Tricameral Parliament
Encyclopedia
The Tricameral Parliament was the name given to the South African parliament
and its structure from 1984 to 1994, established by the South African Constitution of 1983
. While still entrenching the political power of the White section of the South African population (or, more specifically, that of the National Party
) (NP), it did give a limited political voice to the country's Coloured
and Indian
population groups. The majority Black population group was still excluded, however.
The Tricameral Parliament can trace its origin back to 1981, when the Senate
was replaced with the President's Council , which was an advisory body consisting of sixty nominated members from the White, Coloured, Indian and Chinese population groups.
Following a request by P.W. Botha, the President's Council presented a set of proposals in 1982 for constitution
al and political reform. This proposal called for the implementation of "power sharing" between the White, Coloured and Indian communities. The right wing of the NP was very unhappy about this proposal and a group of its MPs
, led by Dr. Andries Treurnicht
, a cabinet minister and the leader of the NP in the Transvaal
province, broke away to form the Conservative Party
(CP) in order to fight for a return to apartheid in its original form.
However, Botha continued to be in favour of implementing the President's Council proposal and in 1983 the NP government introduced a new constitutional framework. This framework proposed a parliament with three separately elected chambers:
Each of these three chambers would have power over the "own affairs" (as it was termed) of the population group it represented, such as education
, social welfare, housing
, local government
, arts
, culture
and recreation
.
"General affairs", such as defence
, finance
, foreign policy
, justice
, law and order
, transport
, commerce and industry, manpower, internal affairs, and agriculture
would require approval from all three chambers, after consideration by joint standing committees.
Furthermore, the framework proposed that the government would be led by an executive State President
, which would be selected by an 88-member electoral college
. This college would be composed of 50 Whites, 25 Coloureds and 13 Indians, each group chosen by its respective house in parliament. The State President, who was given very broad executive power, would then appoint a Cabinet
of ministers who would be in charge of "general affairs" as well as Ministers' Councils for each of the three parliamentary chambers to manage their "own affairs".
Cases of disagreements between the three houses of Parliament on specific legislation would be resolved by the President's Council. According to the constitutional proposal, this council would consist of 60 members – 20 members appointed by the House of Assembly, 10 by the House of Representatives, five by the House of Delegates and 25 directly by the State President.
Although ostensibly based on population figures, the numerical composition of the electoral college and the President's Council chambers meant that the National Party in power in the White House of Assembly could not be outvoted by the combined Coloured and Indian representatives.
In addition, the proposed constitution still made no provision for the representation of Black South Africans, as the NP still claimed that they belonged in their respective homelands
, in which they could exercise their political rights.
In order to approve the proposed constitution, a referendum among White voters was held on 2 November 1983. Both the Progressive Federal Party
(PFP), which objected to the exclusion of Blacks, as well as the CP, which objected to the participation of Coloureds and Indians, campaigned for a "No" vote. The conservative opposition to the reforms used banners with the text "Rhodesia voted yes - vote no!". reflecting on the transformation to majority rule in Rhodesia
.
However, many PFP followers and parts of the anti-government English language
press
supported the new constitution as "a step in the right direction". Consequently the "Yes" vote won the referendum by a wide margin, with 1,360,223 votes in favour (66.3%) and 691,577 against (33.7%). The turnout was 76%. The proposed constitution was consequently enacted by parliament as the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983
.
The proposed elections for the House of Representatives and House of Delegates in August 1984 ran into heavy opposition. The United Democratic Front
(UDF) was formed by a number of (mainly pro-African National Congress
) community organisations and trade union
s in order to oppose and boycott
these elections. Nevertheless, although the election boycott was widely supported, the new constitution did come into effect and the 1984 South African general elections
were held.
P.W. Botha was subsequently reelected as State President by the electoral college in 1989.
The Indian and Coloured chambers of the Tricameral Parliament suffered from a crisis of credibility with election boycotts leading to notoriously low turnouts (the 1984 House of Delegates election achieved only a 16.2% poll. Elected officials in these houses were sometimes scorned for participating in the apartheid system. In 1987, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert
, the leader of the opposition in the White chamber, quit parliamentary politics as he saw it as increasingly irrelevant to South Africa's political future.
In 1994, ten years after the Tricameral Parliament was formed, one of the last pieces of legislation it passed was the Interim Constitution of 1993
, which paved the way for the first non-racial elections that were held on 27 April of that year.
