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70-739: The Transvaal Provincial Council was the provincial council of the Transvaal Province in South Africa. It was created by the South Africa Act 1909 , from the formation of the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910, and replaced the Transvaal Legislative Assembly which had been created through self-government in 1907. The first election to the provincial council took place on 15 September 1910 (also

140-728: A German colony , except for Walvis Bay and the Offshore Islands which remained part of the Cape, outside of German control. Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Union of South Africa occupied and annexed the German colony of German South West Africa . With the establishment of the League of Nations and cessation of the war, South Africa obtained a Class C Mandate to administer South West Africa "under

210-541: A Trusteeship agreement instead. This invitation was in turn rejected by the Union, which subsequently did not modify the administration of South West Africa and continued to adhere to the original mandate. This caused a complex set of legal wranglings that were not finalised when the Union was replaced with the Republic of South Africa. In 1949, the Union passed a law bringing South West Africa into closer association with it including giving South West Africa representation in

280-473: A South African Party government would join forces with the provincial minority parties to out-vote Labour on the committee. A deadlock resulted, when the Labour Party objected to certain taxation proposals of the executive committee. The Provincial Council refused to vote supply. The Union Parliament had to legislate to provide funds, to avoid the collapse of the provincial public service. In 1917 there

350-642: A provincial council before its statutory term expired. Under the Constitution and Elections Amendment Act, 1973, the State President was given the power to dissolve the provincial councils at the same time as the House of Assembly, so that the subsequent provincial election could take place on the same day as a parliamentary general election. The provincial councils had the power to make laws, known as "ordinances", dealing with certain topics listed in

420-612: A separate colony and 40.6% in favour of joining the Union of South Africa. The inhospitable coast of what is now the Republic of Namibia remained uncolonised up until the end of the 19th century. From 1874, the leaders of several indigenous peoples, notably Maharero of the Herero nation, approached the Cape Parliament to the south. Anticipating invasion by a European power and already suffering Portuguese encroachment from

490-473: A sovereign nation. It removed what remaining authority Whitehall had to legislate for South Africa, as well as any nominal role that the United Kingdom had in granting Royal Assent . The governor-general was now required to sign or veto bills passed by Parliament, without the option of seeking advice from London. The monarch was represented in South Africa by a governor-general , while effective power

560-774: The British Parliament in December 1931, which repealed the Colonial Laws Validity Act and implemented the Balfour Declaration 1926 , had a profound impact on the constitutional structure and status of the Union. The most notable effect was that the South African Parliament was released from many restrictions concerning the handling of the so-called "native question". However, the repeal was not sufficient to enable

630-422: The British Parliament 's adoption of the South Africa Act , which ratified the Union. The four colonies that would become South Africa were represented, along with a delegation from Rhodesia . The 33 delegates assembled behind closed doors, in the fear that a public affair would lead delegates to refuse compromising on contentious areas. The delegates drew up a constitution that would, subject to some amendments by

700-703: The Commonwealth , unlike the Afrikaans-speaking National Party , which had held anti-British sentiments and was opposed to South Africa's intervention in the Second World War . Some Nationalist organisations, like the Ossewabrandwag , were openly supportive of Nazi Germany during the Second World War . Most English-speaking South Africans were opposed to the creation of a republic , many of them voting "no" in

770-819: The Kingdom of Portugal or the German Empire . In response, the Cape Parliament appointed a special Commission under William Palgrave , to travel to the territory between the Orange and Cunene rivers and to confer with these leaders regarding accession to the Cape. In the negotiations with the Palgrave Commission , some indigenous nations such as the Damara and the Herero responded positively (October 1876), other reactions were mixed. Discussions regarding

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840-704: The Representation of Natives Act , black voters in the Cape Province were removed from the common voters' roll and instead allowed to separately elect two members of the provincial council. In 1956, under the Separate Representation of Voters Act , coloured voters in the Cape were similarly removed from the common roll and allowed to separately elect two members. The members representing black voters were removed in 1959 and those representing coloured voters were removed in 1968. Originally

910-559: The South Africa Act and in the Constitution Act that replaced it when South Africa became a republic. These topics were: The provincial councils were always subordinate to Parliament , which could overrule provincial ordinances. Further, while acts of Parliament could not be questioned by the courts, provincial ordinances were subject to judicial review to determine whether they were ultra vires . The provincial executive committee consisted of an Administrator appointed by

980-583: The 5 October 1960 referendum . But due to the much larger number of Afrikaans-speaking voters, the referendum passed, leading to the establishment of a republic on 31 May 1961. The government led by the National Party consequently withdrew South Africa from the Commonwealth. Following the results of the referendum, some whites in Natal, which had an English-speaking majority, called for secession from

