Senate (South Africa)

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The Houses of Parliament in Cape Town, the meeting place of the Senate (historic photo)

The Senate ( English Senate , Afrikaans Senaat ) was from 1910 to 1980 and from 1994 to 1997 the upper house in the parliamentary bicameral system of South Africa . The Senate met in a room in the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town .

history

1910 to 1980

After the formation of the South African Union in 1910, the Senate was determined by an electoral body made up of members of the four provincial councils and the House of Assembly ( Afrikaans : Volksraad ); Eight members were elected per province. Another eight members of the Senate were appointed by the governor-general on the proposal of the Prime Minister. The electoral term was ten years. The basis was the South Africa Act, 1909.

The Senate was led by the "President". Members must be at least 30 years of age, have electoral registration rights for the National Assembly, have lived in the territory of the Union of South Africa for 5 years, be British of European descent and have South African property worth at least £ 500 . The Senate initially saw itself as the supervisory authority of the House of Assembly, but also as guardian of the constitution and the interests of the non-white population.

In 1920 the next election took place, which resulted in a narrow majority for senators from the South African Party (SAP), while after 1924 there was a majority in the National Assembly for the National Party (NP). After the 1929 election, the Senate was dissolved and re-elected due to changes in the law. Now there was a majority for the NP, which after its merger with SAP to form the United Party (UP) became a large majority.

Since 1936 there have been two changes in the composition of the Senate in favor of the non-European population. The Representation of Natives Act ( Act No. 12 of 1936 ) of 1936 and the Asiatic Land Tenure Act and Indian Representation Act ( Act No. 28 of 1946 ) stipulated, among other things, that white senators as representatives of the non-European population should be represented by traditional heads and further office holders in residential areas of the population groups were to be elected. Accordingly, four senators for the areas of Transkei , Cape Province , Natal and Transvaal / Orange Free State were to be elected to represent the black population . There was now a nominated and an elected (white) senator for the Indian population.

The next Senate election took place in 1939. 28 of the 44 members voted for the South African Union to participate in World War II . After the victory of the NP in the 1948 election , the Senate was again dissolved and re-elected. There was a slim majority for the coalition of the National Party and the African Party . The South West Africa Affairs Amendment Act ( Act No. 23 of 1949 ) also admitted four senators from what was then South West Africa , two of whom were appointed and two were appointed by an electoral body made up of members of the South West African Legislative Assembly and the House of Assembly were.

The Senate Act of 1955 ( Act No. 53 of 1955 ) was passed after a constitutional amendment . Before that, there had been a constitutional crisis after there was no two-thirds majority in the jointly meeting House of Assembly and Senate to abolish the full voting rights of the Coloreds and the NP government had parliament declared a high court, which was responsible for the final decisions of the courts could invalidate. After this was forbidden by a court, the Senate was reformed in favor of the NP. Senators were now elected at the provincial level through majority elections in the electoral bodies, so that except in Natal only NP candidates were elected. The number of senators for the Transvaal was increased to 27, for the Cape Province to 22, corresponding to the number of members of the provincial parliaments. The number of senators appointed was also increased. There were now 89 senators, 77 of whom were on the government side. The Senate has now approved the abolition of the colored voting rights with a sufficient majority. The senatorial term was reduced to five years. With the Separate Representation of Voters Act ( Act No. 46 of 1951 ), a senator was added to represent the Coloreds.

The previous four representatives for the black population ceased to exist in 1959 as a result of the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act ( Act No. 46 of 1959 ).

In 1960 the number of senators was reduced to 54, but the colored representative was retained. The Senate Act of 1960 ( Act No. 53 of 1960 ) again changed the composition of the Senate.

After the founding of the Republic of South Africa in 1961, the state president was responsible for appointing senators; the President of the Senate was henceforth the first deputy of the state president. The seats for all non-whites were abolished with effect from 1962 and 1968 respectively. The representation of South West Africa ended in 1977.

Colored representation in the Senate ended in 1968 as a result of the Colored Persons Representative Council Act ( Act No. 52 of 1968) .

In 1980, on the initiative of President Pieter Willem Botha, as part of an intended constitutional reform , the Senate was created with the South Africa Constitution Fifth Amendment Act No. 74 of 1980, abolished. The meeting rooms were used from 1984 by the newly created House of Representatives , a representation of the Coloreds created by the apartheid government.

1994 to 1997

In 1994 a new Senate was formed. It consisted of ten senators from each of the nine provinces, who had been appointed and sent from the Provincial Legislatures after the election results had been achieved. Hendrik Jacobus Coetsee (NP) was elected President of the Senate and Govan Mbeki (ANC) was elected as his deputy . This body first met on May 20, 1994. Under the 1996 constitution, the Senate was replaced by the National Council of Provinces the following year .

The consultations on the draft of a new constitution on the question of the establishment of a newly designed provincial council at the national level were not free of conflict. Significantly different points of view emerged, particularly between the National Party (NP) and the ANC. A decisive argument for a new model was the previous experience, according to which the relationship between the national government and the provincial governments had steadily increased in terms of potential for conflict. In the course of bilateral negotiations on this point, the ANC proposed a Council of Provinces with 55 members, which should replace the previous Senate. The differences of opinion lasted until the public submission of the draft constitution. The NP feared a weakening of the position of the provinces and pleaded for a strict division of power between the provinces and the national government.

Conference building and boardroom

The boardroom was used before 1910 by the Legislative Council of the Cape of Good Hope , the upper house of the Cape Colony at the time . It was designed in the style of the boardroom of the House of Lords, for example with rows of seats facing each other. With the abolition of the Senate in 1997, this assembly room was rebuilt so that the benches have been in a semicircle ever since.

See also

literature

  • WP Carpenter: The South African Senate. In: The Modern Law Review. Volume 20, November 1957, No. 6, pp. 549-565. Digitized

Individual evidence

  1. ^ South Africa Act, 1909. law.wisc.edu, accessed May 19, 2018
  2. ^ South Africa Act, 1909, section 26. law.wisc.edu, accessed May 20, 2018
  3. ^ A b W. P. Schreiner: The South African Senate. In: The Modern Law Review. Volume 20, November 1957, No. 6, pp. 549-565. Digitized
  4. ^ Edgar H. Brookes: Government and Administration . In: Ellen Hellmann , Leah Abrahams (Ed.): Handbook on Race Relations in South Africa . Cape Town, London, New York, Oxford University Press , 1949. p. 28
  5. ↑ a b Muriel Horrell: Laws Affecting Race Relations in South Africa . Johannesburg 1978, p. 23
  6. ^ A b c L. Longmore: Reconstituting the Senate in South Africa. In: African Affairs . Vol. 59, No. 237, October 1960, p. 328 (excerpt).
  7. ↑ a b c Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. sahistory.org.za, accessed May 19, 2018
  8. ↑ a b c Muriel Horrell: Laws Affecting Race Relations in South Africa . Johannesburg 1978, p. 24
  9. ^ SAIRR : Survey of Race Relations 1980 . Johannesburg 1981, p. 5
  10. ^ Poster for the election of the Senate in 1994 at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on May 18, 2018
  11. ↑ SAIRR : Race Relations Survey 1994/95 . Johannesburg 1995, p. 339
  12. ^ SAIRR: South Africa Survey 1995/96 . Johannesburg 1996, pp. 428-429
  13. ^ The Senate of South Africa. andrewcusack.com, accessed May 18, 2018