1.
National Party (South Africa)
–
The National Party was a political party in South Africa founded in 1915 and first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It was in opposition during the World War II years but returned to power and was again in government from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994, at this time, it began implementing its policy of racial segregation, known as apartheid. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats, the policies of the party included apartheid, the establishment of a republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture. During the 1980s, large fractions of the support base left for the Conservative Party. After 1990, the NP opened up its membership to all groups and rebranded itself as a non-racial. It participated in the Government of National Unity between 1994 and 1996, in an attempt to better distance itself from its past, the party was renamed the New National Party in 1997. The attempt was unsuccessful and the new party was disbanded in 2005. The National Party was founded in Bloemfontein in 1915 by Afrikaner nationalists soon after the establishment of the Union of South Africa. Its founding was rooted in disagreements among South African Party politicians, particularly Prime Minister Louis Botha and his first Minister of Justice, after Hertzog began speaking out publicly against the Botha governments one-stream policy in 1912, Botha removed him from the cabinet. Afrikaner nationalists in the Transvaal and Cape provinces soon followed suit, the NP first came to power in coalition with the Labour Party in 1924, with Hertzog as Prime Minister. In 1930, the Hertzog government worked to undermine the vote of Coloureds by granting the right to vote to white women, in 1934, Hertzog agreed to merge his National Party with the rival South African Party of Jan Smuts to form the United Party. A hardline faction of Afrikaner nationalists, led by Daniel François Malan, refused to accept the merger, the Purified National Party used opposition to South African participation in World War II to stir up anti-British feelings amongst Afrikaners. In 1951, the two amalgamated to once again known simply as the National Party. In 1959, the Bantu Self-Government Act established so-called Homelands for ten different black tribes. The ultimate goal of the NP was to move all Black South Africans into one of these homelands, leaving what was left of South Africa with what would then be a White majority, at least on paper. Accordingly, the three parliamentary seats that had been reserved for white representatives of black South Africans in Cape Province were scrapped. The other three provinces – Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and Natal – had never allowed any black representation, Coloureds were removed from the Common Roll of Cape Province in 1953. Instead of voting for the representatives as white South Africans
2.
Cape Town
–
Cape Town is a coastal city in South Africa. It is the second-most populous urban area in South Africa after Johannesburg and it is also the capital and primate city of the Western Cape province. As the seat of the Parliament of South Africa, it is also the capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, the city is famous for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for such well-known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. As of 2014, it is the 10th most populous city in Africa and it is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, reflecting its role as a major destination for immigrants and expatriates to South Africa. The city was named the World Design Capital for 2014 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, in 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by both the American New York Times and the British Daily Telegraph. Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was first developed by the Dutch East India Company as a station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India. Jan van Riebeecks arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa, Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa, the earliest known remnants in the region were found at Peers Cave in Fish Hoek and date to between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago. It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as Cape of Good Hope because of the optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India. Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, in the late 16th century, Portuguese, French, Danish, Dutch and English but mainly Portuguese ships regularly stopped over in Table Bay en route to the Indies. They traded tobacco, copper and iron with the Khoikhoi in exchange for fresh meat, the settlement grew slowly during this period, as it was hard to find adequate labour. This labour shortage prompted the authorities to import slaves from Indonesia, many of these became ancestors of the first Cape Coloured communities. Some of these, including grapes, cereals, ground nuts, potatoes, apples and citrus, had an important, the Dutch Republic being transformed in Revolutionary Frances vassal Batavian Republic, Great Britain moved to take control of its colonies. Britain captured Cape Town in 1795, but the Cape was returned to the Dutch by treaty in 1803, British forces occupied the Cape again in 1806 following the Battle of Blaauwberg. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, Cape Town was permanently ceded to Britain and it became the capital of the newly formed Cape Colony, whose territory expanded very substantially through the 1800s. With expansion came calls for independence from Britain, with the Cape attaining its own parliament. Suffrage was established according to the non-racial, but sexist Cape Qualified Franchise, the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West in 1867, and the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in 1886, prompted a flood of immigrants to South Africa
3.
