Talk:Provinces of South Africa

message: Does anyone know the relationship of the Provincial governments to the central government? Is South Africa a Federal state? Joziboy 14 March 2006, 12:59 (UTC)
:South Africa doesn't have a specific lable, but it is almost semi-federal. Provincial governments have complete control over certain services, while the central government has control over stuff like education and health care. <FONT FACE="MS Reference Sans Serif" COLOR="#FF0000">► Adriaan90  ( Talk ♥ Contribs ) ♪♫</FONT> 23:25, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: SA is definitely not a federal country - it is a unitary state. The provinces' powers and even their very existence is granted to them by the national government. Roger (talk) 18:33, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The powers and boundaries of the provinces are set out in the Constitution, and they can't be amended without the agreement of six of the nine provinces in the NCOP. If a constitutional amendment affects one province specifically, then that province's legislature has to consent. (I don't know if you remember the fuss over the alteration of the EC/KZN border - the Constitutional Court suspended it because the EC legislature hadn't followed proper procedure in giving its consent.) The most accurate description is probably regional state - something between unitary and federal - htonl (talk) 19:44, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Of course, the fact that the ANC controls eight provinces and the national government does tend to obscure any federal qualities. I've been wondering if the DA administration in the Western Cape is going to start insisting on its full constitutional powers. - htonl (talk) 19:49, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Federal structure

message: I have seen a couple of maps in the late 1990s that had a line within Eastern Cape, running from north to south, dividing the province into two (administrative?) zones. No other province had such a division. What is it? Perhaps it should be mentioned somewhere. — Wikipeditor (talk) 23:20, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I also recall seeing such maps. I don't know for sure what that line meant; but my speculation is that it was perhaps proposed to eliminate the Eastern Cape entirely, and attach the two halves to the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. I seem to recall that some of the maps also showed dotted lines indicating other, less radical, proposed changes to the provincial borders. Certainly the division is not of any significance now to the administration of the Eastern Cape. - htonl (talk) 19:24, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  Both Gauteng (then known as the PWV) and the Eastern Cape had two blocks (known as block A and block B). Some parties (DP was one) wanted more than 9 provinces - the dotted lines could allow up to 11 provinces. The blocks are defined (together with the original provinces) in the Interim Constitution. As the ANC won the elctions in each of these two provinces they were never split up. --Uxejn (talk) 17:26, 20 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks, that helped a lot!  I was able to find it in the 1993 interim constitution as you said, together with a lot of other interesting information. Wikipeditor (talk) 04:21, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-provincial division 

message: The section has been "under construction" since before grandma was a baby. I have never seen or heard/read that the provinces even have official flags. I would in fact like to see some evidence that the one shown for Mpumalanga actually exists. Finish it or delete it. Roger (talk) 07:14, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Mpumalanga is in fact the only province to have a flag at all. I will delete the section. Never mind, it's gone already. - htonl (talk) 15:56, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Flags 

message: At User:Htonl/South Africa provincial category renaming I've proposed a list of categories relating to South African provinces that should be renamed to produce a consistent naming scheme for such categories. (The Western Cape has already been done; see Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Western Cape Province.) Please feel free to contribute to the list or discuss it on the talk page there. I've already made a couple of comments about the particularly tricky case of the North West. - htonl (talk) 16:01, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Province-related category renaming 

message: With all the to and fro movements of provincial boundaries (particularly EC<>KZN and NW<>GP) in recent years I'm not sure the map is current. Roger (talk) 22:03, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not quite correct; it doesn't include the transfer of Merafong City Local Municipality from North West to Gauteng, which came into effect just before last year's elections. In rather a coincidence, I was just thinking today that I need to update the map. I'm working on it now. - htonl (talk) 19:36, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, it's done. You might have to clear your cache to see it. - htonl (talk) 22:10, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is the map up to date? 

message: I have recently been having a discussion with a user that feels the Western Cape should be abbreviated as "WP". Has anyone come across a reference (other than ISO 3166-2:ZA) that explicitly states what the official abbreviations are? --NJR_ZA (talk) 06:14, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: There are no "official" abbreviations other than ISO 3166-2:ZA. After all, we don't generally use abbreviations to refer to the provinces in the way that, for example, Americans use their two-character state codes. I think we should either remove the column entirely, or retitle it "ISO 3166 abbreviation" and remove the other variations. Listing what codes are used on numberplates is a task that can be left to Vehicle registration plates of South Africa. - htonl (talk) 08:03, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Abbreviations 

message: The historical section has a table showing the dependent and self-governing Bantustans before 1990, which also adds a line for South-West Africa. There are good reasons to do so when enumerating the four historical provinces and their ramifications, but I see two problems with clarity and consistency:
# The following commentary doesn't make clear that, rather than being reintegrated with existing provinces after 1990, South-West Africa became the independent nation of Namibia (although the United Nations, in their own eyes, had long ago dissolved South Africa's League of Nations mandate in favour of a yet-to-be-liberated "Namibia").
# South-West Africa under South African rule had her own ten Bantustans, four of them graduating to self-governing status. This should be recognized in some way without necessarily listing them all in the South African table. Should there be a separate parallel table for South-West Africa?
*What solutions, adjustments or fixes make the most sense to other editors? —— Shakescene (talk) 08:50, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  South-West Africa Mandate and Bantustans 

message: The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
* 
Participate in the deletion discussion at the . —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:24, 13 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion 

message: The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
* 
Participate in the deletion discussion at the . —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:38, 5 December 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion