The provincial governments are structured according to a parliamentary system in which the executive is dependent on and accountable to the legislature. In each province the provincial legislature is directly elected by proportional representation, and the legislature in turn elects one of its members as Premier to head the executive. The Premier appoints an Executive Council (a cabinet), consisting of members of the legislature, to administer the various departments of the provincial administration.
The powers of the provincial governments are circumscribed by the national constitution, which limits them to certain listed "functional areas". In some areas the provincial governments' powers are concurrent with those of the national government, while in other areas the provincial governments have exclusive powers. The constitution prescribes a principle of "co-operative government" whereby the various layers of government must co-ordinate their actions and legislation; it also lays down a series of rules for resolving conflicts between national and provincial legislation.
Legislature
Johannesburg City Hall, now the seat of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature
Each province has a unicameral provincial legislature, varying in size from 30 to 80 members depending on the population of the province. The members of the provincial legislature are elected by party-list proportional representation for a usual term of five years, although under certain circumstances the legislature may be dissolved before its term expires. By convention elections to the provincial legislatures are held on the same day as elections to the National Assembly; the most recent such election was held on 28 May 2024. At that election the African National Congress (ANC) won a majority in five of the provinces, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) won a majority in the Western Cape. The provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape are governed through coalition governments.
The head of the provincial executive is the Premier, who is elected by the provincial legislature from amongst its members; frequently the Premier will be the provincial leader of the majority party. The term of office of the Premier is the same as that of the legislature (normally five years) with a term limit of two terms. The legislature can force the resignation of the Premier by a motion of no confidence. If the Premiership is vacant and the legislature fails to elect a new Premier within 30 days, the legislature is dissolved and an election is called.
The Premier appoints an Executive Council (a cabinet) of five to ten members of the provincial legislature. The Members of the Executive Council (or MECs) are responsible for the various departments of the provincial administration. Because the responsibilities of the provincial governments are limited to those listed in the constitution, the portfolios are quite similar across the provinces. Common MEC portfolios and departmental responsibilities include:
South Africa has a single national court system, and the administration of justice is the responsibility of the national government. At present the jurisdictional boundaries of the High Courts do not correspond entirely with the provincial boundaries; the Superior Courts Bill currently before Parliament will rationalise the courts so that there is a single High Court division in each province.
The provincial executive does play a role in the selection of High Court judges, as the Premier of a province is ex officio a member of the Judicial Service Commission when it deals with matters relating to a High Court that sits in that province.
Provincial constitutions
A provincial legislature can, by a two-thirds majority vote, adopt a constitution for the province; it is not necessary to do so, as the national constitution provides a complete structure for provincial government. A provincial constitution must be consistent with the national constitution except that it can provide for different structures and procedures for the executive and the legislature.
The only province that has adopted a constitution is the Western Cape; in doing so it chose to rename its legislature the Provincial Parliament. It also calls its Executive Council the Provincial Cabinet, and the MECs are called Provincial Ministers.
South Africa is divided into nine provinces. 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. The borders of Natal and the Orange Free State were retained, while the Cape Province and Transvaal were divided into three provinces each, plus North West Province which straddles the border of and contains territory from both these two former provinces. The twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments to the Constitution of South Africa changed the borders of seven of the provinces.
Municipal elections were held in South Africa on 1 March 2006, to elect members to the local governing councils in the municipalities of South Africa. The municipalities form the local government of South Africa and are subdivisions of the provinces, thus making them responsible for local service delivery, such as electricity, water and fire services.
The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature is the primary legislative body of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is unicameral in its composition and elects the premier and the provincial cabinet from among the leading party or coalition members in the parliament. Thami Ntuli of the Inkatha Freedom Party was elected Premier of KwaZulu-Natal at the first sitting of the provincial legislature on 14 June 2024.
Provincial heritage sites in South Africa are places that are of historic or cultural importance within the context of the province concerned and which are for this reason declared in terms of Section 28 of the National Heritage Resources Act (NHRA) or legislation of the applicable province. The designation was a new one that came into effect with the introduction of the Act on 1 April 2000 when all former national monuments declared by the former National Monuments Council and its predecessors became provincial heritage sites as provided for in Section 58 of the Act.