Right-wing populism
–
Right-wing populism is a political ideology that rejects the current political consensus and often combines laissez-faire, ethnocentrism and anti-elitism. It is considered populism because of its appeal to the man as opposed to the elites. Right wing populism in the Western world, is associated with ideologies such as New Nationalism, anti-globalization, nativism, protectionism. Although extreme right-wing movements in the US have been studied separately, other populist parties have links to fascist movements founded during the interwar period when Italian, German, Hungarian, Spanish and Japanese fascism rose to power. Since the early 2010s, right wing populist movements such as the National Front in France, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, and UK Independence Party began to grow in popularity. In large part because of increasing opposition to immigration from the Middle East and Africa, rising euroscepticism, President Donald Trumps 2016 political views have been summarized by pundits as right wing populist and nationalist. Also, unlike traditional parties, they do not belong to organizations of like-minded parties. One commonality though is that they are more right-wing than other parties on the left–right axis. Scholars use terminology inconsistently, sometimes referring to right-wing populism as radical right or other such as New Nationalism. Republican Party and Conservative Party of Canada include right-wing populist factions, Canada has a history of right-wing populist protest parties and politicians, most notably in Western Canada due to Western alienation. The highly successful Social Credit Party of Canada consistently won seats in British Columbia, Alberta, in recent years, right-wing populism exists within factions of the Conservative Party of Canada and is most notably espoused by Kellie Leitch, Kevin OLeary and the now-deceased Rob Ford. In 2016, the Czech Republic warned that Russia tries to divide, the Austrian Freedom Party established in 1955 by a former Nazi functionary claims to represent a Third Camp, beside the Socialist Party and the social Catholic Austrian Peoples Party. It succeeded the Federation of Independents founded after World War II, from 1980, the Freedom Party adopted a more liberal stance. Upon the 1983 federal election it entered a government with the Socialist Party. The liberal interlude however ended, when Jörg Haider was elected chairman in 1986, by his down-to-earth manners and patriotic attitude, Haider re-integrated the partys nationalist base voters. Nevertheless, he was able to obtain votes from large sections of population disenchanted with politics by publicly denouncing corruption. The electoral success was boosted by Austrias accession to the EU in 1995, upon the 1999 federal election the Freedom Party with 26. 9% of the votes cast became the second strongest party in the National Council parliament. Having entered a government with the Peoples Party, Haider had to face the disability of several FPÖ ministers
4.
Conservatism
–
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since used to describe a wide range of views. There is no set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place. Thus conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a range of issues. In contrast to the definition of conservatism, political theorists such as Corey Robin define conservatism primarily in terms of a general defense of social. In Great Britain, conservative ideas emerged in the Tory movement during the Restoration period, Toryism supported a hierarchical society with a monarch who ruled by divine right. Tories opposed the idea that sovereignty derived from the people, and rejected the authority of parliament, Robert Filmers Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings, published posthumously in 1680 but written before the English Civil War of 1642–1651, became accepted as the statement of their doctrine. However, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 destroyed this principle to some degree by establishing a government in England. Faced with defeat, the Tories reformed their movement, now holding that sovereignty was vested in the three estates of Crown, Lords, and Commons rather than solely in the Crown, Toryism became marginalized during the long period of Whig ascendancy in the 18th century. Conservatives typically see Richard Hooker as the father of conservatism, along with the Marquess of Halifax, David Hume. Halifax promoted pragmatism in government, whilst Hume argued against political rationalism and utopianism, Burke served as the private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham and as official pamphleteer to the Rockingham branch of the Whig party. Together with the Tories, they were the conservatives in the late 18th century United Kingdom, Burkes views were a mixture of liberal and conservative. He supported the American Revolution of 1765–1783 but abhorred the violence of the French Revolution and he insisted on standards of honor derived from the medieval aristocratic tradition, and saw the aristocracy as the nations natural leaders. That meant limits on the powers of the Crown, since he found the institutions of Parliament to be better informed than commissions appointed by the executive and he favored an established church, but allowed for a degree of religious toleration. Burke justified the order on the basis of tradition, tradition represented the wisdom of the species and he valued community. Burke was a leading theorist in his day, finding extreme idealism an endangerment to broader liberties, despite their influence on future conservative thought, none of these early contributors were explicitly involved in Tory politics. Hooker lived in the 16th century, long before the advent of toryism, whilst Hume was an apolitical philosopher, Burke described himself as a Whig. Shortly after Burkes death in 1797, conservatism revived as a political force as the Whigs suffered a series of internal divisions
5.
City of Cape Town
–
The City Council is the legislative body of the City of Cape Town. It is composed of 231 councillors elected by a system of mixed member proportional representation,116 councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting, one from each of the 116 wards of the City, while the other 115 are elected from party lists to create overall proportionality. The mayor of the City is elected by the City Council, the Cape Town City Council is unusual among municipal legislatures, both in and out of South Africa, in its numerical size, which is larger than the national legislatures of many countries. The council is divided into 24 subcouncils which deal with local functions for between three and six wards, a subcouncils consists of the ward councillors and a similar number of proportionally-elected councillors assigned to the subcouncil. Subcouncils are consist of geographically clustered wards with proportional councillors assigned to them, the following table shows the results of the election of 18 May 2011 in the City of Cape Town, The Democratic Alliance won 78 of the individual ward elections, and the ANC won 33. As a result, the seat allocation was as follows
6.
