KwaZulu-Natal Legislature

The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature chooses the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, the head of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive. The legislature can impel the Premier to resign by passing a motion of no confidence. Although the Premier appoints the members of the Executive Council (cabinet), the legislature may pass a motion of no confidence to force the Premier to reshuffle the Council. The legislature also designates the KwaZulu-Natal's delegates to the National Council of Provinces, 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 set out in the national constitution; in some fields, the legislative power is shared with the national parliament, while in others it is reserved to the province alone. The fields include matters as health, education (except universities), agriculture, housing, environmental protection, and development planning.

The legislature oversees the administration of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, and the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal and the Executive Council members are required to report to the legislature on the performance of their responsibilities. The legislature also manages the financial affairs of the provincial government by way of the appropriation bills which determine the provincial budget.

The provincial legislature consists of 80 members, who are elected through a system of party list proportional representation with closed lists. In other words, each voter casts a vote for one political party, and seats in the legislature are allocated to the parties in proportion to the number of votes received. The seats are then filled by members in accordance with lists submitted by the parties before the election.

The legislature is elected for a term of five years, unless it is dissolved early. This may occur if the legislature votes to dissolve and it is at least three years since the last election, or if the Premiership falls vacant and the legislature fails to elect a new Premier within ninety days. By convention, all nine provincial legislatures and the National Assembly are elected on the same day.

The most recent election was held on 8 May 2019. The following table summarises the results.

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	1,951,027	54.22	–10.30	44	–8
	Inkatha Freedom Party	588,046	16.34	+5.47	13	+4
	Democratic Alliance	500,051	13.90	+1.14	11	+1
	Economic Freedom Fighters	349,361	9.71	+7.86	8	+6
	National Freedom Party	56,587	1.57	–5.74	1	–5
	Minority Front	18,864	0.52	–0.5	1	0
	African Transformation Movement	17,729	0.49	New	1	New
	African Christian Democratic Party	17,214	0.48	+0.04	1	+1
	Democratic Liberal Congress	13,698	0.38	New	0	New
	Freedom Front Plus	11,269	0.31	+0.11	0	0
	Al Jama-ah	9,899	0.28	New	0	New
	African Independent Congress	9,291	0.26	New	0	New
	Justice and Employment Party	8,156	0.23	New	0	New
	Black First Land First	5,790	0.16	New	0	New
	Congress of the People	4,957	0.14	–0.02	0	0
	Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party	4,222	0.12	New	0	New
	Good	4,016	0.11	New	0	New
	African People's Convention	3,650	0.10	–0.08	0	0
	United Democratic Movement	3,558	0.10	–0.07	0	0
	Alliance for Transformation for All	2,624	0.07	New	0	New
	Azanian People's Organisation	2,512	0.07	–0.08	0	0
	Pan Africanist Congress	2,510	0.07	–0.01	0	0
	National People’s Front	2,437	0.07	New	0	New
	People's Revolutionary Movement	2,402	0.07	New	0	New
	African Mantungwa Community	1,594	0.04	New	0	New
	African Renaissance Unity Party	1,376	0.04	New	0	New
	African Content Movement	1,369	0.04	New	0	New
	National People's Ambassadors	1,294	0.04	New	0	New
	Women Forward	944	0.03	New	0	New
	African Covenant	938	0.03	New	0	New
	National Religious Freedom Party	896	0.02	New	0	New
Total		3,598,281	100.00	–	80	0
Valid votes		3,598,281	98.46
Invalid/blank votes		56,420	1.54
Total votes		3,654,701	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		5,524,666	66.15
Source: Election Resources

The following table shows the composition of the legislature after past elections and floor-crossing periods.

The Speaker of the Legislature is Ntobeko Boyce, while the Deputy Speaker is Themba Mthembu.[4] The following people have served as Speaker:

• KZN Legislature