Intergovernmental Profile: South Africa

South Africa is a quasi-federal country as its multilevel system of government has both federal and unitary elements. The 1996 Constitution of South Africa provides the overarching framework for central-provincial-local relations. Provinces are the primary or first territorial-administrative subdivision of South Africa. Local government, comprised of municipalities, is the secondary territorial-administrative subdivision. Municipalities are classified into metropolitan, local and district municipalities.

Provinces and municipalities in South African meet the criteria of devolved subnational governments with extensive powers and functional responsibilities. Their existence is constitutionally defined and not dependent on the goodwill of higher tiers of government, nor do provincial or local governments require the approval of higher-level governments before implementing laws and policies. However, higher levels of government are equipped with supervisory powers over lower levels of government. In addition, in both law and practice, provinces are less autonomous compared to municipalities.

The assignment of functions and responsibilities in South Africa is based on the principle of cooperative governance. The 1996 Constitution of South Africa provides that the central, provincial and local spheres of government are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. This means that while the spheres of government are independent governments in their own right, they rely on each other and must work together to ensure effective delivery of public services to the citizens. The assignment of functional responsibilities to these spheres follows a collaborative rather than individual approach. For instance, the central and provincial governments have concurrent competence over a number of public service functions. Both the central and provincial governments can regulate the exercise of local government functions. Thus, in practice more than one tier of government is often involved in the delivery of a functional responsibility either as a policy setter, funder or actual provider of the public service. However, there are exceptions in areas such as defense, customs, and security- which are reserve for the central government.