| South African Government | |
|---|---|
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| Overview | |
| Established | 31 May 1910; 115 years ago (1910-05-31) |
| State |  South Africa |
| Leader | President(Cyril Ramaphosa) |
| Appointed by | National Assembly of South Africa |
| Main organ | Cabinet of South Africa |
| Ministries | 32 |
| Responsible to | Parliament of South Africa |
| Annual budget |  R2,37 trillion (2024)[1] |
| Headquarters | Union Buildings,Pretoria |
| Website | www |
TheGovernment of South Africa, orSouth African Government, is thenational government of theRepublic of South Africa, aparliamentary republic with a three-tier system of government and an independentjudiciary, operating in aparliamentary system. Legislative authority is held by theParliament of South Africa. Executive authority is vested in thePresident of South Africa who is head of state and head of government, and their Cabinet. The President is elected by the Parliament to serve a fixed term.
South Africa's government differs from those of otherCommonwealth nations. The national, provincial and local levels of government all havelegislative and executive authority in their own spheres, and are defined in the South AfricanConstitution as "distinctive, interdependent and interrelated".
Operating at both national and provincial levels ("domes") are advisory bodies drawn from South Africa's traditional leaders. It is a stated intention in the Constitution that the country be run on a system of cooperative governance.
The nationalgovernment is composed of three inter-connected branches; the legislature (parliament, consisting of theNational Assembly and theNational Council of Provinces), the executive (thePresident, who is bothHead of State andHead of Government), and the judiciary (theConstitutional Court, theSupreme Court of Appeal, and theHigh Court).
All bodies of the South African Government are subject to the rule of the Constitution, which is the supreme law in South Africa.
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TheParliament of the Republic of South Africa isSouth Africa'slegislature. It is located inCape Town; the country's legislativecapital.
Under the presentConstitution of South Africa, thebicameral Parliament comprises aNational Assembly and aNational Council of Provinces.[2][3][4] The currenttwenty-eighth Parliament was first convened on 14 June 2024.
From 1910 to 1994, members of Parliament were elected chiefly by the South Africanwhite minority. The first elections with universal suffrage were held in1994.
Both chambers held their meetings in theHouses of Parliament, Cape Town that were built 1875–1884. Afire broke out within the buildings in early January 2022, destroying the session room of the National Assembly. It was decided that the National Assembly would temporarily meet at the Good Hope Chamber.[5]
ThePresident,Deputy President and the Ministers of the South African Government make up theexecutive branch of the national government. Ministers are Members of Parliament who are appointed by the President to head the variousdepartments of the national government. The president is elected by parliament from its members.
The third branch of the national government is an independent judiciary. The judicial branch interprets the laws, using as a basis the laws as enacted and explanatory statements made in the Legislature during the enactment. The legal system is based onRoman-Dutch law andEnglish common law and accepts compulsoryICJ jurisdiction, with reservations. The constitution's bill of rights provides for due process including the right to afair,public trial within a reasonable time.
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The nineprovinces of South Africa are governed byprovincial governments which form the second layer of government, between the national government and themunicipalities. The provincial governments are established, and their structure defined, byChapter Six of theConstitution of South Africa.
The provincial governments are structured according to aparliamentary system in which the executive is dependent on and accountable to the legislature. In each province theprovincial legislature is directly elected byproportional representation, and the legislature in turn elects one of its members asPremier to head the executive. The Premier appoints anExecutive Council (a cabinet), consisting of members of the legislature, to administer the variousdepartments 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.Local government in South Africa consists ofmunicipalities of various types. The largestmetropolitan areas are governed bymetropolitan municipalities, while the rest of the country[6] is divided intodistrict municipalities, each of which consists of severallocal municipalities. After themunicipal election of 18 May 2011 there were eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities and 226 local municipalities.[7]
Municipalities are governed bymunicipal councils which are elected every five years. The councils of metropolitan and local municipalities are elected by a system ofmixed-member proportional representation, while the councils of district municipalities are partly elected by proportional representation and partly appointed by the councils of the constituent local municipalities.[8]
In each legislative body, the party or coalition of parties holding a majority of seats forms the government. The largest party not in the government is recognised as the official opposition.
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