About The Northern Cape Provincial Legislature

The Northern Cape Provincial Legislature exist and operates in terms of the South Africa’s Constitution and other applicable national and provincial legislative frameworks. The Legislature's clearly articulated mandate is derived from the Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic, wherein the Constitution provides:
In section 114.1 states that:

1. In exercising its legislative power, a Provincial Legislature may-

a)         Consider, pass, amend or reject any Bill before the Legislature; and
b)         Initiate or prepare legislation, except a money bill.
c)         A Provincial Legislature must provide for mechanisms-

1. To ensure that all Provincial Executive organs of state in the province are accountable to it; and
2. To maintain oversight of- The exercise of provincial executive authority of the province, including the implementation of Legislation; and any provincial organ of state.

Section 118(1) and (2) mandates the legislature to ensure public access to and involvement in all processes of the legislature.

Quick Facts about Legislature:

• Between the Fifth (5th) and Sixth (6th) Legislatures, the organizational environment of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature has fairly remained the same.
• Headquarters of the Legislature are in the province’s capital city, Kimberley. In the context of enhancing our accessibility, the Legislature further established five (5) regional offices throughout the Northern Cape Province and one NCOP Office in Cape Town. In each regional office, the Legislature assigned one (1) Regional Liaising Officer. Also, The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) office in Cape Town supports the Northern Cape‘s permanent and special delegates in their official business in and around Cape Town as well as in the country as determined by the NCOP’s programme from time to time.
• Section 105 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa provides that throughout the country, all Provincial Legislatures will have a minimum of 30 seats and a maximum of 80 seats of the Members of Legislature. These seats are allocated in accordance with population ratio of the province.
• Given that the Northern Cape is the smallest in terms of its population, the seat allocation to the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature is thirty (30). Therefore, there are thirty (30) Members of Provincial Legislature (MPLs).  In this total number of the MPLs, the Premier, Speaker, Deputy Speaker were elected by the House and of the remaining Members of Provincial Legislature, ten (10) were appointed by the Premier to the Provincial Executive as Members of Provincial Legislature (MECs). The remainder of the MPLs are also assigned different roles as chairpersons and members of different Standing and Portfolio Committee of the Legislature.

Important Structures at the Legislature:

There are two (2) types of Committees of the Legislature that are vested with executing the mandate of the institution as an extension of the House, namely Portfolio Committees and Standing Committees. The tables below signify the committees and allocation of MPLs to different roles/positions in the 6th Legislature:

PORTFOLIO COMMITTEES

STANDING COMMITTEES

• As part of the organizational arrangement in the institution, the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature adopted the below three programme performance and budget structure. The budget and programme structure for the 6th term, which also reflect key personnel in the institution: