On April 30, 1961, Charles Robberts Swart, Governor-General of South Africa, presented his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II, who remained the Head of State of South Africa until May 31. On May 10, Swart was elected by a joint session of Parliament as State President of South Africa, winning 139 votes against the 71 won by Henry A. Fagan, the candidate of the National Union Party who was supported by the pro-CommonwealthUnited Party.[1] On May 31, the day the Republic was proclaimed, Swart was sworn into his new position at an inauguration ceremony at the Groote Kerk (Afrikaans for "Great Church") in Pretoria before delivering his first speech as President on an official platform in front of the courthouse in front of thousands of people gathered on Church Square.
The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary representative democratic republic. The President of South Africa serves both as head of state and as head of government. The President is elected by the National Assembly and must retain the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the country's nine provinces.
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to particular offices. Often these represent different organizations, political parties or entities, with each organization, political party or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way.
The prime minister of South Africa was the head of government in South Africa between 1910 and 1984.
The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of South Africa and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence Force.
The state president of the Republic of South Africa was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic in 1961, and Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be monarch of South Africa. The position of Governor-General of South Africa was accordingly abolished. From 1961 to 1984, the post was largely ceremonial. After constitutional reforms enacted in 1983 and taking effect in 1984, the State President became an executive post, and its holder was both head of state and head of government.
The Governor-General of the Union of South Africa was the highest state official in the Union of South Africa between 31 May 1910 and 31 May 1961. The Union of South Africa was founded as a self-governing Dominion of the British Empire in 1910 and the office of governor-general was established as the representative of the monarch. Fifty-one years later the country declared itself a republic and the historic link with the British monarchy was broken. The office of governor-general was abolished.
The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature; under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameral Parliament comprises a National Assembly and a National Council of Provinces. The current twenty-seventh Parliament was first convened on 22 May 2019.
The National Party, also known as the Nationalist Party, was a political party in South Africa founded in 1914 and disbanded in 1997. The party was an Afrikaner ethnic nationalist party that promoted Afrikaner interests in South Africa. However in 1990 it became a South African civic nationalist party seeking to represent all South Africans. It first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It was an opposition party during World War II but it returned to power and was again in the government from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994.
Charles Robberts Swart, nicknamed Blackie was a South African politician who served as the last governor-general of the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961 and the first state president of the Republic of South Africa from 1961 to 1967.
Jozua François "Tom" Naudé served as acting state president of South Africa from 1967 to 1968.
The following lists events that happened during 1961 in South Africa.
A referendum on becoming a republic was held in South Africa on 5 October 1960. The Afrikaner-dominated right-wing National Party, which had come to power in 1948, was avowedly republican, and regarded the position of Queen Elizabeth II as head of state as a relic of British imperialism. The National Party government subsequently organised the referendum on whether the then Union of South Africa should become a republic. The vote, which was restricted to whites – the first such national election in the union – was narrowly approved by 52.29% of the voters. The Republic of South Africa was constituted on 31 May 1961.
A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the executive branch derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature. There are a number of variations of parliamentary republics. Most have a clear differentiation between the head of government and the head of state, with the head of government holding real power, much like constitutional monarchies. Some have combined the roles of head of state and head of government, much like presidential systems, but with a dependency upon parliamentary power.
Mahlamba Ndlopfu is the chief official residence of the President of the Republic of South Africa. The head of government has made it their official home since 1940 and it is located in the Bryntirion Estate in Pretoria.
The president of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the head of state and nominal head of government of Myanmar. The president leads the Cabinet of Myanmar, the executive branch of the Burmese government. The current president is Myint Swe, who assumed the presidency in an acting capacity on 1 February 2021 after the 2021 coup d'état.
The Constitution of 1961 was the fundamental law of South Africa for two decades. Under the terms of the constitution South Africa left the Commonwealth and became a republic.
The Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Somalia is the supreme law of Somalia. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the Federal Republic and source of legal authority. It sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of government. The Provisional Constitution was adopted on August 1, 2012 by a National Constitutional Assembly in Mogadishu, Banaadir.
The 1967 South African presidential election pitted Theophilus Ebenhaezer Dönges against Major Pieter Voltelyn Graham van der Byl. In accordance with the South African Constitution of 1961, the South African Parliament had the task of electing a person as State President, the ceremonial head of state.
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