The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal is the head of government of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The current Premier of KwaZulu-Natal is Thami Ntuli, a member of the Inkatha Freedom Party. He was first elected to assume this position, and took office, on 14 June 2024.
The Constitution of the Western Cape is, subject to the Constitution of South Africa, the highest law regulating the structure and powers of the government of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was enacted by the Western Cape Provincial Legislature in terms of Chapter 6 of the national constitution, and came into force on 16 January 1998. The Western Cape is the only South African province to have adopted a constitution.
The Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa altered the boundaries of seven of South Africa's nine provinces. It also redefined all of the provinces' geographical areas in terms of the areas of district and metropolitan municipalities, and repealed the provisions introduced by the Third Amendment that allowed municipal areas to cross provincial boundaries. A number of the boundary changes were highly controversial and led to popular protest and court challenges.
A provincial heritage resources authority (PHRA) is a government agency established at provincial level in South Africa and is responsible for the management of immovable heritage. In some instances, they are also responsible for moveable heritage, interpretation centres and museums.
General elections were held in South Africa on 8 May 2019 to elect a new President, National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. These were the sixth elections held since the end of apartheid in 1994 and determined who would become the next President of South Africa.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announced on 20 March 2019 that a record number of 48 parties had registered candidates for the national parliamentary election. This is 19 more parties that contested the 2014 national elections. In the provincial legislature elections, the total number of parties registering candidates were:
Kwazikwenkosi Innocent Mshengu is a South African lawyer and African National Congress politician who served as the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education in KwaZulu-Natal until 11 August 2022 when he was replaced with Mbali Frazer by the new KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube. He served as a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from May 2019 until February 2023. Mshengu is the provincial chairperson of the African National Congress Youth League.
Vusumuzi Cyril Xaba is a South African politician and a former Member of the National Assembly of South Africa from 2019 until 2024. He served as Co-Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans. A member of the African National Congress, he previously served in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 1994 to 2009 and from 2014 to 2019. He was the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2014 to 2016.
Ntuthuko Mbongiseni Sibiya, known as Jomo Sibiya, is a South African politician who served as the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Human Settlements and Public Works in KwaZulu-Natal from March 2021 until August 2022. A member of the African National Congress, Sibiya was elected to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature in 2014.
Amanda Glenrose Mapena is a South African politician who was the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Sports, Arts and Culture in KwaZulu-Natal from August 2022 until her resignation in April 2023. She has been a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature since May 2019. Mapena is a member of the African National Congress.
The Provincial Executive Committees (PECs) of the African National Congress (ANC) are the chief executive organs of the party's nine provincial branches. Comprising the so-called “Top Five” provincial officials and up to 30 additional elected members, each is structured similarly to the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) and is elected every four years at party provincial conferences.
The Executive Council of KwaZulu-Natal is the cabinet of the executive branch of the provincial government in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. The Members of the Executive Council (MECs) are appointed from among the members of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature by the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, an office held since August 2022 by Nomusa Dube-Ncube of the African National Congress (ANC).
Weziwe Gcotyelwa Thusi is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature and KwaZulu-Natal Executive Council until 2019. Most prominently, she was KwaZulu-Natal's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Social Development from 2011 to 2019. She later served as Speaker of the eThekweni Metropolitan Council from 2019 until 2021, when she resigned from politics.
Bonginkosi Meshack Radebe is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature until May 2019. He was formerly Deputy Speaker in the legislature and also served as a Member of the Executive Council (MEC) in KwaZulu-Natal from 2009 to 2014. He was known for his role in mediating the political violence between the ANC and Inkatha in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal in the 1990s.
Catharina Magdalena "Ina" Cronjé was a South African politician who served in the Executive Council of KwaZulu-Natal from 2004 to 2014. She was KwaZulu-Natal's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education from 2004 to 2009, and MEC for Finance from 2009 to 2014.
Lindumusa Bekizitha Gabriel Ndabandaba is a retired South African politician and academic who served in the National Assembly and KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature from 1999 to 2014. He represented the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) until 2003, when he crossed the floor to the African National Congress (ANC).
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