Profe Paul

Power is vested in the parliament. It can appoint and remove the president. It can make, change or repeal laws. However, it cannot make laws that are outside the constitution. If it did that, the Constitutional Court can declare the law unconstitutional and thus void.  With a 66% vote parliament can change the constitution. Some power is devolved to the Provinces. These powers are generally not described in detail in the constitution, only the provisions under which parliament grants them powers. The constitution does give the provinces power in the National Council of Provinces. This is the equivalent to the Senate in Chile. Each province has 10 representatives, including the premier minister of the province. Provinces do have some taxation roles which is more in line with a federal system than a unitary system. They also have the power to oversee the municipalities in their provinces and even to suspend a municipality when they are not acting in the best interests of th...

Background The country called South Africa was formed in 1910 when the four British colonies agreed to form a union. (Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal). They could not agree on where the capital should be, so a compromise was reached. Pretoria would be the administrative capital, Cape Town the legislative capital and Bloemfontein the Judicial capital. In Chile, the legislative capital is Valparaiso, the administrative capital is Santiago. In Chile the distance between the two cities is 140km. In South Africa it is 1400km! South Africa 1910 - 1996 Under the 1996 constitution the Cape and Transvaal Provinces were split up and thus the country ended up with nine provinces. South Africa today   Let us now look at how the country is governed. The government consists of three independent branches, the Legislative , the Executive , and the Judicial  powers. Legislative Authority The legislative authority consists of ...

A short history of South Africa Usually, when people think of the history of South Africa, they start at the point where the Europeans arrived. However, there is another story that is as old as humanity itself. The cradle of humanity was probably at and around the Sterkfontein caves just west of Johannesburg. There the skull of Mrs. Pless, an Austrlopithicus africanus (dating to about 2 million years ago), was discovered by Dr Broom and his team in 1947. This is perhaps the most famous skull in the world! Then there is the much more recent species homo Naledi (about 300 000 years ago) from the same area. Their descendants are the Khoisan people. They were hunter-gatherers that moved with the seasons following migrations of wild animals across the country and they left examples of their rock art all over southern Africa. About 1500 years ago the Bantu people, who were migrating south from West- and Central Africa, arrived in what is now South Africa. They were farm...

Geography of South Africa South Africa is located at the southern end of Africa (How surprising!). This location was pivotal in the development of the country. In the 17 th century the Netherlands became the dominant naval power in Europe. At that time Spain and Portugal were well entrenched in the New World as the Americas were known. Instead if risking another war with Spain, the Dutch decided to go to the East. Parts of India, Malaysia, Indonesia and even China became Dutch colonies. Because the sea journey from Europe to the East was so long, they decided to send some farmers to the Cape of Good Hope to begin a supply station of fresh produce for Dutch ships. There was never really an attempt to colonise the area as its value was determined to be low. However, we shall revisit this a little later. The country can be divided into various climate zones. The blue at the bottom has a Mediterranean climate (wet winters, dry summers). The population densi...

Introduction The purpose of creating your blog is to study selected aspects of the culture of an English speaking country. To accomplish this, you will work in groups of up to 6 students. You have already been assigned a country and allocated to your groups. Each group will be responsible for updating their blogs. You will, however, also have to review and comment on the blogs of the other groups. Be as creative as you'd like in the appearance of your blogs. Keep in mind that the blogs will be used for evaluation purposes, so each section must be completed on the dates indicated. Here are the entries that have to be completed first: The first entry is an introduction of the group members where each of you can add a photograph of yourselves and give a short biography. (50 - 75 words) Short description of the geography of the country. This could be done with a map and some pictures but remember, the contents you contribute will be graded. A brief history of the cou...