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 government of South Africa

Constituent units

• 9 provinces: Eastern Cape; Free State; Gauteng; KwaZulu-Natal; Mpumalanga; Northern Cape; Limpopo; North West; Western Cape.
  • Map of the provinces of South Africa
  • Official Websites of Provincial governments

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)

Legislative institutions

• Federal: Bicameral Parliament composed of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and the National Assembly. The National Council of Provinces is composed of 10 delegates from each provincial legislature. These delegates are chosen from and elected by the provincial legislatures.
  • Official website of the Parliament of South Africa
    
    
• Provincial: Each province has a legislature
  • Official Websites of Provincial governments

Official languages

• The official languages of South Africa are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
• Constitution of South Africa, in particular: Chapter 1, article 6
• The Land and its People: Languages

Other links of interest

• About South Africa