Assessing the Performance of South Africa ’ s Constitution Chapter 7 . The performance of federalism (original) (raw)
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THE FEDERAL CHARACTER AS A FORM OF STATE IN SOUTH AFRICA: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS By
A section of South African communities were eager to divide the country into federal states before the dawn of a new democratic dispensation in 1994. This section believed the division of the country into federals would give autonomy to cultural realisation, traditions and ultimately freedom to exercise own identity. Furthermore, the cultural freedom was the cornerstone of the desire to divide the country into federals. These communities perceived the past South Africa as was an ideal system to the harmonious settlement which to them, was also economically viable. The section of communities who were eager to divide the country into the federal states had already made calculations that would have favored their desires, egos and agendas. The cultural identity and traditional freedom were only used as a pretext of obtaining more freedom to strengthen Apartheid such that it becomes entrenched in South Africa with no prospects of ever rooting it out. Any way South Africa had indeed assumed some federal character in a form of provinces. This paper critically assesses and analyses the federal character as a form of state in South Africa as means of unpacking the nature of what South Africa might have or should have been when the idea of federalizing the country would be pursued. The discussion will focus on the contrasting features and principles of federal systems and unitary systems as the theoretical basis, the main idea behind federalism and unitary systems, the relationship between the legislature and the executive, where do the spheres of government have much autonomy? The unitary and federal character of South Africa with reference to the constitution, the linking institutions which contribute to the federal of unitary character and a few questions on the nature the future South Africa.
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