Provincial Government Act, 1961/1984-09-03

To provide for provincial councils and their powers and the administration of provincial matters, and for matters connected therewith.

(Afrikaans text signed by the Governor-General.) (Assented to 24th April, 1961.)

as amended by

Provincial Executive Committees Act, No. 28 of 1962

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 65 of 1962

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 9 of 1963

Provincial Councils and Executive Committees Act, No. 22 of 1963

Coloured Persons Education Act, No. 47 of 1963

Provincial Executive Committees Act, No. 64 of 1963

Indians Education Act, No. 61 of 1965

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 83 of 1965

Pension Laws Amendment Act, No. 102 of 1965

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 37 of 1966

Second Finance Act, No. 58 of 1966

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 9 of 1967

Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, No. 50 of 1968

Pension Laws Amendment Act, No. 79 of 1968

Powers and Privileges of Provincial Councils Amendment Act, No. 37 of 1969

General Law Amendment Act, No. 101 of 1969

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 1 of 1971

Pension Laws Amendment Act, No. 93 of 1971

Provincial Finance and Audit Act, No. 18 of 1972

Provincial Affairs Act, No. 61 of 1972

General Law Amendment Act, No. 102 of 1972

Constitution and Elections Amendment Act, No. 79 of 1973

General Law Amendment Act, No. 62 of 1973

Parliamentary Service Act, No. 33 of 1974

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 48 of 1974

Second Pension Laws Amendment Act, No. 77 of 1974

Exchequer and Audit Act, No. 66 of 1975

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 60 of 1976

Financial Relations Act, No. 65 of 1976

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 30 of 1977

Proclamation No. R. 249 of 1977

Second Black Laws Amendment Act, No. 102 of 1978

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 99 of 1979

Pension Laws Amendment Act, No. 100 of 1979

Republic of South Africa Constitution Third Amendment Act, No. 28 of 1980

Republic of South Africa Constitution Second Amendment Act, No. 31 of 1980

Railways and Harbours Acts Amendment Act, No. 67 of 1980

Republic of South Africa Constitution Amendment Act, No. 70 of 1980

Republic of South Africa Constitution Fourth Amendment Act, No. 74 of 1980

Republic of South Africa Constitution Fifth Amendment Act, No. 101 of 1980

Republic of South Africa Constitution Amendment Act, No. 40 of 1981

Republic of South Africa Constitution Second Amendment Act, No. 101 of 1981

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 99 of 1982

Provincial Affairs Act, No. 88 of 1983

Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, No. 110 of 1983

Constitution Amendment Act, No. 105 of 1984

THE PROVINCES.

Administrators.

66. (1) In each province there shall be a chief executive officer appointed by the State President who shall be known as the administrator of the province, and in whose name all executive acts relating to provincial affairs therein shall be done.

(2) In the appointment of the administrator of any province, the State President shall as far as practicable give preference to persons resident in such province.

(3) An administrator shall hold office for a period of five years and shall not be removed from office before the expiration thereof except by the State President for cause assigned which shall be communicated by message to the Houses of Parliament within one week after the removal, if Parliament is in session, or, if Parliament is not in session, within one week after the commencement of the next ensuing session.

(4) The State President may from time to time appoint a deputy-administrator to execute the office and functions of the administrator during his absence or illness or whenever for any reason he is unable to perform the duties of his office, or while the appointment of an administrator for the province concerned is pending.

(5) If any person has during any period before or after the commencement of this subsection executed the office and functions of an administrator in any of the circumstances referred to in subsection (4) without having been or before having been appointed as deputy administrator, the State President may appoint him as deputy administrator under the lastmentioned subsection with retrospective effect for the said period or for a period including the said period.

68. (1) There shall be a provincial council in each province consisting of the same number of members as are elected in the province for the House of Assembly under the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983: Provided that, in any province whose representatives in the House of Assembly are fewer than twenty in number, the provincial council shall consist of twice as many members as the number of representatives of that province in the House of Assembly.

(2) Any person qualified to vote for the election of members of a provincial council under this Act shall be qualified to be a member of such council under this Act.

(3) Any provincial council constituted as provided in section seventy of the South Africa Act, 1909, and in existence immediately prior to the commencement of this Act, shall be deemed to have been duly constituted as provided in this Act.

69. (1) The members of a provincial council under this Act shall be elected by the persons qualified to vote for the election of members of the House of Assembly in the province voting in the same electoral divisions as are delimited for the election of members of the House of Assembly under the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983: Provided that, in any province in which fewer than twenty members are elected to the House of Assembly, the delimitation of the electoral divisions for the purposes of the election of members of the provincial council shall be effected by the same commission and on the same principles as are prescribed in regard to the electoral divisions of the House of Assembly and in such a manner that each electoral division of the House of Assembly in the said province is divided into two electoral divisions of the provincial council, each containing, subject to the provisions of section 49 (3) of that Act, a number of voters as nearly as may be equal to one half of the number of voters in that electoral division of the House of Assembly.

(2) Any alteration in the number of members of the provincial council, and any re-division of the province into electoral divisions, shall, in respect of the election of members of the provincial council, come into operation at the next general election for such council held after the completion of such re-division or of any allocation consequent upon such alteration, and not earlier.

(3) The election in all the electoral divisions in the provinces shall take place on one and the same day and such day shall be appointed by the State President.

(4) Any person who immediately prior to the commencement of this Act holds office as a member of the provincial council by virtue of an election held as provided in section seventy-one of the South Africa Act, 1909, shall be deemed to have been elected to the corresponding provincial council established by this Act.

