South
Africa has a bicameral parliament: the ninety members of the National
Council of Provinces (the upper house); and the four hundred members of the
National Assembly (the lower house). Members of the lower house are elected
on a population basis by proportional representation: half of the members
are elected from national lists and half are elected from provincial lists.
Ten members are elected to represent each province in the National Council
of Provinces, regardless of the population of the province. Elections for
both chambers are held every five years. The government is formed in the
lower house, and the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly
is the President.
Current
South African politics are dominated by the African
National Congress (ANC), which received 69.7% of the vote during the
last 2004 general election and 66.3% of the vote in the 2006 municipal
election. The current (2004-2009 term) President of South Africa is Thabo
Mbeki, who succeeded former President Nelson Mandela. The main challenger
to the ANC's rule is the Democratic Alliance
party, which received 12.4% of the vote in the 2004 election and 14.8% in
the 2006 election. The leader of this party is Helen Zille
(elected 6 May 2007). The previous leader of the party was Tony Leon. The
formerly dominant New National Party, which introduced apartheid through
its predecessor the National Party finally voted to disband and merge with
the ANC on 9 April 2005. Other major political parties represented in
Parliament are the Inkatha
Freedom Party, which mainly represents Zulu voters, and the Independent
Democrats, who took 6.97% and 1.7% of the vote respectively, in the 2004
election.
The primary sources of South Africa law were Roman-Dutch
mercantile law and personal law with English Common law, as imports of
Dutch settlements and British colonialism. The first European based law in
South Africa was brought by the Dutch East India Company and is called
Roman-Dutch law. It was imported before the codification of European law
into the Napoleonic Code and is comparable in many ways to Scottish law.
This was followed in the 19th century by British law both common and
statutory. Starting in 1910 with unification, South Africa had its own
parliament which passed laws specific for South Africa, building on those
previously passed for the individual member colonies.
© 2008 Progressive
Initiative. The Progressive
Initiative rejects all forms of discrimination, embraces democracy and
encourages transparent politics. The views expressed in this site are those
of its members.