Provinces | Result

South Africa has nine provinces, each with its own legislature, premier and executive council – and distinctive landscape, population, economy and climate. They are:

The Eastern Cape
The Free State
Gauteng
KwaZulu-Natal
Limpopo
Mpumalanga
The Northern Cape
North West
The Western Cape

Before 1994, South Africa had four provinces: the Transvaal and Orange Free State, previously Boer republics, and Natal and the Cape, once British colonies. Scattered about were also the grand apartheid “homelands”, spurious states to which black South Africans were forced to have citizenship.

A map of South Africa before 1994, showing the original four provinces of the Cape, Orange Free State, Natal and Transvaal, as well as the apartheid “homelands” (Image: South African History Online)

Under South Africa’s new democratic constitution, South Africa was broken up into nine provinces.

Land area

There are vast differences in the size of the provinces, from tiny and crowded Gauteng to the vast, arid and empty Northern Cape. Mpumalanga is the second- smallest province after Gauteng, with the rest all taking between 8% and 14% of South Africa’s total land area.

Eastern Cape – 168 966km²
Free State – 129 825km²
Gauteng – 16 548km²
KwaZulu-Natal – 94 361km²
Limpopo – 125 755km²
Mpumalanga – 76 495km²
Northern Cape – 372 889km²
North West – 106 512km²
Western Cape – 129 462km²

Land area by province
South Africa's land<br />
area by province

Source: Statistics South Africa

See South Africa’s geography

Population

The number of people living in the provinces also varies considerably. Gauteng, the smallest province, has the most people living there, while the Northern Cape, which takes up nearly a third of South Africa’s land area, has by far the smallest population.

Eastern Cape: 6.56-million
Free State: 2.74-million
Gauteng: 12.27-million
KwaZulu-Natal: 10.27-million
Limpopo: 5.4-million
Mpumalanga: 4.04-million
Northern Cape: 1.15-million
North West: 3.5-million
Western Cape: 5.82-million

Source: Census 2011, Statistics South Africa

This variation translates into huge differences in population density. Gauteng has an average of 675 people per square kilometre, while the Northern Cape has only three people for each square kilometre.

See South Africa’s population

Languages

Although English is the lingua franca of South Africa, there’s considerable variation in home languages between the provinces. IsiXhosa, for instance, is spoken by almost 80% of people in the Eastern Cape, while around 78% of those in KwaZulu-Natal speak isiZulu. isiZulu is also the most common home language in Gauteng, but at a much smaller percentage. In Cape Town and its surrounds, Afrikaans comes into its own.Predominant languages by province:

Eastern Cape: isiXhosa (78.8%), Afrikaans (10.6%)
Free State: Sesotho (64.2%), Afrikaans (12.7%)
Gauteng: isiZulu (19.8%), English (13.3%), Afrikaans (12.4%), Sesotho (11.6%)
KwaZulu-Natal:: isiZulu (77.8%), English (13.2%)
Limpopo: Sesotho (52.9%), Xitsonga (17%), Tshivenda (16.7%)
Mpumalanga: siSwati (27.7%), isiZulu (24.1%), Xitsonga (10.4%), isiNdebele (10.1%)
Northern Cape: Afrikaans (53.8%), Setswana (33.1%)
North West: Setswana (63.4%), Afrikaans (9%)
Western Cape: Afrikaans (49.7%), isiXhosa (24.7%), English (20.3%)

Source: Census 2011, Statistics South Africa

See The languages of South Africa

Government

Each province has its own provincial government, with legislative power vested in a provincial legislature and executive power vested in a provincial premier and exercised together with the other members of a provincial executive council.The provincial legislature has between 30 and 80 members elected for a five-year term based on the province’s portion of the national voters’ roll. The legislature is empowered to pass legislation within its functional areas.The premier is elected by the legislature and, as with the President at national level, is limited to two five-year terms in office. The premier appoints the other members of the executive council (MECs), which functions as a cabinet at provincial level. The members of the executive council are accountable individually and collectively to the legislature.

See Provincial government

Economy

Population density correlates with the provinces’ slice of South Africa’s economy, with Gauteng having the biggest. The tiny province punches way above its weight, contributing 33.7% to the national gross domestic product in 2010 and a phenomenal 10% to the GDP of Africa as a whole. Next is KwaZulu-Natal with 15.8%, followed by the Western Cape with 14.1%. These three provinces collectively contribute nearly two-thirds to the economy.Read more about South Africa’s nine provinces:

SAinfo reporter