The Third Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa

Constitution of South Africa

The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the country of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the government. The current constitution, the country's fifth, was...

 made changes to allow the creation of municipalities

Municipalities of South Africa

Municipalities in South Africa are a division of local government that lie one level down from provincial government, forming the lowest level of democratically elected government structures in the country. The foundation for this layer of government is set out in Chapter 7 of the Constitution of...

 that cross provincial

Provinces of South Africa

South Africa is currently divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, also known as Bantustans, were reintegrated and the four existing provinces were divided into nine. The twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments to the constitution...

 boundaries. It was enacted by the Parliament of South Africa

Parliament of South Africa

The Parliament of South Africa is South Africa's legislature and under the country's current Constitution is composed of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces....

, signed by President

President of South Africa

The President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africa's Constitution. From 1961 to 1994, the head of state was called the State President....

 Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

 on 20 October 1998, and came into force on the 30th of the same month. The changes it made were reversed in 2005 by the Twelfth Amendment

Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa

The Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa altered the boundaries of seven of South Africa's nine provinces...

.

Provisions

The amendment added two clauses to the Constitution. The first allowed municipal boundaries to be established across provincial boundaries by the agreement of the national and the relevant provincial governments, and provided for national legislation to regulate the process. The second provided that in such municipalities, the ward

Electoral ward (South Africa)

In South Africa, wards are geopolitical subdivisions of municipalities used for electoral purposes. Each metropolitan and local municipality is delimited by the Municipal Demarcation Board into half as many wards as there are seats on the municipal council...

 boundaries were not allowed to cross provincial boundaries. Both of these clauses were removed by the Twelfth Amendment, at the same time as many provincial boundaries were altered.

Formal title

The official short title

Short title

The short title is the formal name by which a piece of primary legislation may by law be cited in the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions , as well as the United States. It contrasts with the long title which, while usually being more fully descriptive of the...

 of the amendment is "Constitution Third Amendment Act of 1998". It was originally titled "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Act, 1998" and numbered as Act No. 87 of 1997, but the Citation of Constitutional Laws Act, 2005

Citation of Constitutional Laws Act, 2005

The Citation of Constitutional Laws Act, 2005 is an act of the Parliament of South Africa which altered the way in which the Constitution and its amendments are numbered and referred to....

renamed it and abolished the practice of giving Act numbers to constitutional amendments.

External links

• Official text (PDF)