1050-588: The Administrator of the province, subject to the approval of Parliament. In 1994, on the commencement of the Interim Constitution , the four original provinces were dissolved to be replaced by the nine provinces now existing. Each new province has a provincial legislature which has considerably broader legislative powers than the old provincial councils, and is elected by all citizens of the province regardless of race. The provincial council

1120-513: The Boer republics. Numerous Boer soldiers refused to surrender and took to the countryside to carry out guerrilla operations against the British, who responded by implementing scorched earth tactics. These tactics included interning Afrikaner civilians from the Boer republics in concentration camps (in which roughly 28,000 people died) and destroying homesteads owned by Afrikaners to flush out

1190-611: The British government, become the South Africa Act. This was South Africa's constitution between 1910 and 1961, when the country became a republic under the Constitution of 1961 . In 1922 the colony of Southern Rhodesia had a chance (but ultimately rejected) to join the Union through a referendum . The referendum resulted from the fact that by 1920 British South Africa Company rule in Southern Rhodesia

1260-524: The Orange Free State), there were 25 provincial councillors and separate districts were delimited for their election. This formula was altered by the Constitution and Elections Amendment Act, 1973, so that provinces electing 20 or more Assembly members would have corresponding Assembly and provincial council divisions, while provinces with fewer than 20 Assembly seats would have two provincial council divisions for each Assembly division. The result

1330-652: The Prime Minister of South Africa, Jan Smuts , eventually offered terms he considered reasonable and which the United Kingdom government found acceptable. Although opinion among the United Kingdom government, the South African government and the British South Africa Company favoured the union option (and none tried to interfere in the referendum), when the referendum was held the results saw 59.4% in favour of responsible government for

1400-514: The South African Parliament to ignore the entrenched clauses of its constitution (the South Africa Act ) which led to the coloured-vote constitutional crisis of the 1950s wherein the right of coloureds to vote in the main South African Parliament was removed and replaced with a separate, segregated, and largely powerless assembly. The military of the Union of South Africa was the Union Defence Force (UDF) until 1957, when it became

1470-566: The South African parliament. Walvis Bay , which is now in Namibia , was originally a part of the Union of South Africa as an exclave as it was a part of the Cape Colony at the time of Unification. In 1921, Walvis Bay was integrated with the Class C Mandate over South West Africa for the rest of the Union's duration and for part of the republican era. The Statute of Westminster passed by

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1540-566: The Transvaal and the Orange Free State was restricted by law to white men, and in Natal the franchise was effectively limited to white men. Only in the Cape were there significant numbers of non-white voters, although they were limited by property and education qualifications. In 1930 all white women were given the right to vote, and in 1931 all remaining property and education qualifications were removed for white men. In 1936, under

1610-623: The Union and other dominions became equal in status to the United Kingdom, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom could no longer legislate on behalf of them. This had the effect of making the Union and the other dominions de jure sovereign nations. The Status of the Union Act , passed by the South African Parliament in 1934, incorporated the applicable portions of the Statute of Westminster into South African law, underscoring its status as

1680-477: The Union. Five years earlier, some 33,000 Natalians had signed the Natal Covenant in opposition to the plans for a republic. Subsequently, the National Party government had passed a Constitution that repealed the South Africa Act . The features of the Union were carried over with very little change to the newly formed Republic. The decision to transform from a Union to Republic was narrowly decided in

1750-550: The administration of South West Africa (now known as Namibia ). South West Africa became treated in most respects as another province of the Union, but it never was formally annexed. Like Canada , Australia and New Zealand , the Union of South Africa was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire . Its full sovereignty was confirmed with the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster 1931 . It

1820-465: The colonial empire found just". Several previous unsuccessful attempts to unite the colonies were made, with proposed political models ranging from unitary , to loosely federal . Sir George Grey , the Governor of Cape Colony from 1854 to 1861, decided that unifying the states of southern Africa would be mutually beneficial. The stated reasons were that he believed that political divisions between

1890-473: The day of the South African general election, 1910 ). The Provincial Council continued to exist until 1986, when its functions were transferred to a strengthened executive authority appointed by the State President. The province itself was disbanded in 1994, when the provinces were reconstructed. The Provincial Council was composed of members elected, by the first past the post electoral system, from

1960-557: The delimitation of electoral divisions and the dissolution of provincial councils was altered by the Constitution and Elections Amendment Act, 1973 , as described below. The Constitution of 1983 , which created the Tricameral Parliament , preserved those sections of the 1961 constitution dealing with the provincial councils under the name of the Provincial Government Act, 1961. The State President

