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.
An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government.
The Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) for short, is an economic agreement between the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, signed on 29 June 2003. A similar agreement, known as the Mainland and Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, was signed between the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region and the Central People's Government on 18 October 2003.
The National Library of South Africa is the agency of the government of South Africa which maintains a national library of all published materials relating to the country.
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted by referendum on 2 and 3 December 1979, and went into force replacing the Constitution of 1906. It has been amended once, on 28 July 1989. The constitution has been called a "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements". Articles One and Two vest sovereignty in God; but article Six "mandates popular elections for the presidency and the Majlis, or parliament." However, main democratic procedures and rights are subordinate to the Guardian Council and the Supreme Leader, whose powers are spelled out in Chapter Eight.
At least thirty-five languages indigenous to South Africa are spoken in the Republic, eleven of which are official languages of South Africa: Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, and English, which is the primary language used in parliamentary and state discourse, though all official languages are equal in legal status. Unofficial languages are protected under the Constitution of South Africa, though few are mentioned by any name. South African Sign Language has legal recognition but is not an official language, despite a campaign and parliamentary recommendation for it to be declared one.
A national language is a language that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the territory of a country may be referred to informally or designated in legislation as national languages of the country. National languages are mentioned in over 150 world constitutions.
South African Sign Language is the primary sign language used by deaf people in South Africa. The South African government added a National Language Unit for South African Sign Language in 2001. SASL is not the only manual language used in South Africa, but it is the language that is being promoted as the language to be used by the Deaf in South Africa, although Deaf peoples in South Africa historically do not form a single group.
In South Africa, a metropolitan municipality or Category A municipality is a municipality which executes all the functions of local government for a city or conurbation. This is by contrast to areas which are primarily rural, where the local government is divided into district municipalities and local municipalities.
The nine provinces of South Africa are divided into 52 districts, which are either metropolitan or district municipalities. They are the second level of administrative division, below the provinces and above the local municipalities.
Autshumato was a chief of the Khoikhoi Gorinhaikonas who worked as an interpreter for the Europeans in present-day, Cape Town, South Africa prior and during the establishment of the Dutch settlement on the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.
Roelof Petrus Meyer is a South African politician and businessman. Originally a member of the National Party, he is known for his prominent role in the negotiations to end the apartheid system in South Africa. He later co-founded the United Democratic Movement.
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.
Linguistic rights are the human and civil rights concerning the individual and collective right to choose the language or languages for communication in a private or public atmosphere. Other parameters for analyzing linguistic rights include the degree of territoriality, amount of positivity, orientation in terms of assimilation or maintenance, and overtness.
The Public Protector in South Africa is one of six independent state institutions set up by the country's Constitution to support and defend democracy.
Latvian State Language Centre is a direct administration institution subordinated to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Latvia. The purpose of the State Language Centre is to implement the national policy on the use of the official language. The Centre supervises and controls the conformity with laws and regulations on the use of official language, provides the State administration institutions and the public with official translations of laws and regulations and other documents issued by the State or international organisations while concurrently ensuring use of consistent terminology. The State Language Centre protects rights and interests of the official language users, promotes the regularisation of the cultural environment of language and promotes comprehensive functioning of Latvian language.
In South Africa, private and public health systems exist in parallel. The public system serves the vast majority of the population. Authority and service delivery are divided between the national Department of Health, provincial health departments, and municipal health departments.
The National Environmental Management Act, 1998 is the statutory framework to enforce Section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The NEMA is intended to promote co-operative governance and ensure that the rights of people are upheld, but also recognising the necessity of economic development. NEMA supersedes the Environmental Conservation Act, which was inadequate to deal with enforcement, administration, and governance, and was written to be more successful in these aspects.
The Chief of Protocol (CoP) is a government official who heads the protocol department of a state, overseeing security, logistics and etiquette in diplomatic and national functions. A protocol department decides on diplomatic immunity and privileges, diplomatic host security, diplomatic use of airspace and it is the guardian of official etiquette. Advance protocol teams, usually headed by the Chief of Protocol, engage as first contact between governments for the planning of bilateral and multilateral summits and visits.
