Westminster Political System In South Africa Case Study

Union of South Africa 1910

 The state was under a unitary state, whereby the parliaments of each colony were abolished and replaced with provincial councils. They then introduced a bicameral parliament, consisting of a house of assembly and a senate. Country’s white minority mostly elected the bicameral parliament members.

2, South African Republican Constitution of 1961

 The structure of the government of the Republic under 1961 constitution was a Westminster system ran by a state president parliament. Westminster is a parliament system of government modeled after that, which developed in the United Kingdoms. The system is a series of procedures for operating a legislature; it is used or was used in the national legislature and subnational

In 1961 South Africa had a constitution that used the Westminster political system whereby the country had a State President that was elected by the parliament

Under the Westminster political system, the country has separate powers where the Executive, Parliament, and the Judiciary were separated because before this system was introduced; all the powers were vested on the Governor-General.

The executive powers were put in the State President and he was required to take the advice of the Cabinet. In this system, the State President could be removed for misconduct by resolutions taken out by both House of Parliament after there has been an investigation against him.

The Parliament had all the legislative powers which consisted of the House of Assembly and the Senate. The Parliament sat in Cape Town and was allowed to meet at least once per year. The House of Assembly consisted of 150 members, which were elected by white voters, and the Senate consisted of eight senators, two for each province and were nominated by the State President. The Senate then became permanently abolished then Bills that was passed by House of Parliament became the law when asserted by the State

The doctrine of Separation of Powers is the specific functions, duties, and responsibilities allocated to the institutions with a defined means of competence and jurisdiction. It is a separation of three spheres of government. The main objective of the Doctrine of separation of powers is to prevent the abuse of powers within different spheres of government .Legislative, make, amend and repeal the rules of the law, Executive, execute and enforce the rules of the law and Judiciary, determine what the law is and how it should be