Politics of South Africa
–
The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary representative democratic republic. The President of South Africa, serves both as head of state and as head of government, the President is elected by the National Assembly and must enjoy the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the nine provinces. Since the end of apartheid in the 1999 the African National Congress has dominated South Africas politics, the ANC is the ruling party in the national legislature, as well as in eight of the nine provinces. The ANC received 62. 15% of the vote during the 2014 general election and it had received 62. 9% of the popular vote in the 2011 municipal election. The main challenger to the ANCs rule is the Democratic Alliance, led by Mmusi Maimane, other major political parties represented in Parliament include the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Inkatha Freedom Party, which mainly represents Zulu voters. The formerly dominant New National Party, which introduced and ended apartheid through its predecessor the National Party, disbanded in 2005 to merge with the ANC. Jacob Zuma has served as President of South Africa since May 9,2009, South Africa is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, wherein the President of South Africa, elected by parliament, is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government, legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of Parliament, the Council of Provinces and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, Government is three-tiered, with representatives elected at the national, provincial and local levels. Following the 1994 elections, South Africa was governed under an interim constitution and this constitution required the Constituent Assembly to draft and approve a permanent constitution by 9 May 1996. The Government of National Unity established under the interim constitution ostensibly remained in effect until the 1999 national elections, the parties originally comprising the GNU – the African National Congress, the National Party, and the Inkatha Freedom Party – shared executive power. On 30 June 1996, the NP withdrew from the GNU to become part of the opposition, under the Constitution, the President is both head of state and head of government. General elections take place every 5 years, the first fully multi-racial democratic election was held in 1994, the second in 1999, the third in 2004, the fourth in 2009, and the most recent in 2014. The last two floor crossing windows occurred in 2005 and in 2007, after the 2009 elections, the ANC lost its two-thirds majority in the national legislature which had allowed it to unilaterally alter the constitution. The Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party are in an alliance with the ruling ANC. The legal rights of suspects also are enumerated. It also includes wide guarantees of access of food, water, education, health care, the constitution provides for an independent and impartial judiciary, and, in practice, these provisions are respected
7.
Elections in South Africa
–
Elections in South Africa are held for the National Assembly, provincial legislatures and municipal councils. Elections follow a cycle, with national and provincial elections held simultaneously. The electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation, which means that parties are represented in proportion to their electoral support, for municipal councils there is a mixed-member system in which wards elect individual councillors alongside those named from party lists. In elections of the National Assembly, every South African citizen who is 18 or older may vote, in elections of a provincial legislature or municipal council, only those resident within the province or municipality may vote. All elections are conducted by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, the Union of South Africa was created on 31 May 1910 by the South Africa Act 1909, an act of the Imperial Parliament. The House of Assembly and the councils were elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member electoral divisions. In the Transvaal and the Orange Free State the vote was limited by law to men over the age of 21. The qualifications in the Cape and Natal also excluded a number of poorer white men. Only white men could stand for election to the House of Assembly, at the next following general election in 1933, Leila Reitz was elected as the first female MP, representing Parktown for the South African Party. In 1936 the Hertzog government enacted the Representation of Natives Act, the act was passed by the required two-thirds majority in a joint session. Four senators would also be elected by chiefs, tribal councils. The Representation of Natives Act was repealed in 1959 and consequently the seats of the representative members were abolished in 1960. From this point the political representation of black South Africans was in the Bantustan legislatures. After coming to power in 1948 the National Party engaged in a policy of removing coloured voters in a manner to black voters. In 1951 Parliament passed the Separate Representation of Voters Act, which removed coloured voters from the voters roll. A subsequent attempt by the government to circumvent the Supreme Court by creating a High Court of Parliament failed, in the election of 1953, coloured voters in the Cape cast their ballots in the same constituencies as white voters. In 1955 the government introduced a new act which reconstituted the Senate and this separate representation of coloured voters in the House of Assembly was ended in 1970. Instead, all coloured adults were given the right to vote for the Coloured Persons Representative Council, in 1960 a whites-only referendum was held to decide whether South Africa should become a republic
8.
Western Cape
–
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated in the south-western part of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces in terms of area and population, with an area of 129,449 square kilometres and 5.8 million inhabitants. About two-thirds of these live in the metropolitan area of Cape Town. The Western Cape was created in 1994 from part of the former Cape Province, the Western Cape Province is roughly L-shaped, extending north and east from the Cape of Good Hope, in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It stretches about 400 kilometres northwards along the Atlantic coast and about 500 kilometres eastwards along the South African south coast and it is bordered on the north by the Northern Cape and on the east by the Eastern Cape. The total land area of the province is 129,462 square kilometres and it is roughly the size of England or the State of Louisiana. Its capital city and largest city is Cape Town, and some major cities include Stellenbosch, Worcester, Paarl. The Garden Route and the Overberg are popular tourism areas. The Western Cape is the southernmost region of the African continent with Cape Agulhas as its southernmost point, the coastline varies from sandy between capes, to rocky to steep and mountainous in places. The only natural harbour is Saldanha Bay on the west coast, however a lack of fresh water in the region meant that it has only recently been used as a harbour. But fresh water coming off Table Mountain and Devils Peak allowed the early European settlers to build Cape Town on the shores of this less than satisfactory anchorage, the province is topographically exceptionally diverse. Most of the province falls within the Cape Fold Belt, a set of parallel ranges of sandstone folded mountains of Cambrian-Ordovician age. The valleys between ranges are very fertile as they contain the weathered loamy soils of the Bokkeveld mustones. The far interior forms part of the Karoo and this region of the Province is generally arid and hilly with a prominent escarpment that runs close to the Provinces most inland boundary. The Escarpment marks the edge of South Africas central plateau. The principal rivers of the province are the Berg and Olifants which drain into the Atlantic Ocean, and the Breede and Gourits which drain into the Indian Ocean. The vegetation is extremely diverse, with one of the worlds seven floral kingdoms almost exclusively endemic to the province, namely the Cape Floral Kingdom. These evergreen heathlands are extremely rich in diversity, with at least as many plant species occurring on Table Mountain as in the entire United Kingdom
9.