2030-452: The end of his tenure and, having little experience of southern Africa, he preferred to enforce the more familiar model of confederation used in Canada. He pushed ahead with his Confederation plan, which unraveled as predicted, leaving a string of destructive wars across southern Africa. These conflicts eventually fed into the first and second Anglo-Boer Wars , with far-reaching consequences for

2100-428: The end of his term. Key to parties:- Provincial council (South Africa) The Union of South Africa was created in 1910 in terms of the South Africa Act 1909 . Four British colonies – Cape Colony , Transvaal Colony , Natal Colony and Orange River Colony  – became provinces of the new country, and the colonies' parliaments were abolished and most of their powers transferred to

2170-724: The entrenched sections of franchise and language, the courts were unable to intervene in Parliament's decisions. Pretoria was the seat of government, while the Parliament sat in Cape Town and the Appellate Division in Bloemfontein . The Union initially remained under the British Crown as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire . With the passage of the Statute of Westminster in 1931,

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2240-564: The final act of Union in 1909. A crucial difference was that the Cape's liberal constitution and multiracial franchise were to be extended to the other states of the union. These smaller states would gradually accede to the much larger Cape Colony through a system of treaties, whilst simultaneously gaining elected seats in the Cape parliament . The entire process would be locally driven, with Britain's role restricted to policing any set-backs. While subsequently acknowledged to be more viable, this model

2310-546: The gold and diamond mines there and highly protective of its own citizens, demanded reforms, which the Afrikaners rejected. A small-scale private British effort to overthrow Transvaal's President Paul Kruger , the Jameson Raid of 1895, proved a fiasco, and presaged full-scale conflict as diplomatic efforts all failed. The Second Boer War started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. The United Kingdom gained

2380-736: The guerillas and deny them a base of civilian support. Using these tactics combined with a system of blockhouses and barriers to seal off Boer holdouts, the British were able to gradually track down and defeat the guerillas. In the 1902 Treaty of Vereeniging , the British formally annexed the Boer republics into the Cape Colony , ending the war. The National Convention was a constitutional convention held between 1908 and 1909 in Durban (12 October to 5 November 1908), Cape Town (23 November to 18 December 1908, 11 January to 3 February 1909) and Bloemfontein (3 to 11 May 1909). This convention led to

2450-723: The idea in principle and the Transvaal may also eventually have agreed. However, he was overruled by the British Colonial Office which ordered him to desist from his plans. His refusal to abandon the idea eventually led to him being recalled. In the 1870s, the London Colonial Office, under Secretary for the Colonies Lord Carnarvon , decided to apply a system of confederation onto southern Africa. On this occasion, however, it

2520-617: The last months of 1899, Boer forces launched the first attacks of the war, besieging the British-held settlements of Ladysmith , Kimberley and Mafeking , and winning several engagements against British troops at Colenso , Magersfontein and Stormberg . However, by the next year the British soon organised an effective response to these attacks, lifting the three sieges and winning several battles against Boer forces. The British, now deploying approximately 400,000 soldiers from across their colonial empire, successfully invaded and occupied

2590-478: The laws of the mandatory (South Africa) as integral portions of its territory". Subsequently, the Union of South Africa generally regarded South West Africa as a fifth province, although this was never an official status. With the creation of the United Nations , the Union applied for the incorporation of South West Africa, but its application was rejected by the U.N., which invited South Africa to prepare

2660-505: The magisterial structure for the area's political integration into the Cape dragged on until, from 1876, it was blocked by Britain. Britain relented, insofar as allowing the Cape to incorporate Walvis Bay as an exclave, which was brought under the magisterial district of Cape Town , but when the Germans established a protectorate over the area in 1884, South West Africa was predominantly autonomous. Thereafter, South West Africa became

2730-592: The name of the Crown. An entrenched clause in the Constitution mentioned Dutch and English as official languages of the Union, but the meaning of Dutch was changed by the Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 to include both Dutch and Afrikaans. Most English-speaking whites in South Africa supported the United Party of Jan Smuts , which favoured close relations with the United Kingdom and

2800-444: The national executive and four members elected by the provincial council. These members were elected by single transferable vote , so were not necessarily all from the same party. The executive committee was responsible for the administration of provincial affairs. Executive powers were shared by the administrator and an executive committee. This arrangement was neither the traditional Westminster system (such as that which existed at

2870-446: The national government. The administrator was the chairman of the provincial executive committee and had both an original and casting vote in its deliberations. Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( Dutch : Unie van Zuid-Afrika ; Afrikaans : Unie van Suid-Afrika ; pronunciation ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa . It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with

