Government in South Africa

Paper Summary:

This paper describes South Africa's government, which is based upon a system of proportional representation and has sixteen registered political parties, spanning a variety of political points of view with a variety of regional affiliations. The paper examines the role of the South African President and relates that South Africa has the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to give voice to the many diverse interests in a peaceful and democratic manner. The paper shows how the structure of the South African government strives to represent all possible minority and majority interests, in an effort to quell provincial and political tensions.

From the Paper:

"South Africa's government is a constitutional democracy based upon a system of proportional representation. In other words, its national legislature is a parliament, with two houses, the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). The parliament called the National Assembly awards seats to each political party based upon that party's proportionate support in the national election. Elections for the National Assembly are held every five years. The second general democratic post-apartheid election in 1999 in yielded a majority for the African National Congress (ANC) Party, the party famously lead by the imprisoned Nelson Mandela during the years of apartheid that disenfranchised most of South Africa's majority black population ("Government in South Africa," SouthAfricainfo, 2008)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Government in South Africa." Southafrica.info. 24 Mar 2008.http://www.southafrica.info/ess_info/sa_glance/government/gov.htm
• "South Africa's Political Parties." Southafrica.info. 24 Mar 2008.http://www.southafrica.info/ess_info/sa_glance/constitution/polparties.htm

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