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The Republic of South Africa is a unitary parliamentary 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.
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 Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Government. The current constitution, the country's fifth, was drawn up by the Parliament elected in 1994 in the South African general election, 1994. It was promulgated by President Nelson Mandela on 18 December 1996 and came into effect on 4 February 1997, replacing the Interim Constitution of 1993. The first constitution was enacted by the South Africa Act 1909, the longest-lasting to date. Since 1961, the constitutions have promulgated a republican form of government.
The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation system where half of the members are elected proportionally from nine provincial lists and the remaining half from national lists so as to restore proportionality.
Floor crossing was a system introduced to the post-apartheid South African political system in 2002, under which members of Parliament, members of provincial legislatures and local government councillors could change political party and take their seats with them when they did so. Floor crossing in South Africa was abolished in January 2009.
The Western Cape Provincial Parliament (WCPP) is the legislature of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is located at 7 Wale Street in Cape Town.
The 2007 floor crossing window period in South Africa was a period of 15 days, from 1 to 15 September 2007, in which members of the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures, and municipal councils were able to cross the floor from one political party to another without giving up their seats. The period was authorised by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa, which scheduled regular window periods in the second and fourth September after each election. The previous general election had been held on 14 April 2004, and a previous window period had occurred in September 2005.
The 2005 floor crossing window period in South Africa was a period of 15 days, from 1 to 15 September 2005, in which members of the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures were able to cross the floor from one political party to another without giving up their seats. The period was authorised by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa, which scheduled regular window periods in the second and fourth September after each election. The previous general election had been held on 14 April 2004.
The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa allowed members of municipal councils to cross the floor from one political party to another without losing their seats. It came into force on 20 June 2002, and was effectively repealed on 17 April 2009 by the Fifteenth Amendment.
The Ninth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa modified the scheme for the allocation of seats in the National Council of Provinces, to account for the possibility of changes in the party makeup of provincial legislatures. This was necessary because of other legislation which had been introduced to allow members of the provincial legislatures to cross the floor without losing their seats. It came into force on 20 June 2002, and was effectively repealed on 17 April 2009 by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa altered the provisions relating to membership of the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures, to allow members of those bodies to cross the floor at certain times without losing their seats. It came into force on 20 March 2003, and was effectively repealed on 17 March 2009 by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa repealed some of the provisions inserted into the Constitution by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments which allowed for floor-crossing, that is, allowed members of legislative bodies to move from one political party to another without losing their seats. The remaining floor-crossing provisions were repealed by the Fifteenth Amendment, which was enacted at the same time.
The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa repealed some of the provisions inserted into the Constitution by the Eighth and Tenth Amendments which allowed for floor-crossing, that is, allowed members of legislative bodies to move from one political party to another without losing their seats. The remaining floor-crossing provisions were repealed by the Fourteenth Amendment, which was enacted at the same time.
The Drakenstein Municipal Council is the elected unicameral legislature of the Drakenstein Local Municipality in Paarl, Western Cape, South Africa.
General elections will be held in South Africa on 29 May 2024 to elect a new National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each of the nine provinces. This will be the seventh general election held under the conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994. The new National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will be elected at the first sitting of each provincial legislature. Since the inaugural post-apartheid election in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) has continuously achieved a majority in both chambers of the South African Parliament: the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
The Witzenberg Local Municipality consists of twenty-three members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Twelve councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in twelve wards, while the remaining eleven are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received.
Ndawoyakhe Wilson Ngcobo is a South African politician who served in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature from 1999 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2014. In the interim, he served briefly in the National Assembly from 2006 to 2009. He was a member of the Democratic Party (DP), later the Democratic Alliance (DA), until September 2005, when he crossed the floor to join the African National Congress (ANC). In 2015, he left the ANC to establish the National Religious Freedom Party, a KwaZulu-Natal-based party of which Ngcobo is president.
Aumsensingh "Omie" Singh is a South African politician and businessman from KwaZulu-Natal. From 2014 to 2019, he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Council of Provinces, where he co-chaired Parliament's Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests. Before that, he served in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 2001 to 2014 and in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2001. Having entered politics as a member of the Democratic Party (DP), he joined the ANC by floor-crossing in March 2003.
Craig Mervyn Morkel is a South African businessman and former politician. He served in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2009, representing the Western Cape constituency, before embarking on his career in business. In 2006, he was convicted of defrauding Parliament in the Travelgate scandal.
References
- 1 2 The Impact of Floor Crossing on Party Systems and Representative Democracy (PDF) (Report). Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. 2006. pp. 71–84. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
- ↑ Constitution Tenth Amendment Act of 2003
- ↑ "Political Parties in National Assembly". Parliamentary Monitoring Group. Archived from the original on 21 August 2008. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 John Kane-Berman; et al. (2004). South Africa Survey 2003/04. South African Institute of Race Relations. p. 480. ISBN 978-0-86982-476-4.