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 two chambers. First, there is the Parliament, also called to Lower House (Congresso in Chile). It has 400 members. They are elected every 5 years. There
is no term limits on how long a member may serve. Elections are purely proportional, meaning that you vote only for a party, never a person. The number of seats in the parliament is proportional to the percentage of the votes
a party received over the whole country. Therefore, if a party gets 30% of the votes, it will get 30% of the seats. There is no minimum percentage requirements. Parliament is responsible for making laws.
The Houses of Parliament, Cape Town
The second part is the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). This is similar to the Senate in many other countries. It has to reconsider and approve laws drawn up by the Parliament. The NCOP is not directly elected. It is chosen by the provincial governments, and include the Premier (Prime Minister) of each province. There are 10 members from each province in the NCOP (90 in total).
The parliament of South Africa (Notice the similarity with Westminster in the UK!)
The two chambers of the legislature are responsible for discussing and approving laws. All laws must comply with the constitution.
The Executive Authority
Executive authority is vested in the President. The president is elected by the parliament, not by popular vote. The president appoints a deputy as well as ministers to serve in his cabinet.
The president is responsible for the day to day administration of the country. He cannot make laws, only propose laws to parliament (like in Chile).
The Union Buildings, Pretoria (Equivalent to La Moneda)
The advantage of a president elected by parliament is that the president is from the ruling party and must comply with the wishes of the parliament. Parliament has the authority to remove
the president without consulting the voters. Presidents cannot stand for more than two terms.
The Judicial Authority
The highest court in the land is the Constitutional Court. It has the function to ensure that the other two branches of government comply with the constitution. It does not concern itself with other matters. The members are called Judges. Selection of the panel of
judges is quite complicated and will not be dealt with here.
Next, there is the Court of Appeals. This is situated in Bloemfontein. This is usually the last stop in any legal proceedings. Only very serious cases ever end up here. The members are called Judges and are selected from supreme court judges.
Then there are the Supreme Courts in the various provinces. They deal with serious crime cases and a list of issues like divorce. They can override decisions from the lower courts and can in turn be overruled by the Constitutional Court. The
members are called Judges and are selected from senior advocates (Supreme court lawyers).
Finally, there are the Magistrates Courts which are located in most larger towns and cities. These handle minor cases such as smaller civil cases such as breach of contracts, traffic violations, and other minor crimes. The cases are heard before a magistrate,
not a judge. Magistrates are all qualified lawyers.
There is another type of court falling under the jurisdiction of the magistrates court. It is called the Small Claims Court. These courts handle only small civil cases up to approximately 750 000 Chilean pesos. Lawyers are not allowed in order to keep the cost down.
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