South African general election, 2009
–
South Africa held national and provincial elections to elect a new National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each province on 22 April 2009. The National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list approach, two hundred members are elected from national party lists, the other 200 are elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa is chosen by the National Assembly after each election, in 2009, the premiers of each province are chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature. This was the general election held since the end of the apartheid era. The North Gauteng High Court ruled on 9 February 2009 that South African citizens living abroad should be allowed to vote in elections. The judgment was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on 12 March 2009, also, registered voters who found themselves outside their registered voting districts on election day were permitted to vote for the national ballot at any voting station in South Africa. The African National Congress was the party in parliament going into the 2009 elections. Zumas victory in the election was due to the wide degree of support for him from the ANC Youth League, the South African Communist Party. In light of the findings, the ANCs National Executive Committee asked Mbeki to resign as president of the country. Mbeki was replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe, who had been elected as ANC deputy president at the 2007 conference, Motlanthe was not the presidential candidate of the ANC for the 2009 general election, but rather the current President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma. The ANCs electoral list was led by Zuma, followed by Motlanthe, Deputy President of South Africa Baleka Mbete, finance minister Trevor Manuel and Winnie Mandela, former wife of Nelson Mandela. With a disproportionate focus on the Western Cape province, which it had identified as winnable and it released its manifesto on 14 February. The party was expected to perform strongly in the Western Cape, the ANCs support in the province was on the wane, while the DA had performed well in by-elections in the province leading up to the poll. The party projected that it would govern in the Western Cape province — a task easier by the ANC-COPE split — though it expected to need to form a governing coalition in order to do so. The DAs relationship with ANC breakaway party Cope started strongly, Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota showed a willingness to co-operate with Zille in the future. Subsequently, Zille criticised COPEs internal structures and suggested many of the new members were merely Mbeki loyalists hoping to resurrect defunct political careers. In the closing stages of the DAs campaign, it launched its Stop Zuma drive and she later claimed the decline in the ANCs support base and the concomitant increase in that of her own party was a result of the DA Stop Zuma campaign. A number of communities, organisations, social movements and well-known personalities threatened not to vote in the 2009 elections, the most well-known personality was Archbishop Desmond Tutu who at first said he would not vote but then changed his mind
10.
South African municipal elections, 2011
–
Municipal elections were held in South Africa on 18 May 2011, electing new councils for all municipalities in the country. Municipal elections are held five years, and the previous municipal elections were held in 2006. The first municipal elections following the reorganisation of municipalities took place in December 2000, half of the seats in each municipality are elected on the first past the post system in single member wards. The other half of the seats are allocated to restore proportionality as follows, proportional seats are allocated based on the difference. These do not affect the quota but will reduce the number of remainder seats if any, Independent candidates are allowed for in the ward seats, and the proportionality calculations effectively ignore votes for these candidates and are adjusted for seats allocated to them. The ruling party of South Africa, the African National Congress, has been facing a growing opposition from the Democratic Alliance, the DA holds control of the Western Cape area, with Cape Town the major city of the province. The DA had made it known that there was a possibility of victory in the Northern Cape province, the ANC faced tough challenges from the opposition parties over issues of service delivery, corruption, healthcare reform, poverty and unemployment rates. The Congress of the People and the Inkatha Freedom Party were determined to prove that they could increase their control in areas as well, the election was generally peaceful, with the exception of an attack on an IFP councilor that resulted in his death. Former DA leader Helen Zille attempted to improve her partys success at multi-party governance in Cape Town, port Elizabeth lies in a unique region roughly at the border between the Black and Coloured population groups. It was predicted there would be a strong effort from minorities in the city to try to gain control of the council. The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality was heavily contested in the elections with the ANC managing to secure 63 seats to the DAs 48 seats. Zille attributed the failure of the DA to win the metro to the decline of COPE, the Poor Peoples Alliance called for a boycott of the election under the slogan No Land. There was also significant abstention by ANC members and supporters who felt the selection of ANC candidates was biased but refused to vote for any other party, the statistics in this section are all sourced from the Independent Electoral Commissions official website unless specified otherwise. The voter turnout for this election was predicted to be higher than the election in 2006. The percentage of votes was 1. 89%. The ANC won just under 62% of the vote and the DA won just under 24% of the vote. There was a decline in ANC support and an increase in support for the DA as the ANC lost voters in every province with the exception of Kwa-ZuluNatal where it captured votes from former IFP voters, note, Ward column indicates votes cast for individual ward councillors. PR column indicates proportional representation votes cast for parties in the election of local, DC column indicate proportional representation votes cast for parties for the directly elected components of district councils
11.
