Provinces of South Africa

South African Provinces
	North West Northern Cape Gauteng Limpopo Mpumalanga Free State KwaZulu-Natal Eastern Cape Western Cape
Category	Unitary state
Location	South Africa
Number	9 Provinces
Populations	1,145,861 (Northern Cape) – 12,272,263 (Gauteng)
Areas	47,080 km2 (18,178 sq mi) (Gauteng) – 372,890 km2 (143,973 sq mi) (Northern Cape)
Government	Provincial government, National government
Subdivisions	Districts

South Africa is divided into nine provinces.[1] 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 of South Africa changed the borders of seven of the provinces.

History

The provinces at the creation of the Union in 1910

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.

Provinces and homelands, as they were at the end of apartheid

Segregation of the black population started as early as 1913, with ownership of land by the black majority being restricted to certain areas totalling about 13% of the country. From the late 1950s, these areas were gradually consolidated into "homelands", also called "bantustans". Four of these homelands were established as quasi-independent nation 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.

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 new provinces were established. The boundaries of these provinces were established in 1993 by a Commission on the Demarcation/Delimitation of Regions created by CODESA, and were broadly based on planning regions demarcated by the Development Bank of Southern Africa in the 1980s,[2][3] and amalgamated from existing magisterial districts, with some concessions to political parties that wished to consolidate their power bases, by transferring districts between the proposed provinces.[4][5] The definitions of the new provinces in terms of magisterial districts were found in Schedule 1 of the Interim Constitution.

Government

Johannesburg City Hall, now the seat of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature

South Africa's provinces are governed, in different ways, on a national, provincial and local level.[6]

Nationally, there is the National Council of Provinces, one of the houses of Parliament. Then there is the provincial government and, below that, the administration of district and metropolitan municipalities.

National Council of Provinces

South Africa has two houses of parliament: the National Assembly, and the National Council of Provinces.[6] The second exists to ensure that the interests of each province are protected in the laws passed by the National Assembly.

Each one of South Africa's nine provinces sends 10 representatives to the National Council of Provinces. Six of these are permanent members of the council, and four are special delegates.

Provincial government

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.[7]

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.[7] 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.[8]

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

The provinces of South Africa

Province	Name in the most spoken native language[9]	Capital	Largest city	Area[10]^:9	Population (2011)[10]^:18	Population density (2011)	Human Devel. Index (2003) [11]
Eastern Cape	iMpuma-Koloni (Xhosa)	Bhisho (Bisho)	Port Elizabeth	168,966 km² (65,238 sq mi)	6,562,053	38.8/km² (100/sq mi)	0.62
Free State	Freistata (Sotho)	Bloemfontein	Bloemfontein	129,825 km² (50,126 sq mi)	2,745,590	21.1/km² (55/sq mi)	0.67
Gauteng	eGoli (Zulu)	Johannesburg	Johannesburg	18,178 km² (7,019 sq mi)	12,272,263	675.1/km² (1,749/sq mi)	0.74
KwaZulu-Natal	iKwaZulu-Natali (Zulu)	Pietermaritzburg [n 1]	Durban	94,361 km² (36,433 sq mi)	10,267,300	108.8/km² (282/sq mi)	0.63
Limpopo	Limpopo (Northern Sotho)	Polokwane (Pietersburg)	Polokwane	125,754 km² (48,554 sq mi)	5,404,868	43.0/km² (111/sq mi)	0.59
Mpumalanga	iMpumalanga (Swazi)	Mbombela (Nelspruit)	Mbombela	76,495 km² (29,535 sq mi)	4,039,939	52.8/km² (137/sq mi)	0.65
North West	Bokone Bophirima (Tswana)	Mahikeng (Mafikeng)	Klerksdorp	104,882 km² (40,495 sq mi)	3,509,953	33.5/km² (87/sq mi)	0.61
Northern Cape	Noord-Kaap (Afrikaans)	Kimberley	Kimberley	372,889 km² (143,973 sq mi)	1,145,861	3.1/km² (8.0/sq mi)	0.69
Western Cape [n 2]	Wes-Kaap (Afrikaans)	Cape Town	Cape Town	129,462 km² (49,986 sq mi)	5,822,734	45.0/km² (117/sq mi)	0.77
Republic of South Africa	iRiphabhuliki yaseNingizimu Afrika (Zulu)	Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein	Johannesburg	1,220,813 km² (471,359 sq mi)	51,770,560	42.4/km² (110/sq mi)	0.67

Footnotes:

Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi were joint capitals of KwaZulu-Natal from 1994 to 2004.
These statistics do not include the Prince Edward Islands (335 km², 129 sq mi, with no permanent residents), which are South African territories in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean but part of the Western Cape for legal and electoral purposes.

Provincial acronyms

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	CSS	Conventional
Eastern Cape	ZA.EC	EC	SF05	02	EC
Free State	ZA.FS	FS	SF03	04	FS
Gauteng	ZA.GT	GP	SF06	07	GP
KwaZulu-Natal	ZA.NL	KZN	SF02	05	KZN
Limpopo	ZA.NP	LP	SF09	09	LP
Mpumalanga	ZA.MP	MP	SF07	08	MP
Northern Cape	ZA.NC	NC	SF08	03	NC
North-West	ZA.NW	NW	SF10	06	NW
Western Cape	ZA.WC	WC	SF11	01	WC
Notes HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes ISO: Province codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "ZA-" to the code FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10–4, a U.S. government standard. CSS: Province codes used by the Central Statistical Service of South Africa. [12]

Former administrative divisions

Province	Capital	Peak population	Location
Cape of Good Hope (1910–1994)	Cape Town	6,125,335
Natal (1910–1994)	Pietermaritzburg	2,430,753
Orange Free State (1910–1994)	Bloemfontein	2,193,062
Transvaal (1910–1994)	Pretoria	9,491,265
Homelands	Capital	Peak population	Location
Bophuthatswana (1977–1994) †	Mmabatho	1,478,950
Ciskei (1972–1994) †	Bisho	677,920
Gazankulu (1971–1994)	Giyani	954,771
KaNgwane (1981–1994)	Louieville Schoemansdal (de facto)	779,240
KwaNdebele (1981–1994)	KwaMhlanga	404,246
KwaZulu (1981–1994)	Nongoma (until 1980) Ulundi (1980–1994)	5,524,774
Lebowa (1972–1994)	Lebowakgomo	2,740,587
QwaQwa (1974–1994)	Phuthaditjhaba	342,886
Transkei (1976–1994) †	Umtata	2,323,650
Venda (1979–1994) †	Thohoyandou	558,797
Mandates	Capital	Peak population
South-West Africa	Windhoek	1,415,000