The Free State Provincial Legislature is the primary legislative body of the South African province of Free State. It is

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

in its composition and elects the

Premier of the Free State The premier of the Free State is the head of government of the Free State province of South Africa. The current premier of the Free State is Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae, who was elected on 14 June 2024. She is a member of the African National Cong ...

, who in turn selects the members of the Executive Council of the Free State.

Powers

The Free State Provincial Legislature chooses the Premier of the Free State, the head of the Free State's provincial executive. The legislature can force the Premier to resign by passing a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

. Although the Executive Council is chosen by the Premier, the legislature may pass a motion of no confidence to force the Premier to change the composition of the Council. The legislature also appoints Free State'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 of South Africa, constitution which came into full effect in 1997. It replaced the former Senate of South Africa# ...

, 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 numerous fields specified in the national

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

, including include health, education (except universities), agriculture, housing, environmental protection, and development planning. In some fields, 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: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, while in other fields it is reserved to the Free State alone. The legislature oversees the administration of the Free State 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 finances of the provincial government by way of the

appropriation bill An appropriation bill, also known as supply bill or spending bill, is a proposed law that authorizes the expenditure of government funds. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In some democracies, approval of the legislature ...

s which determine the Free State's provincial budget.

Election

The provincial legislature consists of 30 members, who are elected through a system of

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

with

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively vote for only political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...

s. The most recent election was held on 29 May 2024. The following table summarises the results. The following table shows the composition of the provincial parliament after past elections. The

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

has held a majority in the legislature since 1994, while the Democratic Alliance has been the official opposition since 2014, when it displaced the Congress of the People.

Officers

The following people have served as Speaker of the Free State Provincial Legislature.

Members

* Members of the 6th Free State Provincial Legislature (2019–2024) * Members of the 5th Free State Provincial Legislature (2014–2019) * Members of the 4th Free State Provincial Legislature (2009–2014) * Members of the 3rd Free State Provincial Legislature (2004–2009) * Members of the 2nd Free State Provincial Legislature (1999–2004)

References

{{Authority control Provincial legislatures of South Africa Unicameral legislatures Government of the Free State (province)