National People's Party (South Africa)
–
The National Peoples Party is a political party registered on a national level with the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa. The party was set up by Chaaban shortly before the floor crossing period in 2007 with the help of David Sasman and it should not be confused with the National Peoples Party, renamed the Minority Front, led by Amichand Rajbansi during the apartheid era. After the latest local government elections, their position has mostly been reduced to a number of seats in opposition on a limited number of councils. NPP however governed Oudtshoorn Local Municipality in coalition with ANC and ICOSA between 2011 and 2015, when the municipality was placed under administration. Judge Pillay of the Electoral Court found that the IEC had been zealous in applying the cut-off time. Amichand Rajbansi created a party called the National Peoples Party in August 1981 from the remains of the South African Indian Council. In the 1984 election for the House of Delegates, part of the Tricameral Parliament then created by the South African Constitution of 1983, the NPP led by Rajbansi became the Minority Front. The NPP of the era is not related to the post-2007 NPP. www. npp. za. net
12.
New National Party (South Africa)
–
The name change was an attempt to distance itself from its apartheid past, and reinvent itself as a moderate, non-racist federal party. The attempt was unsuccessful, and in 2005 the New National Party voted to disband itself. The partys first leader was former president of South Africa F. W. de Klerk, de Klerk was succeeded by Marthinus van Schalkwyk until the eventual disbanding and merger of the party with the African National Congress. The New National Party had some difficulty carving out a base in post-apartheid South Africa. On the one hand, it still had the legacy of its role under apartheid. On the other hand, it seemed uncertain about its relationship with the government led by the ANC and these two issues led to defections to the Democratic Party, which had a historical legacy of being anti-apartheid and was clearly an opposition party to the ANC. It also lost support to other parties, the NNP fared poorly in the general election of 1999. With 6. 87% of the vote, the party lost votes both to the DP and ANC as well as its status as the official opposition nationally, but it remained influential in the Western Cape, despite being pushed into second place there by the ANC. The party faced comparatively smaller losses in the due to the retention of most of its coloured support. 50% of its votes now came from one province. The party remained in power in the Western Cape through a coalition with the DP and it then began to plan a merger with the Democratic Party in 2000, for which purpose the DP changed name to Democratic Alliance. By 2001 the party had broken away from the DA and instead entered close co-operation with the ANC, during the general election of 2004, the NNP was almost eliminated from parliament. With the former governing party now only the sixth largest in the country, questions were asked about its future. Despite his partys performance in the polls, van Schalkwyk was given the cabinet post of Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. At its assembly on 9 April 2005, the NNPs Federal Council voted by 88 to 2 to disband and it also settled its outstanding debt of R5.2 million to the Absa Group Limited, in preparation for dissolution. This system was repealed in 2009, News reports of disbanding, Independent Online, BBC News
13.
Independent Democrats
–
The Independent Democrats was a South African political party, formed by former Pan Africanist Congress member Patricia de Lille in 2003 via floor crossing legislation. The partys platform is premised on opposition to corruption, with a mixture of right-liberal proposals, the partys strongholds were the Northern and Western Cape. On 15 August 2010, the party announced plans to merge with the larger Democratic Alliance as part of a plan to challenge the governing African National Congress, the party disbanded as a separate political organization in 2014. In addition they vowed that an ID government would fire a minister whose department received a qualified audit two years in a row, in 2010 ID leader Patricia de Lille formalized an agreement to merge with the Democratic Alliance. The two parties will be merged by 2014. Due to this, the ID did not contest the 2011 local elections as a separate entity, in February 2012 DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko reshuffled her shadow cabinet, which included appointing members of the ID to shadow portfolios for the first time. This was seen as a move towards strengthening the co-operation between the two parties heading towards the completion of the merger, liberalism in South Africa General Hartley, Aziz. Cape Times,2 February 2009 in literature,4
14.
F. W. de Klerk
–
Frederik Willem de Klerk is a South African politician who served as the countrys State President from August 1989 to May 1994. He was the seventh and last head of state of South Africa under the apartheid era, De Klerk was also leader of the National Party from February 1989 to September 1997. He won the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in 1991, the Prince of Asturias Award in 1992 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela for his role in the ending of apartheid. He was one of the deputy presidents of South Africa during the presidency of Nelson Mandela until 1996, in 1997 he retired from active politics. He continues to remain active as a lecturer internationally, after the deaths of P. W. Botha in 2006 and Marais Viljoen in 2007, de Klerk is the last surviving State President of South Africa. The name de Klerk is derived from Le Clerc, Le Clercq, De Klerk noted that he is also of Dutch descent, with an Indian ancestor from the late 1600s or early 1700s. He is also said to be descended from the Khoi interpreter known as Krotoa or Eva, De Klerk graduated from Monument High School in Krugersdorp. De Klerk graduated in 1958 from the Potchefstroom University with BA, following graduation, de Klerk practised law in Vereeniging in the Transvaal. In 1959 he married Marike Willemse, with whom he had two sons and a daughter and he came from a family environment in which the conservatism of traditional white South African politics was deeply ingrained. His paternal great-grandfather was Senator Johannes Cornelis Jan van Rooy and his aunt was married to NP Prime Minister J. G. Strijdom. In 1948, the year when the NP swept to power in elections on an apartheid platform. His brother Willem is a liberal newspaperman and one of the founders of the Democratic Party. F. W. pronounced eff-veer, as he became known, was first elected to the House of Assembly in 1969 as the member for Vereeniging. De Klerk had been offered a professorship of law at Potchefstroom in 1972. In 1978, he was appointed Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and Social Welfare, under Prime Minister and later State President P. W. He became Transvaal provincial National Party leader in 1982 and chairman of the Ministers Council in the House of Assembly in 1985, for most of his career, de Klerk had a very conservative reputation. The NPs Transvaal branch was historically the most staunchly conservative wing of the party and it thus came as a surprise when in 1989 he placed himself at the head of verligte forces within the governing party which had come to believe that apartheid could not be maintained forever. This wing favoured beginning negotiations while there was time to get reasonable terms
15.
