National Assembly of South Africa Totally Explained

Everything about South African National Assembly totally explained

The National Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape Province. It consists of no fewer than 350 and no more than 400 Members elected for a five-year term on the basis of a common voters’ roll. It is presided over by a Speaker, assisted by a Deputy Speaker. The current Speaker is Baleka Mbete. Frene Ginwala was the speaker before the 2004 Elections.

Allocation

The National Assembly seats are allocated using a proportional representation system with closed lists. Voters have one vote at elections to the National Assembly. One half of the members are allocated via regional party lists in multi-member constituencies. The other half are allocated via a national party list in one national multi-member constituency. Parties decide whether they want to set up a national and regional lists or regional lists only.

History

In South Africa’s second democratic general election in 1999, the African National Congress won 266 seats. They were followed by the Democratic Party with 38 seats, the Inkatha Freedom Party with 34, the New National Party with 28, and the United Democratic Movement with 14. Other smaller parties are also represented.
   After the third democratic elections in 2004 the New National Party was severely weakened, and formally disbanded in 2005, with the majority of the party joining the ANC. The current opposition party in the National Assembly is the Democratic Alliance.
   As of 2005 there was much controversy generated by the Floor Crossing legislation.
   The Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly is Sandra Botha.

Current composition

Affiliation	Members
African National Congress	290
Democratic Alliance	47
Inkatha Freedom Party	23
United Democratic Movement	6
Independent Democrats	5
African Christian Democratic Party	4
Freedom Front Plus	4
National Democratic Convention	4
Pan Africanist Congress of Azania	3
United Christian Democratic Party	3
Minority Front	2
Azanian People's Organization	1
Federation of Democrats	1
Progressive Independent Movement	1
United Party of South Africa	1
Error in above list	5
Total	400

Further Information

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