National Council of Provinces

National Council of Provinces List 10 other official names: Nasionale Raad van Provinsies  (Afrikaans) umKhandlu weNarha oNgamele iimFunda  (Southern Ndebele) Bhunga leSizwe lamaPhondo  (Xhosa) uMkhandlu kaZwelonke weziFundazwe  (Zulu) uMkhandlu waVelonkhe wetiFundza  (Swati) Lekgotla la Bosetšhaba la Diprofense  (Northern Sotho) Lekgotla la Naha la Diprofense  (Sotho) Lekgotla la Bosetšhaba la Diporofense  (Tswana) Huvo ya Rixaka ya Swifundzhankulu  (Tsonga) Khoro ya Lushaka ya Mavunḓu  (Venda)
26th South African Parliament
Type
Type	Upper house of the Parliament of South Africa
Leadership
Chairperson	Thandi Modise, ANC Since 22 May 2014
Deputy Chairperson	Raseriti Tau, ANC Since 22 May 2014
Leader of the Opposition	Cathlene Labuschagne, DA
Structure
Seats	90 (54 permanent, 36 special)
Political groups	ANC (33 + 27)          DA (13 + 7)          EFF (6 + 1)          Others (2 + 1)
Elections
Voting system	Indirect proportional representation from provincial legislatures
Last election	21 May 2014
Meeting place
NCOP Chamber, Houses of Parliament, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Website
National Council of Provinces

The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa under the (post-apartheid) constitution which came into full effect in 1997. It replaced the former Senate, but is very similar to that body, and to many other upper houses of legislatures throughout the world, in that its purpose is to represent the governments of the provinces, rather than directly representing the people.

Election to the NCOP is indirect: citizens vote for provincial legislatures, and each legislature then nominates a delegation of ten members to the NCOP. This means that each of South Africa's nine provinces has equal representation in the Council regardless of population. Each provincial delegation consists of six permanent delegates, who are nominated for a term that lasts until a new provincial legislature is elected, and four special delegates. One of the special delegates is the province's Premier, or another member of the provincial legislature designated by the Premier, while the other three special delegates are designated ad hoc by the provincial legislature. The party representation in the delegation must proportionally reflect the party representation in the provincial legislature, according to a formula included in the Constitution. A delegation from the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), which represents the municipalities, may also attend sittings of the NCOP, but may not vote.

After the elections of 7 May 2014, the new provincial legislatures met on 21 May to elect NCOP delegations. The delegations elected are described in the following table.

The NCOP may consider, amend, propose amendments to, or reject legislation. It must consider all national bills, and also has the power to initiate legislation in the functional areas where Parliament and the provincial legislatures have concurrent legislative power ("Schedule 4 areas").