South Africa Act, 1909/1958-10-03

as amended by

Exchequer and Audit Act, No. 21 of 1911

Appellate Division Act, No. 12 of 1920

South Africa Act, 1909, Amendment Act, No. 9 of 1925

South Africa Act, 1909, Further Amendment Act, No. 34 of 1925

Local Government (Provincial Powers) Act, No. 1 of 1926

Electoral Act, 1918, Amendment Act, No. 11 of 1926

Criminal and Magistrates’ Courts Procedure (Amendment) Act, No. 39 of 1926

Payment of Members of Parliament Act, No. 51 of 1926

Administration of Justice (Further Amendment) Act, No. 11 of 1927

Rhodesia Appeals Act, No. 18 of 1931

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 17 of 1933

Financial Adjustments Act, No. 29 of 1933

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 45 of 1934

Status of the Union Act, No. 69 of 1934

Census Amendment Act, No. 5 of 1935

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 43 of 1935

General Law Amendment Act, No. 46 of 1935

Representation of Natives Act, No. 12 of 1936

Electoral Quota Act, No. 21 of 1937

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 13 of 1938

Constitution (Prevention of Disabilities) Act, No. 19 of 1940

Electoral Laws Amendment Act, No. 20 of 1940

Judges’ Act, No. 41 of 1941

Electoral Quota Consolidation Act, No. 30 of 1942

Financial Relations Consolidation and Amendment Act, No. 38 of 1945

Electoral Laws Amendment Act, No. 10 of 1946

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 21 of 1946

Provincial Powers Extension Act, No. 41 of 1947

Powers and Privileges of Provincial Councils Act, No. 16 of 1948

Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, No. 37 of 1948

Deputy-Administrators Act, No. 2 of 1949

Privy Council Appeals Act, No. 16 of 1950

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 39 of 1950

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 66 of 1951

General Law Amendment Act, No. 32 of 1952

Electoral Laws Amendment Act, No. 55 of 1952

Bantu Education Act, No. 47 of 1953

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 20 of 1954

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 9 of 1955

Appellate Division Quorum Act, No. 27 of 1955

Senate Act, No. 53 of 1955

General Law Amendment Act, No. 62 of 1955

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 9 of 1956

Railways and Harbours Acts Further Amendment Act, No. 39 of 1956

General Law Amendment Act, No. 50 of 1956

South Africa Act Further Amendment Act, No. 1 of 1957

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 2 of 1957

General Law Amendment Act, No. 68 of 1957

South Africa Act Amendment Act, No. 1 of 1958

South Africa Act Further Amendment Act, No. 49 of 1958

14. (1) The Governor-General may appoint officers not exceeding sixteen in number to administer such departments of State of the Union as the Governor-General-in-Council may establish; such officers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor-General. They shall be members of the Executive Council and shall be the King’s Ministers of State for the Union. After the first general election of members of the House of Assembly, as herein after provided, no minister shall hold office for a longer period than three months unless he is or becomes a member of either House of Parliament.

(2) Whenever any Minister of State is from any cause whatever unable to perform any of the functions of his office, the Governor-General-in-Council may appoint any member of the Executive Council (whether he has or has not been appointed as a Minister of State, under sub-section (1)) to act in the said Minister’s stead, either generally or in the performance of any particular function.

(3) (a) The Governor-General may appoint so many persons as he may consider necessary to hold office during his pleasure as deputies to any Minister of State in his capacity as the officer appointed to administer any particular department of State, and any such deputy may on behalf of that Minister of State and under the designation of deputy Minister of the department in question, exercise such of the powers and perform such of the functions and duties assigned to that Minister of State in terms of any law or otherwise as the said Minister may from time to time determine, but shall not be a member of the Executive Council.

(b) The total number of persons holding office by virtue of appointment under paragraph (a) shall not at any time exceed one half the number of officers appointed under sub-section (1) as Ministers of State.

(4) No person appointed under sub-section (3) shall hold office for a longer period than three months unless he is or becomes a member of the Senate or the House of Assembly.

(5) Any such person may be paid such an allowance in addition to any allowance which may be payable to him as a member of the Senate or the House of Assembly, as the Governor-General may determine.

