The government of

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

province in South Africa consists of a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, and an executive branch headed by a Premier who is elected by the legislature.

Legislature

The provincial legislature is a unicameral body of 73 members elected by a system of

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...

. The legislature is elected for a term of five years, unless it is dissolved early. By convention elections to the provincial legislature are held at the same time as elections to 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 rep ...

. The legislature meets in the Johannesburg City Hall. The most recent elections were held on 8 May 2019, and were won by the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC) which obtained 37 of the 73 seats on the legislature. The composition of the legislature is as follows: , -style="background:#e9e9e9;" !colspan="2" style="text-align:left", Party !! style="text-align:center", Seats , - , , , 37 , - , , , 20 , - , , , 11 , - , , , 3 , - , , , 1 , - , , , 1 , - , colspan="2" style="text-align:left", Total , , style="text-align:right", 73

Executive

The head of the provincial executive is the

Premier of Gauteng The Premier of Gauteng is the head of government of the Gauteng province of South Africa. The current Premier of Gauteng is Panyaza Lesufi, a member of the African National Congress, who was elected on 6 October 2022, following the resignation ...

, who is a member of the provincial legislature elected by the legislature. The Premier appoints an Executive Council who are a cabinet overseeing the executive departments. the Premier is

Panyaza Lesufi Andrek "Panyaza" Lesufi (born 4 September 1968) is a South African politician who was appointed the seventh Premier of Gauteng in October 2022. He was previously Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education in the Gauteng provincial gover ...

of the ANC, and the ten members of the Executive Council are listed in the following table.

Courts

South Africa has a single national court system and the provinces do not have their own courts. The

Gauteng Division The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...

of the

High Court of South Africa The High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law in South Africa. It is divided into nine provincial divisions, some of which sit in more than one location. Each High Court division has general jurisdiction over a defined geographical ...

, which has seats in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, has jurisdiction over all cases arising in the province. However, most cases are first heard in one of the over 25 district

magistrates' courts A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) * Magistrate's Cour ...

or in the regional magistrate's court for the province. Appeals from the magistrates' courts are to the High Court, and appeals from the High Court are to the Supreme Court of Appeal or the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

Administrative divisions

Map of Gauteng with municipalities labelled (2011)

Gauteng is divided into three metropolitan municipalities and two district municipalities. The district municipalities are in turn divided into a total of seven local municipalities. These municipalities are: *

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Z ...

* City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality *

Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of the East Rand region of Gauteng. The municipality itself is a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. The name ''Ekurhuleni'' m ...

Sedibeng District Municipality Sedibeng is one of the districts of the Gauteng province of South Africa. The administrative seat of Sedibeng is Vereeniging. The most widely spoken language among its 794,605 inhabitants is Sesotho (2001 Census). Socioeconomic situation The tot ...

, consisting of

Emfuleni Local Municipality The Emfuleni Local Municipality, founded in 1999, is one of three local municipalities comprising the Sedibeng District in Gauteng, South Africa. It is the westernmost local municipality in the District, and covers an area of 987 km² at th ...

Lesedi Local Municipality Lesedi Local Municipality is an administrative area in the Sedibeng District of Gauteng in South Africa. Heidelberg is the seat of the municipality. During the first war of independence, Heidelberg served as capital of the South African Republic, ...

and

Midvaal Local Municipality Midvaal Local Municipality is an administrative area within the Sedibeng District Municipality of Gauteng in South Africa. The municipality's name references its geographical location halfway between the Johannesburg and East Rand areas and the Va ...

West Rand District Municipality West Rand District Municipality is one of the districts of Gauteng province of South Africa, that covers the West Rand area, with the exception of Roodepoort (which is part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality). The seat of the di ...

, consisting of

Merafong City Local Municipality Merafong City Local Municipality is a local municipality in West Rand District Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa. Its boundaries encloses some of the richest gold mines in the world. It is situated about 65 km from Johannesburg and is ser ...

, Mogale City Local Municipality, and

Rand West City Local Municipality Rand West City Local Municipality is a local municipality of South Africa. It was established after the August 2016 local elections by the merging of Randfontein and Westonaria local municipalities. It is a division of the West Rand District Muni ...

References

External links