Western Cape Division
–
The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the Western Cape province of South Africa. The division, which sits at Cape Town, consists of 31 judges led by Judge President John Hlophe. The origins of the Western Cape Division lie in the Supreme Court of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and it was created by the First Charter of Justice, letters patent issued by George IV on 24 August 1827. Originally the Cape Division had jurisdiction over the whole of the Cape Province, although concurrently with the Eastern Cape and Griqualand West Local Divisions in their areas of jurisdiction. However, in 1957 the Eastern Cape division was elevated to the status of a provincial division, upon elevation these divisions became independent from the Cape Division. When the final Constitution of South Africa came into force in 1997, the Renaming of High Courts Act,2008 renamed it to the Western Cape High Court, Cape Town. In 2013, in the restructuring brought about by the Superior Courts Act, the Western Cape Division has a complement of 31 judges. Judges are addressed as the Honourable Justice, or just My Lord or My Lady, as of 2012 the judges are, There are currently five vacant seats on the Bench. The rural districts of the Western Cape, outside of the Cape Town metropolitan area, are divided into circuits, judges of the division travel the circuits at least twice a year. The Western Circuit sits in Vredendal and Vanrhynsdorp, and hears cases from the West Coast, the Northern Circuit sits in Worcester and Beaufort West, and hears cases from the upper Breede River Valley and the Great Karoo. The Eastern Circuit sits in George, Mossel Bay, Knysna and Oudtshoorn, and hears cases from the Garden Route, the Southern Circuit sits in Swellendam and hears cases from the Overberg and the lower Breede River Valley. The Cape Circuit sits in Paarl and Stellenbosch, and hears only criminal cases from the Boland, decisions of the Western Cape Division
16.
Corporal punishment
–
Corporal punishment or physical punishment is a punishment intended to cause physical pain on a person. It is most often used where there is a disparity of power between punisher and punished. Corporal punishment is commonly practiced on minors, especially in home and also school settings, common methods in this regard often include spanking or paddling. It is however used on adults, particularly prisoners in some countries. In history most cultures have practiced corporal punishment on adults in settings of imprisonment or slavery, frequently employed methods are flagellation and caning. In some countries bastinado is still practiced on prisoners as well, official punishment for crime by inflicting pain or injury, including flogging, branding and even mutilation, was practised in most civilizations since ancient times. However, with the growth of humanitarian ideals since the Enlightenment, by the late 20th century, corporal punishment had been eliminated from the legal systems of most developed countries. The legality in the 21st century of corporal punishment in various settings differs by jurisdiction,52 countries, most of them in Europe and Latin America, have banned the practice as of April 2017. School corporal punishment—of students by teachers or school administrators—has been banned in countries, including Canada, Kenya, South Africa, New Zealand. It remains legal, if increasingly less common, in the United States, judicial corporal punishment, as part of a criminal sentence ordered by a court of law, has long disappeared from European countries. However, it remains lawful in parts of Africa, Asia, closely related is prison corporal punishment or disciplinary corporal punishment, ordered by prison authorities or carried out directly by staff. Corporal punishment is also allowed in some settings in a few jurisdictions. Other uses of corporal punishment have existed, for instance as once practised on apprentices by their masters, in many Western countries, medical and human-rights organizations oppose corporal punishment of children. Campaigns against corporal punishment have aimed to bring about legal reform to ban the use of punishment against minors in homes. Corporal punishment of children has traditionally used in the Western world by adults in authority roles. Withhold not correction from a child, for if thou strike him with the rod, thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell. It was certainly present in civilizations, being used in Greece, Rome. Some states gained a reputation for using such punishments cruelly, Sparta, in particular, used them as part of a disciplinary regime designed to build willpower, although the Spartan example was extreme, corporal punishment was possibly the most frequent type of punishment
17.
