The North West Provincial Legislature is the primary legislative body of the South African province of

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

. It is

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 ...

in its composition, and elects the premier and the provincial cabinet from among the members of the leading party or coalition in the parliament.

Powers

The North West Provincial Legislature elects the

Premier of North West The Premier of North West is the head of government of the North West province of South Africa. The current Premier of the North West is Bushy Maape, a member of the African National Congress, who was elected premier in September 2021 after the ...

, the head of the province's executive. The legislature, by passing a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or m ...

, can force the Premier to resign. The legislature may pass a motion of no confidence to compel the Premier to reconfigure the Executive Council, even though the Executive Council members are selected by the Premier. The legislature also appoints North West's delegates to 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 ...

, allocating delegates to parties in proportion to the number of seats each party holds in the legislature. The legislature has the power to pass legislation in multiple fields, matters such as health, education (except universities), agriculture, housing, environmental protection, and development planning, all mentioned in the national constitution; in some fields the legislative power is shared with the

national parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, while in others it is reserved to the province alone. The legislature oversees the administration of the North West provincial government, and the Premier and the members of the Executive Council are required to report to the legislature on the performance of their responsibilities. The legislature also manages the financial affairs of the provincial government by way of the appropriation bills which determine the provincial budget.

Election

The Legislature, like all those in South Africa, is chosen via

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 use ...

, for terms of five years, though may be dissolved earlier under certain conditions. The most recent election was held on 8 May 2019. The following table summarises the results. The following table shows the composition of the provincial parliament after past elections.

Officers

The

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

of the Legislature is

Sussana Dantjie Sussana Rebecca Dantjie (née Tsebe) is a South African politician who has been serving as the Speaker of the North West Provincial Legislature since May 2014. She was a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa from May 2009 to May 2014. ...

. The Deputy Speaker is Viola Motsumi. They are both members of 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 ...

Members

References

External links

Official website
{{National Key Points navbox Provincial legislatures of South Africa Unicameral legislatures