THE CONSTITUTION ("GRONDWET") OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, AS APPROVED AND CONFIRMED BY THE VOLKSRAAD ON THE 16TH OF FEBRUARY, 1858. AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY F. H. PAPENFUS, SwORN TRANSLator. CONVENTIONS PRETORIA (1881) AND LONDON (1884) APPENDED. THIRD EDITION. LONDON: H. MacLeay, I, Arundel Street, Strand, W.C. 1899. Afr9086.5 fund COLLEGE FEB 21 1900 PRINSLOO OF PRINSLOOSDORP: A Tale of Transvaal Officialdom. Crown, 8vo, 38. 6d. post free. "A first-rate work of art, which deserves a permanent place amid the literature of social and political satire.". Spectator." "_" Daily 66 "That charming little sketch of Boer manners. Telegraph." "The shady side of Boer life is cleverly satirised.". "Manchester Guardian." The book is so clever that it will, no doubt, be quickly imitated."" Dundee Advertiser." A SOUTH AFRICAN SOUVENIR: English edition. Cloth, 1,300 illustrations, price 5s. 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Postal & Telegraph Department. Press Law. Public Works Department. Registrar of Patents, etc. Trade Marks Law. Volksraad Members. Zululand Customs Regulations. London: H. MacLeay, 1, Arundel Street, Strand, W.c. THE "GRONDWET” OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. GENERAL PROVISIONS. ARTICLE I. This State shall be called "THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC." 2. The form of Government of this State shall be that of a Republic. 3. It desires to be recognised and respected by the civilised world as a free and independent People. 4. The People seeks no extension of territory, and would have the same only in accordance with just principles, if such extension should be advisable in the interests of the Republic. 5. The People wishes to possess and maintain inviolate its territory situated in South Africa, with the inclusion of its rights and claims to the territory situated to the east and south-east of this Republic as far as such rights and claims extend; and likewise to the west and southwest. The Government of the South African Republic shall be obliged to take in hand as soon as possible the delimitation and proclamation of its lines and boundaries. 6. Its territory shall be open to all strangers who comply with the laws of this Republic. All persons who may happen to be in the territory of this Republic shall have an equal claim to protection of person and property. 7. All lands or farms situated in this territory which have not as yet been allotted are declared the property of the State, but shall be obtainable by the public as hitherto. No farm shall be inspected for that purpose to a larger extent than 3000 morgen. Nobody shall be entitled to apply for and obtain land unless he shall have attained the age of sixteen years. 8. The People demands the highest possible social liberty, and expects to derive such from the maintenance of its religious belief, from the observance of its engagements, from its submission to law, order, and right, and from the vindication of the same. The People shall permit the promulgation of the Gospel among the heathen, subject to definite precautions against defective or erroneous teaching. 9. The People shall not permit any equality of coloured persons with white inhabitants, neither in the Church nor in the State. 10. The People shall not tolerate any slave traffic or slavery in this Republic. II. The People shall reserve to itself exclusively the protection and defence of the independence and inviolability of Church and State according to the laws. 12. The People shall place the Legislative Power in the hands of a "Volksraad," the Supreme Authority in the Country, consisting of representatives or power-holders of the People, elected by "burgers entitled to vote; but subject to three months time being allowed the People, if it so elect, to deliver to the Volksraad its opinion concerning any proposed law, with the exception of such laws as shall not permit of any delay. 13. The People shall entrust the proposition and execution of the laws to an Executive Council ("Uitvoerende Raad"), which body shall also propose to the Volksraad, for appointment, all State officials. 14. The People shall entrust the maintenance of order to the Council of War ("Krijgsraad "). 15. The People shall place the Judicial Power in the hands of Magistrates ("Landdrosts") and such persons as are sworn for that purpose, and shall leave it to their judgment and conscience to act in accordance with the laws of the country. 16. The People shall receive yearly from the Volksraad duly passed estimates of general expenditure for the Church and the State, and shall ascertain therefrom the amount of the taxes to be levied on each individual. 17. Potchefstroon, situated on the Mooi River, shall be the capital of the Republic, and Pretoria shall be the seat of the Government. 18. All services demanded in the public interest shall be remunerated out of the public chest. 19. The liberty of the Press shall be permitted, provided that the printer and publisher shall be responsible for all libellous, insulting, or defamatory articles. Concerning the Protection and Defence of Church and State. 20. The People is desirous of maintaining the doctrine of the "Nederduitsch Hervormde" Church, according to its first principles as established in the years 1618 and 1619 by the Synod of Dordrecht, and the Nederduitsch Hervormde Church shall be the State Church. 21. The People does not choose to allow in its midst either any Roman Catholic Churches or any other Protestant Churches than such as inculcate the same principles of Christian belief as are laid down in the Heidelberg Catechism. 22. The People shall not appoint any other representatives in the Volksraad than members of Nederduitsch Hervormde congregations. 23. The People shall not acknowledge any other ecclesiastical authority than such as has been approved, accepted, and established by the consistories of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Church according to Article 20. 24. The People desires the establishment, prosperity, and welfare of Church and State, and in respect thereof provision for the needs of Nederduitsch Hervormde ministers and school teachers. 25. Also that precautionary measures shall be adopted in time of peace, so as to be able either to wage war or to offer resistance in the event of war. 26. In the event of a hostile invasion everyone, without distinction, shall be bound to render assistance upon martial law being proclaimed. 27. No treaty or alliance may be offered, accepted, or concluded with foreign powers or peoples without the Volksraad having been first called together by the President and members of the Executive Council for the purpose of expressing its opinion thereupon, and such proposed treaty or alliance shall be either approved and ratified, or rejected, according to the discretion of the Volksraad. 28. In the event of danger threatening the State, or in time of war, a decision as to the expediency or otherwise of entering into any such treaty or alliance shall be left to the Commandant-General in deliberation with the War Council, if the commandoes (field forces) should have already taken the field, and there should be no time to consult the Executive Council. Concerning the Volksraad, the Supreme Authority, or 29. The Volksraad shall be the Supreme Authority in the Country, and shall be the Legislative Power. 30. Owing to their being the representatives of the People, the members of the Volksraad shall not be State officials. |