‘THE EXPERT, THE PUBLIC AND THE POLITICIAN’: DRAWING SOUTH AFRICA'S NEW PROVINCIAL BOUNDARIES

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article provides an assessment of the process of provincial delimitation in South Africa which took place between May and November 1993. The Commission on the Delimitation of the new nine Provinces was an independent created professional institution, acceptable to major political parties and represented a balanced political, race and gender profile. Although the delimitation process was the most inclusive to date, limited time allowed for the delimitation process, lack of effective participation from ordinary people, the technicist nature of the Commission, and political tinkering after the process had been completed, are some of the major weaknesses in the process which led to the delimitation of boundaries of the nine provinces. The alterations of the proposed commission Map, by political parties at the World Trade Centre behind closed doors, concealed vested white minority interest and ethnic claims, and reveal the complexity of meshing traditional and democratic structures and processes. Moreover, separating tasks of delimiting boundaries, and deciding the structures and powers of provinces was a serious flaw in the process. The new South Africa faces two formidable political forces pulling apart: the one mobilising for regional autonomy on the basis of ethnic self-determination, against the other attempting to build a unified nation from the fragments of a divided society. Regionalism can become an important axis of political mobilisation within the context of differentiated regional political economies, an uneven distribution of resources and development opportunities, as well as the uneven distribution of power and political opportunities in a country.