The Tricameral Parliament was housed in a new building, designed and constructed for that purpose, only a short distance from the Houses of Parliament. Currently (2009) the National Assembly
is housed in the building of the Tricameral Parliament while the National Council of Provinces
is housed in the old Houses of Parliament. The decor of the current National Assembly still retains the theme incorporating wooden panels of tessellating
sets of three triangles.
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
and its structure from 1984 to 1994, established by the South African Constitution of 1983
South African Constitution of 1983
The Constitution of 1983 was South Africa's third constitution. It replaced the republican constitution that had been adopted when South Africa became a republic in 1961 and was in force for ten years before it was superseded by the Interim Constitution on 27 April 1994, which in turn led to the...
. While still entrenching the political power of the White section of the South African population (or, more specifically, that of the National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
) (NP), it did give a limited political voice to the country's Coloured
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
and Indian
Asians in South Africa
The majority of the Asian South African population is Indian in origin, most of them descended from indentured workers transported to work in the 19th century on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area, then known as Natal. They are largely English speaking, although many also retain the...
population groups. The majority Black population group was still excluded, however.
The Tricameral Parliament can trace its origin back to 1981, when the Senate
Senate of South Africa
The Senate was the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa between 1910 and its abolition from 1 January 1981, and between 1994 and 1997.-1910-1981:...
was replaced with the President's Council , which was an advisory body consisting of sixty nominated members from the White, Coloured, Indian and Chinese population groups.
Following a request by P.W. Botha, the President's Council presented a set of proposals in 1982 for constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
al and political reform. This proposal called for the implementation of "power sharing" between the White, Coloured and Indian communities. The right wing of the NP was very unhappy about this proposal and a group of its MPs
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, led by Dr. Andries Treurnicht
Andries Treurnicht
Andries Petrus Treurnicht was a South African politician, Minister of Education during the Soweto Riots and for a short time leader of the National Party in Transvaal...
, a cabinet minister and the leader of the NP in the Transvaal
Transvaal Province
Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...
province, broke away to form the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (South Africa)
The Conservative Party of South Africa was a conservative party formed in 1982 as a breakaway from the ruling National Party...
(CP) in order to fight for a return to apartheid in its original form.
However, Botha continued to be in favour of implementing the President's Council proposal and in 1983 the NP government introduced a new constitutional framework. This framework proposed a parliament with three separately elected chambers:
- A 178-member White "House of AssemblyHouse of Assembly of South AfricaThe House of Assembly was the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa from 1910 to 1984, and latterly the white representative house of the Tricameral Parliament from 1984 to 1994, when it was replaced by the current National Assembly...
" (Afrikaans; "Volksraad"), which was in effect the existing lower house of Parliament. - An 85-member (Coloured) "House of RepresentativesHouse of Representatives of South AfricaThe House of Representatives of South Africa was an 80 seat body in the Tricameral Parliament of South Africa which existed from 1984-1994. It was reserved for Coloured South Africans...
" (Afr; "Raad van Verteenwoordigers") - A 45-member (Indian) "House of DelegatesHouse of Delegates (South Africa)The House of Delegates was a body in the Tricameral Parliament of South Africa which existed from 1984-1994. It was reserved for Indian South Africans. The body was elected twice; in 1984 and 1989....
" (Afr; "Raad van Afgevaardigdes").
Each of these three chambers would have power over the "own affairs" (as it was termed) of the population group it represented, such as education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, social welfare, housing
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
, local government
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
, arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
, culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and recreation
Recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...
.
"General affairs", such as defence
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
, finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
, foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
, justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
, law and order
Law and order (politics)
In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties...
, transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
, commerce and industry, manpower, internal affairs, and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
would require approval from all three chambers, after consideration by joint standing committees.
Furthermore, the framework proposed that the government would be led by an executive State President
State President of South Africa
State President, or Staatspresident in Afrikaans, was the title of South Africa's head of state from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic in 1961, and Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be head of state...
, which would be selected by an 88-member electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
. This college would be composed of 50 Whites, 25 Coloureds and 13 Indians, each group chosen by its respective house in parliament. The State President, who was given very broad executive power, would then appoint a Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
of ministers who would be in charge of "general affairs" as well as Ministers' Councils for each of the three parliamentary chambers to manage their "own affairs".
Cases of disagreements between the three houses of Parliament on specific legislation would be resolved by the President's Council. According to the constitutional proposal, this council would consist of 60 members – 20 members appointed by the House of Assembly, 10 by the House of Representatives, five by the House of Delegates and 25 directly by the State President.
Although ostensibly based on population figures, the numerical composition of the electoral college and the President's Council chambers meant that the National Party in power in the White House of Assembly could not be outvoted by the combined Coloured and Indian representatives.
