## Facts

- The Premier of the Western Cape, on behalf of the provincial government, brought a constitutional challenge to provisions of the Public Service Laws Amendment Act 86 of 1998 and related amendments and regulations affecting public service administration.
- The legislation restructured the public service by reinforcing a single public service across national and provincial spheres; redefining “departments” to include provincial departments; creating “executing authorities” (including Premiers and certain ministers) for departments; and altering the roles, appointment, transfer, discipline, and accountability arrangements for Directors-General and heads of department.
- The Western Cape contended that the scheme centralized control over provincial public servants and impaired the constitutional authority of provincial executives over provincial administration.
- The President and Minister for the Public Service and Administration defended the scheme as authorized by the Constitution’s provisions on public administration and as consistent with cooperative government.
- The dispute was brought directly to the Constitutional Court as an intergovernmental dispute within its exclusive jurisdiction; it was treated as urgent due to the impending commencement date set by the President.

## Issues

1. Whether Parliament may enact national legislation establishing and regulating a single public service that spans national and provincial administrations, including provincial departments and heads of department.
2. Whether the challenged provisions unlawfully impair the constitutional status, powers, or functions of provinces and Premiers by intruding on legitimate provincial autonomy.

## Decision

- The Constitutional Court (unanimously) dismissed the application and upheld the challenged provisions as constitutional.
- The Court held that the Constitution contemplates a single public service serving the Republic as a whole, and permits national legislation to regulate key aspects of public service organization and personnel administration.
- The Court concluded that the provisions did not impermissibly trench on provincial executive authority; they regulated the institutional framework within which provinces exercise their executive powers.

## Legal Principles

- South Africa’s constitutional structure is based on cooperative government among distinctive, interdependent, and interrelated spheres, not a model of strictly separated provincial sovereignty.
- “Legitimate provincial autonomy” is protected, but it operates within constitutional and statutory frameworks that may be nationally set where the Constitution authorizes national regulation.
- Chapter 10 authorizes national norms and structures for public administration, including regulation of recruitment, appointment, transfer, promotion, discipline, and dismissal in the public service.
- National regulation of the public service’s institutional design does not necessarily displace provincial executive authority over provincial administration; the constitutional question is whether national law removes or materially impairs the core of provincial powers.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld national public service reforms establishing a single, nationally regulated public service, holding that the Constitution permits national legislative control over core public-service structures and personnel systems and that the impugned measures did not unconstitutionally diminish provincial executive authority.


Premier of the Province of the W. Cape v. President of the Republic of S. Afr., 1999 (3) S. Afr. L. Rep. 657 (Const. Ct.)