The Seventh Amendment of the

Constitution of South Africa The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Govern ...

made various changes involving the financial management of national and provincial government. Most of its provisions came into force on 26 April 2002, and the remainder on 1 December 2003.

Provisions

The amendment made the following changes to the Constitution: * Modifying the definition of a "

money bill In the Westminster system (and, colloquially, in the United States), a money bill or supply bill is a bill that solely concerns taxation or government spending (also known as appropriation of money), as opposed to changes in public law. Conv ...

" for the national

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and the provincial legislatures. * Providing that, along with money bills, bills determining the division of revenue between national, provincial and local government can only be introduced to Parliament by the

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

. * Reducing the size of the

Financial and Fiscal Commission Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fin ...

from 22 members to nine members, by reducing the number of members chosen by the president from nine to two, and by replacing the nine members chosen by the nine provinces individually with three members chosen by the provinces collectively. * Modifying the mechanisms whereby the national government can control the financial practises of the provincial governments. * Various other technical modifications.

Legislative history

The amendment was passed by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

on 1 November 2001 with the requisite two-thirds majority (274 votes in favour), and by the

National Council of Provinces The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa under the (post-apartheid) constitution which came into full effect in 1997. It replaced the former Senate, but is very similar to that body, and to ma ...

(NCOP) on 15 November with eight of nine provinces in favour,

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

being the lone dissenter. It was introduced to Parliament simultaneously with the Sixth Amendment, but was passed separately because it contained matters affecting provincial government which had to be approved by the NCOP. The act was signed by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

on 7 December, but it contained a clause specifying that it would only come into force on a date set by presidential

proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...

. A proclamation on 26 April 2006 brought most of the act into force on that same day, except for those related to the Financial and Fiscal Commission, which only came into force on 1 December 2003. Proclamation No. 77 of 2003, ''Government Gazette'' Vol. 462 No. 25792, 1 December 2003.

Formal title

The official

short title In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions (such as Canada or Australia), as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title. Th ...

of the amendment is "Constitution Seventh Amendment Act of 2001". It was originally titled "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Act, 2001" and numbered as Act No. 61 of 2001, but the

Citation of Constitutional Laws Act, 2005 The Citation of Constitutional Laws Act, 2005 (Act No. 5 of 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. An ordinary act of Parliament is refe ...

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

References

External links

Official text
(PDF) {{Constitution of South Africa Amendments of the Constitution of South Africa 2001 in South African law