Prime Minister of South Africa

The prime minister of South Africa (Template:Langx was the head of government in South Africa between 1910 and 1984.

History of the office

The first Prime Minister of South Africa, Louis Botha (sitting at the centre of the desk), with his First Cabinet, 1910.

The position of Prime Minister was established in 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed. He was appointed by the monarch’s representative in the country—the governor-general until 1961 and the state president after South Africa became a republic in 1961. In practice, he was the leader of the majority party or coalition in the House of Assembly. With few exceptions, the governor-general/state president was bound by convention to act on the prime minister's advice. Thus, the prime minister was the country's leading political figure and de facto chief executive, with powers similar to those of his British counterpart.

The first prime minister was Louis Botha, a former Boer general and war hero during the Second Boer War.

The position of Prime Minister was abolished in 1984, when the State President was given executive powers after a new constitution was adopted – effectively merging the role of Prime Minister and State President. The last Prime Minister of South Africa, P. W. Botha, became the first executive State President after the constitutional reform in 1984 after Marais Viljoen's retirement.

In post-apartheid South Africa, the Inkatha Freedom Party has called for a return to a Westminster-style split executive with a Prime Minister as head of government, which is part of its overarching goal of avoiding a single-party South African state.<ref>IFP: Statement by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Inkatha Freedom Party Leader, welcomes Constitutional Court judgment on regulation of introduction of bills, 12 October 2012</ref>

List of prime ministers of South Africa

Parties

Template:Abbr	Portrait	Name Template:Small Template:Small	Term of office			Elected Template:Small	Political party	Government
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|1		Louis Botha Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small	31 May 1910	27 August 1919	Template:Age in years and days	1910 (Template:Ordinal) 1915 (Template:Ordinal)	South African Party	L. Botha I–II
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|2		Jan Christiaan Smuts Template:Small Template:Small	3 September 1919	30 June 1924	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1920 (Template:Ordinal) 1921 (Template:Ordinal)	South African Party	Smuts I–II
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color;" height=60|		James Barry Munnik Hertzog Template:Small Template:Small	30 June 1924	5 September 1939	Template:Age in years and days	1924 (Template:Ordinal) 1929 (Template:Ordinal) 1933 (Template:Ordinal) 1938 (Template:Ordinal)	National Party Template:Small United Party Template:Small	Hertzog I–II–III–IV
3
			Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" height=60|
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|Template:Small		Jan Christiaan Smuts Template:Small Template:Small	5 September 1939	4 June 1948	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1943 (Template:Ordinal)	United Party	Smuts III
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color;" rowspan="2"|4		Daniël François Malan Template:Small Template:Small	4 June 1948	30 November 1954	Template:Age in years and days	1948 (Template:Ordinal) 1953 (Template:Ordinal)	National Party	Malan I–II
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color;" rowspan="2"|5		Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom Template:Small Template:Small	30 November 1954	24 August 1958	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1958 (Template:Ordinal)	National Party	Strydom
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color;" rowspan="2"|6		Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd Template:Small Template:Small	2 September 1958	6 September 1966	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1961 (Template:Ordinal) 1966 (Template:Ordinal)	National Party	Verwoerd I–II
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color;" rowspan="2"|7		Balthazar Johannes Vorster Template:Small Template:Small	13 September 1966	2 October 1978	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1970 (Template:Ordinal) 1974 (Template:Ordinal) 1977 (Template:Ordinal)	National Party	Vorster I–II–III
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color;" rowspan="2"|8		Pieter Willem Botha Template:Small Template:Small	9 October 1978	14 September 1984	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1981 ([[18th South African Parliament|Template:Ordinal]]) 1984 (Template:Ordinal)	National Party	P. W. Botha
Template:Small

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:21 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:100 left:20 AlignBars = late

Define $today = {{#time:d/m/Y}}

Colors =

 id:sap value:rgb(0.07,0.62,0.82) legend:South_African_Party
 id:np  value:rgb(0.97,0.58,0.11) legend:National_Party
 id:up  value:rgb(0,0.39,1)       legend:United_Party

 id:gray1 value:gray(0.85)
 id:gray2 value:gray(0.95)

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1910 till:01/01/1985 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1910 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1910

Legend = columns:1 left:150 top:35 columnwidth:170

TextData =

 pos:(20,38) textcolor:black fontsize:M
 text:"Political party:"

BarData =

bar:LBotha
bar:Smuts
bar:Hertzog
bar:Malan
bar:Strijdom
bar:Verwoerd
bar:Vorster
bar:PWBotha

PlotData =

 width:5 align:left fontsize:9 shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:LBotha
 from: 31/05/1910 till: 27/08/1919 color:sap text:"Louis Botha"
bar:Smuts
 from: 03/09/1919 till: 30/06/1924 color:sap
 from: 05/09/1939 till: 04/06/1948 color:up  text:"Jan Smuts"
bar:Hertzog
 from: 30/06/1924 till: 01/01/1934 color:np
 from: 01/01/1934 till: 05/09/1939 color:up  text:"J. B. M. Hertzog"
bar:Malan
 from: 04/06/1948 till: 30/11/1954 color:np  text:"D. F. Malan"
bar:Strijdom
 from: 30/11/1954 till: 24/08/1958 color:np  text:"J. G. Strijdom"
bar:Verwoerd
 from: 02/09/1958 till: 06/09/1966 color:np  text:"Hendrik Verwoerd"
bar:Vorster
 from: 13/09/1966 till: 02/10/1978 color:np  text:"John Vorster"
bar:PWBotha
 from: 09/10/1978 till: 14/09/1984 color:np  text:"P. W. Botha"

</timeline>

See also

• State President of South Africa
• President of South Africa
• Governor-General of South Africa