council of Provinces. Six of these are permanent members of the council, and four are special delegates.

Provincial government

Each province is governed by a unicameral legislature. The size of the legislature is proportional to population, ranging from 30 members in the Northern Cape to 80 in KwaZulu-Natal. The legislatures are elected every five years by a system of party-list proportional representation; by convention, they are all elected on the same day, at the same time as the National Assembly election.[7]

The provincial legislature elects, from amongst its members, a Premier, who is the head of the executive. The Premier chooses an Executive Council consisting of between five and ten members of the legislature, which is the cabinet of the provincial government.[7] The Members of the Executive Council (MECs) are the provincial equivalent of ministers.

The powers of the provincial government are limited to specific topics listed in the national constitution. On some of these topics – for example, agriculture, education, health and public housing – the province's powers are shared with the national government, which can establish uniform standards and frameworks for the provincial governments to follow; on other topics the provincial government has exclusive power.[8]

The provinces do not have their own court systems, as the administration of justice is the responsibility of the national government.

List

Further information: South African Provincial Premiers
More information Province, Name in the most spoken native language ...

Footnotes:

  1. [n 1]
    Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi were joint capitals of KwaZulu-Natal from 1994 to 2004.
  2. [n 2]
    These statistics do not include the Prince Edward Islands (335 km2 or 129 sq mi, with no permanent residents), which are South African territories in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean but part of the Western Cape for legal and electoral purposes.
  3. [n 3]
    Parliament sits in Cape Town, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, and the Executive branch in Pretoria.

Provincial acronyms

More information Province, HASC ...

Former administrative divisions

More information Province, Capital ...

Footnotes:

† States for which the homeland was quasi-independent.

See also

Transportation

References

  1. [1]
    "The nine provinces of South Africa - South Africa Gateway". South Africa Gateway. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  2. [2]
    Nel, JH; Krygsman, SC; de Jong, T (2008). "The identification of possible future provincial boundaries for South Africa based on an intramax analysis of journey-to-work data" (PDF). ORiON. 24 (2): 131-156. doi:10.5784/24-2-64 – via CORE.
  3. [3]
    Phillips, Laura (27 July 2017). "History of South Africa's Bantustans". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.80. ISBN 978-0-19-027773-4.
  4. [4]
    "The Boundaries of a New South Africa". Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  5. [5]
    Muthien, Yvonne G.; Khosa, Meshack M. (1995). "'The kingdom, the Volkstaat and the New South Africa': Drawing South Africa's new regional boundaries". Journal of Southern African Studies. 21 (2): 303–322. doi:10.1080/03057079508708448.
  6. [6]
    "The nine provinces of South Africa - South Africa Gateway". South Africa Gateway. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  7. [7]
    "Provincial Government of South Africa". Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  8. [8]
    Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, "Chapter 6: Provinces". Sections 104 and 146.
  9. [9]
    http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf, p. 25.
  10. [10]
    Census 2011: Census in brief (PDF). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2012. p. 30. ISBN 9780621413885. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2015.
  11. [11]
    Census 2022: Statistical release (PDF) (Report). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2023. p. 3.
  12. [12]
    "How Many Capital Cities Does South Africa Have?".
  13. [13]
    "South African Provinces".
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