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2940-433: The national level of government) or a United States style separation of powers between the executive and legislative parts of the government. The Administrator, who was appointed by the national government for a five-year term, was the official in whose name all provincial executive acts were carried out. He was not responsible to the provincial council and it had no power to remove him from office; he could only be removed by

3010-537: The new Parliament of the Union . The provincial councils were created to legislate on those matters which the South Africa Act allocated to the provinces. When South Africa became a republic in 1961, the Constitution of 1961 preserved the provincial councils unchanged, except that the powers previously vested in the Governor-General now vested in the State President . In 1973 the law relating to

3080-416: The north and Afrikaner encroachment from the south, these leaders approached the Cape Colony government to discuss the possibility of accession and the political representation it would entail. Accession to the Cape Colony, a self-governing state with a system of multi-racial franchise and legal protection for traditional land rights, was at the time considered marginally preferable to annexation by either

3150-411: The onset of the war, the British were both overconfident about the chances of success in a military confrontation with the Boer republics and underprepared for a long-term conflict. British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury and members of his cabinet , in particular Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain , ignored repeated warnings that Boer forces were more powerful than previous reports had suggested. In

3220-475: The provincial elections due in 1941 were postponed until 1943), but there was no general power to dissolve a Provincial Council before its statutory term expired. Under the Constitution and Elections Amendment Act 1973, the State President was given the power to dissolve the Provincial Councils at the same time as the House of Assembly, so that the subsequent provincial election could take place on

3290-608: The referendum. The decision together with the South African Government's insistence on adhering to its policy of apartheid resulted in South Africa's de facto expulsion from the Commonwealth of Nations . The South Africa Act dealt with race in two specific provisions. First it entrenched the liberal (by South African standards) Cape Qualified Franchise system of the Cape Colony which operated free of any racial considerations (although due to socio-economic restrictions no real political expression of non-whites

3360-401: The same day as a Parliamentary general election. Executive powers were shared by the administrator and an executive committee. This arrangement was neither the traditional 'Westminster' model (such as that which existed at the Union level of government) or a United States style separation of powers between the executive and legislative parts of the government. The administrator of the province

3430-546: The same single member electoral divisions as were used for the House of Assembly elections. Originally the term of the Provincial Council was five years, from the first meeting of the council after it was elected. The Administrator of the province fixed the date for the meeting, but the Provincial Council had to meet at least once a year. The South African Parliament could alter the term by legislation (as it did when

3500-603: The subcontinent. After the discovery of gold in the 1880s, thousands of British immigrants flocked to the gold mines of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State . The newly arrived miners, though needed for the mines, were distrusted by the politically dominant Afrikaners, who called them " uitlanders ", imposed heavy taxes on them and granted them very limited civil rights, with no right to vote. The British government, interested in profiting from

3570-555: The support of its Cape Colony, of its Colony of Natal and of some African allies. Volunteers from across the British Empire further supplemented the British war effort. All other nations remained neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain. Inside Britain and its Empire there was also significant opposition to the Second Boer War , spearheaded by anti-war activists such as Emily Hobhouse . At

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3640-426: The term of the provincial council was five years, from the first meeting of the council after it was elected. The administrator of the province fixed the date for the meeting, but the provincial council had to meet at least once a year. The South African Parliament could alter the term by legislation (as it did when the provincial elections due in 1941 were postponed until 1943), but there was no general power to dissolve

3710-579: The unification of the Cape , Natal , Transvaal , and Orange River colonies. It included the territories that were formerly part of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State . Following World War I , the Union of South Africa was a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and became one of the founding members of the League of Nations . It was mandated by the League with

3780-402: The way it was imposed from outside without understanding of local issues. The Confederation model was also seen as unsuitable for the disparate entities of southern Africa , with their wildly different sizes, economies and political systems. The Molteno Unification Plan (1877), put forward by the Cape government as a more feasible unitary alternative to confederation , largely anticipated

3850-412: The white-controlled states "weakened them against the natives", threatened an ethnic divide between British and Boer, and left the Cape vulnerable to interference from other European powers. He believed that a united "South African Federation", under British control, would resolve all three of these concerns. His idea was greeted with cautious optimism in southern Africa; the Orange Free State agreed to

3920-404: Was Jan Hofmeyr (later in his career a leading politician on the liberal wing of the United Party). As the Nationalist and Labour members had a majority on the provincial council, they demanded a change of administrator. The provincial council passed a motion of no confidence in the administrator on 11 March 1925. However, the Prime Minister supported Hofmeyr continuing in office, which he did until

