National Council of Provinces

National Council of Provinces National Council of Provinces

logo	Boardroom
Basic data
Seat:	Houses of Parliament, Cape Town , Western Cape, South Africa
MPs:	90
Current legislative period
Chair:	Chairman Amos Masondo ( ANC )
Distribution of seats:	ANC 29, permanent delegates ANC 25, special delegate DA 13, permanent delegate DA 7, special delegate EFF 9, permanent delegate EFF 2, special delegate other parties 3, permanent delegate other parties 2, special delegate      
Website
of the National Council of the Provinces of South Africa

The Houses of Parliament in Cape Town, the venue for the NCOP

The National Council of Provinces (NCOP, German roughly: "National Council of Provinces") is a chamber in the parliamentary bicameral system of South Africa and is the representation of the provinces . It has existed since 1997 and replaced the Senate that was established with the end of apartheid in 1994.

The second chamber of parliament is the National Assembly .

composition

The 90 MPs of the NCOP are elected indirectly. In elections held every five years, citizens vote on the composition of the National Assembly and the nine Provincial Legislatures . Each Provincial Legislature nominates ten MPs for the NCOP, regardless of population, including six permanent members and four special delegates. The special delegates each include the prime minister of the province or his representative and three ad hoc members. The ten members of each province must, under the constitution, reflect the distribution of seats in the Provincial Legislature. When voting, each province casts one vote. In addition to the 90 members mentioned, up to ten delegates from the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) can attend the meetings; however, they have no voting rights .

After the 2019 elections , the permanent NCOP members were sworn in on May 23, 2019. This resulted in the following distribution of seats, broken down by provinces. The number of permanent members and special delegates is given.

Composition since 2019

Political party		Type of delegate	province									total
			EC	FS	G	KZN	L.	M.	NW	NC	WC
	African National Congress	permanent delegates	4th	3	3	3	4th	4th	3	3	2	29	54
		Special delegate	3	3	2	3	4th	3	3	3	1	25th
	Democratic Alliance	permanent delegates	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	2	3	13	20th
		Special delegate	1	1	1	-	-	-	-	1	3	7th
	Economic Freedom Fighters	permanent delegates	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	9	11
		Special delegate	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	2
	Vryheidsfront Plus	permanent delegates	-	1	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	2	3
		Special delegate	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
	Inkatha Freedom Party	permanent delegates	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	2
		Special delegate	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
total			10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	90

The chairman has been Amos Masondo since May 2019 , his deputy Sylvia Lucas , both ANC. The opposition leader is Cathlene Labuschagne (DA).

The NCOP meets in the NPOC Chamber of the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town .

Tasks of the NCOP

The NCOP can discuss, amend, propose or reject laws. It must discuss all national laws and may introduce its own legislative proposals if both the interests of the state and the provinces are affected ( Schedule 4 areas ).

The NCOP has three types of decision-making, depending on the type of law:

• Laws under Section 74 of the Constitution are constitutional amending laws. All changes that affect the foundations of the state or the concerns of the provinces must be approved by the NCOP. Each provincial council has one vote; at least six of the nine delegations must agree. Other constitutional amendments must be discussed publicly by the NCOP. The delegations vote in accordance with the votes of their Provincial Legislatures.
• Laws under Section 76 belong to Schedule 4 areas ; there are also other laws provided by the constitution for this case. Again, each delegation has one vote, but only five delegations need to approve for the law to come into force. The delegations vote in accordance with the votes of their Provincial Legislatures.
• All other laws belong to Section 75 or Section 77 ( money bills, such as tax laws). Each NCOP delegate has one vote; the majority of those present decide.

Chairperson

The following people were or are chairpersons of the NCOP:

Surname	time	Political party
Mosiuoa Lekota	February 6, 1997 - June 21, 1999	ANC
Naledi Pandor	June 21, 1999 - May 4, 2004	ANC
Joyce Kgoali	May 4, 2004 - November 21, 2004	ANC
Mninwa Johannes Mahlangu	November 21, 2004 - May 22, 2014 (provisionally until January 17, 2005)	ANC
Thandi Modise	May 22, 2014 - May 23, 2019	ANC
Amos Masondo	since May 22, 2019	ANC

Others

• The German Federal Council advised the South African government on the introduction of the NCOP. Since then, there have been close relationships between the two bodies.
• Every year the NCOP visits remote areas of the country for a week to give the local population the opportunity to get to know the work of the NCOP and to discuss it with members of parliament.

See also

• Political system of South Africa

Web links

Commons : National Council of Provinces  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• South African Parliament: National Council of Provinces at www.parliament.gov.za (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Website of the South African Parliament (English), accessed on May 24, 2014
2. ↑ Mandating Procedures of Provinces Act, 2008 ( Memento of February 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), No. 52 of 2008
3. ^ South African ministries, etc. at rulers.org (English), accessed on May 22, 2014
4. ↑ Delegation of the National Council of Provinces of the Republic of South Africa visits the House of Representatives.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) at parlament-berlin.de from February 24, 2010