53. No person shall be capable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or as a member of the House of Assembly who―

has been at any time convicted of any crime or offence for which he shall have been sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine for a term of not less than twelve months, unless he shall have received a grant of amnesty or a free pardon, or unless such imprisonment shall have expired at least five years before the date of his election; or is an unrehabilitated insolvent; or is of unsound mind, and has been so declared by a competent court; or holds any office of profit under the Crown within the Union: Provided that the following persons shall not be deemed to hold an office of profit under the Crown for the purposes of this sub-section:

a Minister of State for the Union or a deputy appointed to any Minister of State under sub-section (3) of section fourteen;

a person in receipt of a pension from the Crown; an officer or member of His Majesty’s naval or military forces on retired or half-pay, or an officer or member of the naval or military forces of the Union whose services are not wholly employed by the Union; any person who has been appointed or became a justice of the peace under section two of the Justices of the Peace and Oaths Act, 1914 (Act No. 16 of 1914), and any justice of the peace appointed before the commencement of the said Act, who performs his functions as such by virtue of section five of that Act;

any person who, while the Union is at war, is an officer or member of the military, air or naval forces of the Union or any other force or service established by or under the South Africa Defence Act, 1912 (Act No. 13 of 1912).

56. (1) (a) Subject to the provisions of this section, every member of the Senate and the House of Assembly (excluding Ministers receiving a salary under the Crown, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Assembly) shall receive an allowance of one thousand four hundred pounds per annum.

(b) In addition there may be paid during any period to any member of the Senate or the House of Assembly (excluding any Minister receiving a salary under the Crown and the Speaker of the House of Assembly), out of moneys appropriated by Parliament for the purpose, a travelling and subsistence allowance at a rate to be determined in the case of a member of the Senate, by the President of the Senate, and, in the case of a member of the House of Assembly, by the Speaker of the House of Assembly.

(c) Any such travelling and subsistence allowance may be paid at different rates in respect of different members according to circumstances on such a basis as the President of the Senate or, as the case may be, the Speaker of the House of Assembly may deem fit, and shall be payable subject to such conditions as he may determine.

(1)bis. Subject to the provisions of this section other than the provisions of sub-section (2), the Leader of the Opposition shall receive an allowance of one thousand three hundred pounds per annum in addition to the allowance provided for in sub-section (1).

(1)ter. For the purposes of this section the expression “Leader of the Opposition” shall mean that member of the House of Assembly who is for the time being the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength in that House and if there is any doubt as to which is or was at any material time the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength in the House of Assembly, or as to who is or was at any material time the Leader in that House of such a party, the question shall be decided for the purposes of this section by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, and his decision, certified in writing under his hand, shall be final and conclusive.

(2) For every day during which any such member fails to attend a meeting of the House of which he is a member there shall be deducted the sum of six pounds: Provided that such member shall be exempted from deductions on account of such failure―

for any day on which he attends a meeting of any Committee of the House of which he is a member; and when he is absent in connection with the performance of any of his functions in pursuance of his appointment under sub-section (3) of section fourteen as the deputy to any Minister of State; and

when his absence is due to his illness or to the summons or subpœna of a competent Court (except a summons to answer a criminal charge upon which he is convicted); and when his absence is due to the death or serious illness of his wife and such absence is condoned by the Sessional Committee on Standing Orders of the Senate or the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders of the House of Assembly (as the case may be); and when his absence is due to his serving, while the Union is at war, with the military, air or naval forces of the Union or any other force or service established by or under the South Africa Defence Act, 1912 (Act No. 13 of 1912); and

in respect of any further period of absence not exceeding twenty-five days on which he so fails to attend during a session at which the estimates of expenditure for the ordinary administrative services of a financial year are considered and not exceeding seven days on which he so fails to attend during any other session.

(3) Subject to the deductions incurred, if any, the Clerk of the House concerned shall pay to every such member of the House of which he is Clerk the allowance (including any travelling and subsistence allowance) aforesaid in monthly instalments, the first month to be reckoned in the case of a senator, from the date on which he was nominated or elected, as the case may be, and, in the case of a member of the House of Assembly, if he was declared elected after a poll had taken place, from the date on which the poll took place, and if he was declared elected because he was the only person duly nominated, from the date on which he was declared elected.

(3)bis. There shall be paid to the President of the Senate a salary of two thousand four hundred pounds per annum and to the Speaker of the House of Assembly a salary of three thousand pounds per annum.

(4) The amount of the allowances and salaries paid under this section shall be charged annually to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and the provision of this sub-section shall be deemed to be an appropriation of every such amount.

(5) (a) Of the allowances (other than travelling and subsistence allowances) and salaries payable under this section the following amounts shall for the purpose of any law be deemed to represent payments made to meet expenditure incurred by the persons concerned in connection with their official duties, namely―

in respect of an allowance payable to any person under sub-section (1), an amount of seven hundred pounds; in respect of the allowance payable under sub-section (1)bis, an amount of three hundred and eighty pounds; and in respect of the salary payable under sub-section (3)bis―

to the President of the Senate, an amount of nine hundred and sixty pounds; to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, an amount of one thousand two hundred pounds.

(b) The full amount of any travelling and subsistence allowance paid by virtue of a determination under paragraph (b) of sub-section (1) shall for the purpose of any law be deemed to represent a payment made to meet expenditure incurred by the person concerned in connection with his official duties.