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Federations of the World

Federations of the World

Federation Maps and Fact Sheets


South Africa
Constitution adopted in 1996
While a federation in form, South Africa has not adopted
the word "federal" or "federation" in its Constitution.
Official Website of the federal government of South Africa

 

Official name    Republic of South Africa
Population 43,586,097
Capitals Cape Town (legislative, Seat of Parliament),
Pretoria (administrative),
Bloemfontein (judicial)

 

Constituent units

 

Constitutional distribution of powers

  • Constitution of South Africa, in particular:
    • Co-operative Government (Chapter 3, Section 41)
    • National legislative authority (Chapter 4, Section 44)
    • Legislative authority of Provinces (Chapter 6, Section 104)
    • Concurrent national and provincial legislative competence (Schedule 4)
    • Areas of exclusive provincial legislative competence (Schedule 5)
      (Source: South African Government Communications)

 

Legislative institutions

 

Official languages

  • The Constitution recognizes 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Sepedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zoulou languages. The Constitution also stipulates that the national and provincial governments must use at least two of the official languages.

 

Other links of interest

 

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Last Modified: 2003-08-15 Important Notices