Provincial legislature (South Africa)

In South Africa, a provincial legislature is the legislative branch of the government of a province. The provincial legislatures are unicameral and vary in size from 30 to 80 members, depending on the population of the province. Each legislature is chaired by a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker.

The original four provinces of South Africa (the provinces that existed from 1910 to 1994) had provincial councils elected by the white population of the provinces. The provincial councils were weak; they appointed an executive council (a provincial cabinet) but could not appoint or remove the Administrator (the executive head) of the province. The Administrators were chosen by the Governor-General (before 1961) or the State President (after 1961). The provincial councils' legislative powers were also strictly limited to specific topics. In 1986 the national Parliament abolished the provincial councils entirely, instead allowing the State President to appoint the whole executive council.

The current provincial legislatures were established by the 1993 Interim Constitution of South Africa upon the creation of the new nine provinces. The 1993 Constitution came into effect (and the provinces came into existence) on 27 April 1994; the election on the same day elected the first provincial legislatures. For the most part, the provincial legislatures have been controlled by the African National Congress. The exceptions are the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, which was controlled by the Inkatha Freedom Party from 1994 to 2004; and the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, which was controlled by the (New) National Party from 1994 to 2004 (sometimes in coalition with the Democratic Party) and since 2009 has been controlled by the Democratic Alliance.

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