3990-409: Was a position in which four different parties had one seat each on the executive committee. A partial deadlock resulted. In 1924, the National Party-Labour pact government came to power at the Union level. However, as the office of administrator was not considered a party political one, the South African Party appointed provincial administrators continued in office. In the Transvaal, the administrator

4060-417: Was composed of members elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member electoral divisions . In provinces which elected at least 25 members to the national House of Assembly (i.e. the Cape and Transvaal), the number of provincial councillors was the same as the number of Assembly members, and the same electoral districts were used for both. In provinces with less than 25 Assembly seats (i.e. Natal and

4130-427: Was created, consisting of the House of Assembly and Senate , with members of the parliament being elected mostly by the country's white minority. During the course of the Union, the franchise changed on several occasions always to suit the needs of the government of the day. Parliamentary sovereignty was a convention of the constitution, inherited from the United Kingdom; save for procedural safeguards in respect of

4200-473: Was described, in section 68 (1) of the South Africa Act 1909, as "a chief executive officer … in whose name all executive acts relating to provincial affairs therein shall be done". The administrator was appointed, by the national government, for a five-year term and could not be removed except by the Governor General for "cause assigned". The administrator was not responsible to the provincial council and it had no power to remove him from office. The administrator

4270-423: Was exercised by the Executive Council, headed by the prime minister . Louis Botha , formerly a Boer general, was appointed first prime minister of the Union, heading a coalition representing the white Afrikaner and English-speaking British diaspora communities. Prosecutions before courts were instituted in the name of the Crown (cited in the format Rex / Regina v Accused ) and government officials served in

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4340-467: Was given the power to remove matters from the jurisdiction of the provincial councils and instead place them under the jurisdiction of the individual racially segregated Houses of Parliament as "own affairs". The provincial councils were entirely abolished by the Provincial Government Act, 1986 , which provided for an executive council for each province to be appointed by the State President. The legislative powers of each provincial council were transferred to

4410-551: Was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy , with the Crown being represented by a governor-general. The Union came to an end with the enactment of the constitution of 1961 , by which it became a republic and left the Commonwealth of Nations . The Republic of South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth on 1 June 1994. The Union of South Africa was a unitary state , rather than a federation like Canada and Australia, with each colony's parliaments being abolished and replaced with provincial councils . A bicameral parliament

4480-443: Was largely rejected by southern Africans, primarily due to its very bad timing. The various component states of southern Africa were still simmering after the last bout of British expansion, and inter-state tensions were high. The Orange Free State this time refused to even discuss the idea, and Prime Minister John Molteno of the Cape Colony called the idea badly informed and irresponsible. In addition, many local leaders resented

4550-467: Was no longer practical with many favouring some form of ' responsible government '. Some favoured responsible government within Southern Rhodesia while others (especially in Matabeleland ) favoured membership of the Union of South Africa. Politician Sir Charles Coghlan claimed that such membership with the Union would make Southern Rhodesia the " Ulster of South Africa". Prior to the referendum, representatives of Southern Rhodesia visited Cape Town where

4620-542: Was possible). The Cape Prime Minister at the time, John X. Merriman , fought hard, but ultimately unsuccessfully, to extend this system of multi-racial franchise to the rest of South Africa. Second it made "native affairs" a matter for the national government. The practice therefore was to establish a Minister of Native Affairs . According to Stephen Howe, "colonialism in some cases—most obviously among white minorities in South Africa — meant mainly that these violent settlers wanted to maintain more racial inequalities than

4690-438: Was provided, by Section 80 of the South Africa Act 1909, that "the executive committee shall on behalf of the provincial council carry on the administration of provincial affairs'’. In 1914, the South African Labour Party had a small majority in the Transvaal Provincial Council. It refused to take up the two seats on the executive committee, which the party could have filled, because it considered that an administrator appointed by

4760-408: Was rejected at the time by London. At the other extreme, another powerful Cape politician at the time, Saul Solomon , proposed an extremely loose system of federation, with the component states preserving their very different constitutions and systems of franchise. Lord Carnarvon rejected the (more informed) local plans for unification, as he wished to have the process brought to a conclusion before

4830-400: Was that Natal, with exactly 20 Assembly seats, saw its provincial council shrink from 25 to 20 members; while the Orange Free State, with 14 Assembly seats, saw its provincial council grow from 25 to 28 members. The qualifications required to vote in provincial council elections were initially the same as those that had applied to elections in the four colonies. This meant that the franchise in

4900-403: Was the chairman of the provincial executive committee and had both an original and casting vote in its deliberations. The provincial council elected four persons (usually members of the provincial council), who together with the administrator formed the provincial executive committee. The four members were elected by single transferable vote , so were not necessarily all from the same party. It

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