South African Government and Politics

South Africa has three capital cities; Pretoria is the administrative capital, Bloemfontein the judicial capital, and Cape Town is the legislative capital.The National Council of Provinces has 90 members, while the National Assembly has 400 members. Elections for The National Council and National Assembly are held every five years.The head of the majority party in the National Assembly is the President and ten members are elected to represent each province in the National Council of Provinces, regardless of the population of the province.

During apartheid, the country's politics was dominated by figures like B. J. Vorster and P. W. Botha, as well as opposition figures such as Joe Slovo, Helen Suzman and Harry Schwarz. Since 1994 at the end of apartheid, South African politics have been dominated by the African National Congress, which receives  60–70% of the vote.The main challenge to the ANC is the Democratic Alliance party, which received 16.7% of the vote in the 2009.

Since 2004, the country has had many thousands of popular protests, some violent, making it, according to one academic, the "most protest-rich country in the world".

After the end of apartheid in 1994, the "independent" and "semi-independent" Bantustans were integrated into the political structure of South Africa. The creation of nine fully integrated new provinces generally smaller. The provinces are subdivided into 52 districts: 6 metropolitan and 46 district municipalities. The district municipalities are further subdivided into 231 local municipalities. The metropolitan municipalities perform the functions of both district and local municipalities.