In addition, the proposed constitution still made no provision for the representation of Black South Africans, as the NP still claimed that they belonged in their respective homelands
Bantustan
A bantustan was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa , as part of the policy of apartheid...
, in which they could exercise their political rights.
In order to approve the proposed constitution, a referendum among White voters was held on 2 November 1983. Both the Progressive Federal Party
Progressive Federal Party
The Progressive Federal Party was a South African political party formed in 1977. It advocated power-sharing in South Africa through a federal constitution, in place of apartheid...
(PFP), which objected to the exclusion of Blacks, as well as the CP, which objected to the participation of Coloureds and Indians, campaigned for a "No" vote. The conservative opposition to the reforms used banners with the text "Rhodesia voted yes - vote no!". reflecting on the transformation to majority rule in Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
.
However, many PFP followers and parts of the anti-government English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
press
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
supported the new constitution as "a step in the right direction". Consequently the "Yes" vote won the referendum by a wide margin, with 1,360,223 votes in favour (66.3%) and 691,577 against (33.7%). The turnout was 76%. The proposed constitution was consequently enacted by parliament as the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983
South African Constitution of 1983
The Constitution of 1983 was South Africa's third constitution. It replaced the republican constitution that had been adopted when South Africa became a republic in 1961 and was in force for ten years before it was superseded by the Interim Constitution on 27 April 1994, which in turn led to the...
.
The proposed elections for the House of Representatives and House of Delegates in August 1984 ran into heavy opposition. The United Democratic Front
United Democratic Front (South Africa)
The United Democratic Front was one of the most important anti-apartheid organisations of the 1980s. The non-racial coalition of about 400 civic, church, students', workers' and other organisations was formed in 1983, initially to fight the just-introduced idea of the Tricameral Parliament The...
(UDF) was formed by a number of (mainly pro-African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
) community organisations and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s in order to oppose and boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
these elections. Nevertheless, although the election boycott was widely supported, the new constitution did come into effect and the 1984 South African general elections
South African general election, 1984
The 1984 South African general election held in August of that year, it saw a number of Coloured and Indian parties participating in an election for the houses of Parliament created for their respective racial groups, although a majority of people in both of these groups opposed the Tricameral...
were held.
P.W. Botha was subsequently reelected as State President by the electoral college in 1989.
The Indian and Coloured chambers of the Tricameral Parliament suffered from a crisis of credibility with election boycotts leading to notoriously low turnouts (the 1984 House of Delegates election achieved only a 16.2% poll. Elected officials in these houses were sometimes scorned for participating in the apartheid system. In 1987, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert
Frederik van Zyl Slabbert
Frederik van Zyl Slabbert was a South African political analyst, businessman and politician. He is best known for having been the leader of the official opposition — the Progressive Federal Party — in the House of Assembly from 1979 to 1986.-Early life, education and academic career:Born in...
, the leader of the opposition in the White chamber, quit parliamentary politics as he saw it as increasingly irrelevant to South Africa's political future.
In 1994, ten years after the Tricameral Parliament was formed, one of the last pieces of legislation it passed was the Interim Constitution of 1993
South African Constitution of 1993
The Interim Constitution of 1993 was the fundamental law of South Africa from 1994 to 1996. It was a provisional document, intended to pave the way for the adoption of a permanent constitution...
, which paved the way for the first non-racial elections that were held on 27 April of that year.
The Tricameral Parliament was housed in a new building, designed and constructed for that purpose, only a short distance from the Houses of Parliament. Currently (2009) the National Assembly
National Assembly of South Africa
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...
is housed in the building of the Tricameral Parliament while the National Council of Provinces
National Council of Provinces
The National Council of Provinces is the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa under the constitution which came into full effect in 1997...
is housed in the old Houses of Parliament. The decor of the current National Assembly still retains the theme incorporating wooden panels of tessellating
Tessellation
A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces. Generalizations to higher dimensions are also possible. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art...
sets of three triangles.
See also
- Politics of South AfricaPolitics of South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The President of South Africa is both head of state and head of government; in the same manner as the prime minister of other nations, the President is elected by the National Assembly and must enjoy the confidence of the Assembly...
- TricameralismTricameralismTricameralism is the practice of having three legislative or parliamentary chambers. It is contrasted to unicameralism and bicameralism, both of which are far more common....
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 554United Nations Security Council Resolution 554United Nations Security Council Resolution 554, adopted on August 17, 1984, after recalling 473 , the Council condemned the 1984 general election in South Africa and the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act ....