70. (1) The provisions of section 54, section 55 (1) and (2) (a) and section 56 of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983, shall apply mutatis mutandis to members of provincial councils as they are applicable to members of the House of Assembly.

(2) Any member of a provincial council who becomes a member of the House of Assembly shall cease to be a member of such provincial council.

71. (1) (a) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (b) a provincial council shall continue for five years from the date of its first meeting, but the State President may at any time by proclamation in the Gazette dissolve all provincial councils with effect from the same date.

(b) Should a provincial council dissolve by effluxion of time on a date during the existence of the House of Assembly, the State President may by proclamation in the Gazette extend the duration of that provincial council by a period not exceeding eighteen months: Provided that if the House of Assembly is dissolved on a date before the expiration of the said period, that provincial council may be dissolved by the State President by proclamation in the Gazette on the last-mentioned date.

(2) The provisions of section 40 of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983, in so far as it relates to the tenure of office of the members and the functioning of the House of Assembly upon a dissolution thereof, and to the summoning of Parliament after it has been dissolved, shall mutatis mutandis apply with reference to a dissolution and summoning of any provincial council.

80. Subject to the provisions of this Act, all powers, authorities and functions which immediately prior to the commencement of this Act were vested in or exercised by the executive committee of a province in terms of the South Africa Act, 1909, shall as far as the same continue in existence and are capable of being exercised after the commencement of this Act, be vested in the corresponding executive committee established under this Act, except in so far as such powers are assigned to a Minister by the State President under the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983.

84. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Financial Relations Act, 1976 (Act No. 65 of 1976), and the assent of the State President as hereinafter provided, and except in so far as the provisions of Part IV of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983, have under section 98 (3) (a) of the last-mentioned Act been declared to apply to any ordinance or other law of the province, a provincial council may make ordinances in relation to matters coming within the following classes of subjects, namely—

direct taxation within the province in order to raise revenue for provincial purposes; the borrowing of money on the sole credit of the province with the consent of the State President and in accordance with regulations framed by Parliament;

education, other than higher education, education for Coloured persons as defined in section one of the Coloured Persons Education Act, 1963, education for Indians as defined in section one of the Indians Education Act, 1965, and Black education, until Parliament otherwise provides;

agriculture to the extent and subject to the conditions defined by Parliament; the establishment, maintenance and management of hospitals and charitable institutions; municipal institutions, divisional councils and other local institutions of a similar nature; any institutions or bodies other than such institutions as are referred to in sub-paragraph (i), which have in respect of any one or more areas (whether contiguous or not) situated outside the area of jurisdiction of any such institution as is referred to in sub-paragraph (i), authority and functions similar to the authority and functions of such institutions as are referred to in the said sub-paragraph, or authority and functions in respect of the preservation of public health in any such area or areas, including any such body as is referred to in section seven of the Public Health Act, 1919 (Act No. 36 of 1919);

the assistance which a province may, with the approval of the State President, render to any other state, territory, province or the territory of South West Africa or to any institution or body contemplated in paragraph (f) and established in any other province;

the assistance which any institution or body contemplated in paragraph (f) may, with the approval of the State President, render to any other state, territory, province or the territory of South West Africa;

the assistance regarding civil defence which any institution or body contemplated in paragraph (f) may, with the approval of the administrator concerned, render to any such institution or body established in any other province, and the assistance which any institution or body so contemplated may with such approval render for the relief of the distress of persons who are or will be affected by an event declared to be a disaster under section 26 of the Fund-raising Act, 1978 (Act No. 107 of 1978);

local works and undertakings within the province, other than railways and harbours, and other than such works as extend beyond the borders of the province and subject to the power of Parliament to declare any work a national work and to provide for its construction by arrangement with the provincial council or otherwise;

roads, outspans, ponts and bridges, other than bridges connecting two provinces; markets and pounds; fish and game preservation, subject to the provisions of section fourteen of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1940 (Act No. 10 of 1940); the imposition of punishment by fine or imprisonment for enforcing any law or any ordinance of the province made in relation to any matter coming within any of the classes of subjects enumerated in this section; generally all matters which, in the opinion of the State President are of a merely local or private nature in the province; all other subjects in respect of which Parliament may by law delegate the power of making ordinances to the provincial council.

(2) An ordinance passed by a provincial council in relation to any matter referred to in paragraph (f) of subsection (1) may provide―

for the appointment by the administrator of the province concerned, or any specified authority, of the members or any number of the members of any institution or body contemplated in that paragraph; for the area of jurisdiction of an institution contemplated in subparagraph (i) of that paragraph to comprise one or more areas (whether contiguous or not).





GENERAL.

110. Whenever anything is published in a newspaper by or under the directions of the administration of a province, the publication shall take place simultaneously in both official languages and in the case of each language in a newspaper which appears mainly in that language, and the publication in each language shall as far as practicable occupy the same amount of space: Provided that where any newspaper appears substantially in both of the official languages, publication in both languages may take place in that newspaper.

114. Parliament shall not―

alter the boundaries of any province by declaring any area forming part thereof to be part of any other province, divide a province into two or more provinces, or form a new province out of provinces within the Republic, except on the petition of the provincial council of every province whose boundaries are affected thereby;

abolish any provincial council, except by petition to Parliament by the provincial council concerned.

119. In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates― “province” means any of the provinces incorporated in the Union of South Africa by the South Africa Act, 1909;

“Republic” means the Republic of South Africa.

121. This Act shall be called the Provincial Government Act, 1961.