Mind Your Colour

The 'Coloured' Stereotype in South African Literature

[p. 194]

Appendix IV
Constitutional blueprint

The official blueprint of the Government's new constitutional proposals, which appears below, was released to the Cape Times yesterday by sources close to the CRC executive.

This is the first time the detailed plan has been published, and expands on the bare outline given by Mr Vorster at a public meeting in Cape Town two weeks ago.

Here is the document in full:

Memorandum re. proposals for a new constitutional dispensation:

As intimated in the interim memorandum of the government on the report of the Theron Commission, the government agreed with both the majority views of the commission, as expressed in recommendation 178, that the Westminster-founded system of government does not necessarily have to be followed slavishly in the RSA, and consequently committed itself to a thorough and authoritative investigation into the necessary organizational and statutory adjustments of the system in view of the problems and considerations set forth in chapters 17 to 20 of the report of the commission.

In accordance with a decision of the Cabinet, this investigation had been assigned to a special Cabinet committee in August 1976. The committee had been instructed to investigate simultaneously the political dispensation for the Indians and had been authorised to obtain advice from extra-parliamentary experts.

In accordance with its assignment, the committee concentrated exclusively on the political situation of the whites, coloured and Indians.

[p. 195]

The following proposals of the committee had been approved by the Cabinet for discussion with the leaders of the population groups concerned:

A. executive government

1. State President:

The State President shall be elected for five years by an electoral college composed for this purpose on a fair and representative basis by the white, coloured and Indian Assemblies. Fifty whites; 25 coloureds; 13 Indians.

The State President shall be the chairman of the Cabinet Council (or Council of Cabinets). His duties further include the opening of sessions of the Assemblies and meetings of the President Council and the approval of the legislation on matters of mutual interest to all three population groups.

2. Cabinet Council (or Council of Cabinets):

The Cabinet Council (or Council of Cabinets) shall be composed of the State President, as chairman, the three prime ministers and the number of ministers from each Assembly agreed upon. (White Prime Minister plus five ministers; coloured Prime Minister plus three ministers; Indian Prime Minister plus one minister.)

The State President nominates a member of this council as his permanent substitute for those occasions when he is absent and this person also serves as Acting State President in the absence of the former.

The Cabinet Council shall initiate and draft all legislation on joint matters and its members may address the different Assemblies. The Cabinet Council shall further arrange the order papers of the various Assemblies in consultation with the Leaders of the Assemblies.

3. Cabinets:

The State President shall appoint for each Assembly as prime minister a person whom he deems capable of mustering a majority in the Assembly and on the advice of the latter, a number of ministers. The State President shall also have the power to remove ministers from office.

[p. 196]

B. legislative government

1. Assemblies:

Each population group shall have an equally paid, elected assembly with exclusive legislative powers in respect of the matters which affect that population group and it shall be co-responsible for joint matters. The matters affecting only the coloured and Indian Assemblies and vesting presently in the white Assembly, shall be transferred gradually.

Each Assembly shall have full powers in respect of suitable taxes and loans.

The powers with regard to the assent to legislation presently vesting in the State President, shall, in connection with legislation in respect of which each Assembly has exclusive powers, be exercised by the prime minister of the Assembly concerned.

White Parliament: 165 elected, 20 nominated.

Coloured Parliament: 82 elected, 10 nominated.

Indian Parliament: 46 elected, 5 nominated. There is no Senate.

2. Joint Advisory Committees:

Whenever conflicting decisions are taken during the committee stages in the various Assemblies in respect of legislation on matters of mutual interest, such matters shall, on the advice of the Cabinet Council, be referred to joint advisory committees of the three governments to settle these conflicts. Such matters may also be referred to the President Council for consideration and recommendations. Should the joint advisory committees fail to settle such conflicts, the final decision rests with the State President. These joint advisory committees shall be constituted ad hoc whenever necessary.

C. the president council

A non-parliamentary prestige body, the President Council, shall be established. The members of the President Council shall be elected by the different Assemblies in proportion to population figures, while the State President shall nominate a number. Only persons of exceptional quality and knowledge

[p. 197]

shall be qualified to become members of the President Council. A member of an Assembly or a provincial council shall not simultaneously be a member of the President Council. The State President appoints the chairman of the President Council from among its members.

The President Council advises the Cabinet Council at the latter's request on matters of national interest and may discuss such matters of its own initiative.

Composition: 20 appointed by white Parliament; 10 appointed by coloured Parliament; 5 appointed by Indian Parliament.

Provincial and Regional Administrations:

1. For coloureds and Indians there shall be a system of regional administrations without legislative bodies. In control of each region shall be a Regional Administrator. (For this purpose provincial borders shall be used, but for effective administration the Cape Province shall be divided into three regions for coloureds and Transvaal and Natal each into two regions for Indians.)

2. As for whites the provincial authorities concerned may decide themselves to follow the proposed division.

Local Government:

1. Each population group shall elect its own councils with full local authority in cities and to wns under an electoral system developed on the basis of the electoral lists of Assemblies and other practical qualifications.

2. Rural communities of each population group shall be linked on a regional basis.

3. Where necessary, an organization for liaison between white, coloured and Indian local authorities should be established.