Western Cape Provincial Parliament
–
The Western Cape Provincial Parliament is the legislature of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is located at 7 Wale Street in Cape Town and it is unicameral, and consists of 42 members elected by a system of party-list proportional representation. The Western Cape is unique amongst the provinces of South Africa in calling its legislature the Provincial Parliament, the other provinces use the terms Provincial Legislature and Members of the Provincial Legislature. The Fifth Provincial Parliament was elected on 7 May 2014 in South Africas 2014 general elections, a majority of the members belong to the Democratic Alliance. The Provincial Parliament is modelled on the Westminster system, the Premier then chooses the members of the Provincial Cabinet, who must also be MPPs. The Provincial Parliament also has the power to force the Premier and Cabinet to resign, the legislative power of the Provincial Parliament is restricted to certain fields enumerated in the national Constitution, in some of these fields the power is shared with the national Parliament. The fields on which the Provincial Parliament may legislate include health care, primary and secondary education, agriculture, transport and it also controls the budget of the provincial government departments. Legislation may be introduced by any member, except for money bills, laws passed by the Provincial Parliament must be signed by the Premier before coming into effect. The Premier may refer a bill back to Parliament for reconsideration if she or he believes it is unconstitutional, if the Parliament re-passes it, then the Premier must either sign it or refer it to the Constitutional Court, which can make a final decision on its constitutionality. The provincial legislature consists of 42 members, who are elected through a system of party list proportional representation with closed lists. In other words, each voter casts a vote for one political party, the seats are then filled by members in accordance with lists submitted by the parties before the election. The legislature is elected for a term of five years, unless it is dissolved early, by convention all nine provincial legislatures and the National Assembly are elected on the same day. The most recent election was held on 7 May 2014, the following table summarises the results. The following table shows the composition of the parliament after past elections. The presiding officer of the Provincial Parliament is the Speaker, assisted by a Deputy Speaker, as of 22 February 2011 the Speaker is Richard Majola and the Deputy Speaker is Piet Pretorius, both members of the Democratic Alliance. Apart from being the head of the province, the Premier also leads the governing party or coalition in the Provincial Parliament. The leader of the largest party not in government is recognised as Leader of the Opposition, as of 2009 the Premier is Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance. Marius Fransman of the African National Congress was elected Leader of the Opposition in 2011, Provincial legislature List of Members of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament List of Acts of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament WCPP official website
18.
Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
–
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania is a South African Black Nationalist movement, and is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, the PAC was formally launched on 6 April 1959 at Orlando Communal Hall in Soweto. A number of African National Congress members broke away because they objected to the substitution of the 1949 Programme of Action with the Freedom Charter adopted in 1955, further they objected to the inclusion of other national groups such as the Communist Party of South Africa. Robert Sobukwe was elected as the first president, and Potlako Leballo as the Secretary General, on 21 March 1960, the PAC organised a campaign against pass laws. People gathered in the townships of Sharpeville and Langa where Sobukwe and other top leaders were arrested, Sobukwe was sentenced to three years and Potlako Leballo to two years in prison. Sobukwe died in Kimberley, Cape Province,1978 of lung cancer, immediately after the Sharpeville massacre the National Party Government banned both the ANC and PAC on 8 April 1960. The PAC responded by founding its armed wing, the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army and it is Pan Africanism with three principles of African nationalism, socialism, and continental unity. Its body of ideas drew largely from the teachings of Anton Lembede, George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Martin Delany, Kwame Nkrumah, the PAC has been beset by infighting and has had numerous changes of leadership since its transition to a political party. In 1996, Clarence Makwetu, who led the party in the 1994 elections, was removed on the basis of bringing the party into disrepute, a faction of the PAC continued to regard Mphahlele as leader. The matter was resolved in the courts, with Mpheti eventually being confirmed as party leader for the 2014 election, Mpheti has since been charged with murder for the death of a Swazi national, Mthunzi Mavundla. Luthando Mbinda was elected president at the 2014 congress in Botshabelo, Mbinda claimed that Mphahleles election was not valid, as he was not a valid member, while Mphahlele is challenging his expulsion in court
19.
Proportional representation
–
Proportional representation characterizes electoral systems by which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the support an particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result, not just a plurality, or a bare majority, Proportional representation requires the use of multiple-member voting districts, it is not possible using single-member districts alone. In fact, the most proportional representation is achieved when just one super-district is used, the two most widely used families of PR voting systems are party list PR and single transferable vote. Mixed member proportional representation, also known as the Additional Member System, is a hybrid Mixed Electoral System that uses party list PR as its proportional component, with party list PR, political parties define candidate lists and voters vote for a list. The relative vote for each list determines how many candidates from each list are actually elected, lists can be closed or open, open lists allow voters to indicate individual candidate preferences and vote for independent candidates. Voting districts can be small or as large as a province or an entire nation, the single transferable vote uses small districts, with voters ranking individual candidates in order of preference. During the count, as candidates are elected or eliminated, surplus or discarded votes that would otherwise be wasted are transferred to other candidates according to the preferences, STV enables voters to vote across party lines and to elect independent candidates. Voters have two votes, one for their district and one for the party list, the party list vote determining the balance of the parties in the elected body. Biproportional apportionment, first used in Zurich in 2006, is a method for adjusting an elections result to achieve overall proportionality. Some form of representation is used for national lower house elections in 94 countries, party list PR. As with all systems, there are overlapping and contentious claims in terms of its advantages and disadvantages. But does it follow that the minority should have no representatives at all, is it necessary that the minority should not even be heard. Nothing but habit and old association can reconcile any reasonable being to the needless injustice, in a really equal democracy, every or any section would be represented, not disproportionately, but proportionately. A majority of the electors would always have a majority of the representatives, man for man, they would be as fully represented as the majority. Unless they are, there is not equal government, many academic political theorists agree with Mill, that in a representative democracy the representatives should represent all segments of society. The established parties in UK elections can win formal control of the parliament with as little as 35% of votes, in Canada, majority governments are regularly formed by parties with the support of under 40% of votes cast. Coupled with turnout levels in the electorate of less than 60%, in the 2005 general election, for example, the Labour Party under Tony Blair won a comfortable parliamentary majority with the votes of only 21. 6% of the total electorate
20.
