Provinces of South Africa

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South Africa is currently divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, also known as Bantustans, were reintegrated and the four existing provinces were divided into nine. The twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments to the constitution changed the borders of seven of the provinces. The provinces are as follows:

Province	Capital	Largest city	Area (km²)	Population (2010 est.)	Pop. density (per km²)	HDI (2003)
Eastern Cape	Bhisho	Port Elizabeth	168,966	6,743,800	39.9	0.62
Free State	Bloemfontein	Bloemfontein	129,825	2,824,500	21.8	0.67
Gauteng	Johannesburg	Johannesburg	18,178	11,191,700	615.7	0.74
KwaZulu-Natal	Pietermaritzburg²	Durban	94,361	10,645,400	112.8	0.63
Limpopo	Polokwane	Polokwane	125,754	5,439,600	43.3	0.59
Mpumalanga	Nelspruit	Nelspruit	76,495	3,617,600	47.3	0.65
North West	Mafikeng	Rustenburg	104,882	3,200,900	30.5	0.61
Northern Cape	Kimberley	Kimberley	372,889	1,103,900	3.0	0.69
Western Cape¹	Cape Town	Cape Town	129,462	5,223,900	40.4	0.77

¹: The Prince Edward Islands, South African territories in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that are part of the Western Cape for legal purposes, are not included in these statistics.

²: Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi were joint capitals of KwaZulu-Natal from 1994 to 2004.

History

The Union of South Africa was established in 1910 by combining four British colonies: the Cape Colony, the Natal Colony, the Transvaal Colony and the Orange River Colony. (The latter two were, before the Second Boer War, independent republics known as the South African Republic and the Orange Free State.) These colonies became the four original provinces of the Union: Cape Province, Transvaal Province, Natal Province and Orange Free State Province.

Segregation of the black population started as early as 1913, with ownership of land by the black majority being restricted to certain areas totaling about 13% of the country. From the late 1950s, these areas were gradually consolidated into "homelands" or "bantustans," which served as the de jure national states of the black population during the apartheid era. In 1976, the homeland of Transkei was the first to accept independence from South Africa, and although this independence was never acknowledged by any other country, three other homelands — Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979) and Ciskei (1981) — followed suit.

At the height of apartheid, the various divisions of South Africa were:

Name	Capital
Provinces
Cape of Good Hope	Cape Town
Natal	Pietermaritzburg
Orange Free State	Bloemfontein
Transvaal	Pretoria
"Independent" homelands
Bophuthatswana	Mmabatho
Ciskei	Bisho
Transkei	Umtata
Venda	Thohoyandou
Non-independent homelands
Gazankulu	Giyani
KaNgwane	KaNyamazane
KwaNdebele	Siyabuswa
KwaZulu	Ulundi
Lebowa	Lebowakgomo
Qwaqwa	Phuthaditjhaba

On 27 April 1994, the date of the first non-racial elections and of the adoption of the Interim Constitution, all of these provinces and homelands were dissolved, and nine entirely new provinces were established.

Government

⁠See also: Provincial legislature (South Africa), Premier (South Africa), and Executive Council (South Africa)

Each province is governed by a unicameral legislature; the size of the legislature is proportional to population, ranging from 30 members in the Northern Cape to 80 in KwaZulu-Natal. The legislatures are elected every five years by a system of party-list proportional representation; by convention, they are all elected on the same day, at the same time as the National Assembly election.

The provincial legislature elects, from amongst its members, a Premier, who is the head of the executive. The Premier chooses an Executive Council consisting of between five and ten members of the legislature, which is the cabinet of the provincial government. The Members of the Executive Council (MECs) are the provincial equivalent of ministers.

The powers of the provincial government are limited to specific topics listed in the national constitution. On some of these topics — for example, agriculture, education, health and public housing — the province's powers are shared with the national government, which can establish uniform standards and frameworks for the provincial governments to follow; on other topics the provincial government has exclusive power.

The provinces do not have their own court systems, as the administration of justice is a responsiblity purely of the national government.

See also

• Elections in South Africa
• Prince Edward Islands
• Walvis Bay
• ISO 3166-2:ZA

References

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