National Assembly of South Africa
–
The National Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape Province. The National Assembly is presided over by a Speaker, assisted by a Deputy Speaker, the current Speaker is Baleka Mbete and the Deputy Speaker is Lechesa Tsenoli, they were elected on 21 May 2014. The National Assembly seats are allocated using a representation system with closed lists. Seats are first allocated according to the Droop quota, thereafter at most five seats are allocated using the largest remainder method. Any additional seats are allocated amongst the parties who then already have seats using the highest averages method, voters have one vote at elections to the National Assembly. Seats are allocated in ten multi-member constituencies via party lists, one constituency is a national or at large constituency and nine others represent each of the nine provinces. The lists were called the national lists and regional lists in the 2009 election, regional was used to avoid confusion with the provincial legislature elections held at the same time. Previously they were called National to National and Provincial to National, of the 400 members of the National Assembly, half are assigned to be elected from national lists and the remaining half are assigned to be elected from regional lists. Every election, the Independent Electoral Commission determines the allocation of the 200 regional list seats to each province by population, parties decide whether they want to set up both national and regional lists or only regional lists. In the 2009 election, the Democratic Alliance chose not to use a national list, the nationwide votes entitled the DA to 67 seats, but the provincial votes amounted to only 35 seats. While normally the remaining 32 members would be drawn from the national list. This resulted in the National Assembly being made up of 168 members elected on lists and 232 members elected on regional lists. The National Assembly was first elected in South Africas first non-racial election in 1994 with the African National Congress winning 252 of the 400 seats, the National Party, the previous governing party, won 82 seats, and the Inkatha Freedom Party won 43. The other parties represented in the assembly were the Freedom Front, the Democratic Party, the Pan Africanist Congress, in the election of 1999, the ANC won 266 seats, one short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally amend the constitution. The DP expanded its representation to become the opposition with 38 seats. The NP, now renamed the New National Party, dropped to 28 seats, eight smaller parties also obtained seats in the assembly. In the election of 2004 the ANC obtained 279 seats, gaining a two-thirds majority, the DP became the Democratic Alliance and remained the official opposition with 50 seats, while the IFP won 28 seats. The NNP was severely weakened, obtaining only 7 seats, the party was disbanded in 2005 with the majority of the party joining the ANC
21.
South African general election, 2014
–
The 2014 South African general election was held on 7 May 2014, to elect a new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures in each province. It was the election held in South Africa under conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994. It was also the first time that South African expatriates were allowed to vote in a South African national election. The National Assembly election was won by the African National Congress, the official opposition Democratic Alliance increased its share of the vote from 16. 7% to 22. 2%, while the newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters obtained 6. 4% of the vote. Eight of the nine provincial legislatures were won by the ANC, the EFF obtained over 10% of the vote in Gauteng, Limpopo and North West, and beat the DA to second place in the last two. In the other six provinces won by the ANC, the DA obtained second place and this included KwaZulu-Natal, where the DA for the first time beat the Inkatha Freedom Party to second place. In the Western Cape, the province not won by the ANC. South Africa has a system of government, the National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list approach. Two hundred members are elected from party lists, the other 200 are elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa was chosen by the National Assembly after the election, the provincial legislatures, which vary in size from 30 to 80 members, are also elected by proportional representation with closed lists. The premiers of each province will be chosen by the majority in each provincial legislature. The National Council of Provinces consists of 90 members, ten elected by each provincial legislature, the NCOP members will be elected by the provincial legislatures in proportion to the party makeup of the legislatures. On 26 November 2013 the Electoral Amendment Act,2013, came into force and it allows South African citizens resident outside South Africa to register and vote in the election of the National Assembly. A new regulation added in 2013 that was enforced for the first time on 7 May 2014 is the prohibition of photographing marked ballot papers, which aims to inhibit voter intimidation. They were re-elected with increasing majorities in 1999 and 2004, the ANC is led by Jacob Zuma. In 2012, Zuma was re-elected to a second term as President of the African National Congress, beating his only rival and deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe. Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as Deputy President of the ANC, succeeding Motlanthe who had declined a second term after losing to Zuma, the official opposition Democratic Alliance received 16. 7% of the vote in 2009, up from 12. 4% in 2004. At provincial level, the DA has been in power in the Western Cape province since 2009, traditionally, the DA was seen as a party rallying against apartheid laws, especially in the 1980s
