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The Law of South Africa: Statutes

Introduces sources useful in researching the law of South Africa

Electronic Access

A great deal of national statutory information is available on SAFLII, including a current consolidation of statutes in force, which is not a complete collection of current legislation in force. SAFLII also includes superseded versions of statutes in their point-in-time database, as well as session laws from 1993 onward, listed by number.

In addition to statutes, SAFLII contains regulations in various forms, including consolidated current regulations, organized by statute, and superseded regulations, organized by title.

There is also a large amount of historical statutory material in LLMC Digital, including Statutes of South Africa, 1910-1951, as well as selected provincial statutes for the following: Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony, Southwest Africa, and Transvaal.

Selected provincial bills and acts are available primarily from official provincial web sites. These include the following: Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, Northern Cape Provincial Legislature, Western Cape Government, Free State Online, Guateng Legislature, Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, and Northwest Provincial Legislature.

Finally, there is also some historical statutory material in the Hathi Trust.

Printed Statutes

The Law Library subscribes to Juta's Statutes of South Africa (KTL12 .S6), an annual compilation of statutes currently in force. The Library retains the current year only. The Library also has Statutes of the Republic of South Africa (KTL 12 .S78), an annual collection of session laws covering the years 1948-1967.

Juta's Index and Annotations to the South African Law Reports (KTL 18 .A2) includes an index entitled Legislation Judicially Considered, which is organized by jurisdiction (i.e. province or national), type of legislation (i.e. constitution or statute), and then chronologically. Coverage begins with 2003. The title is annual but is periodically consolidated.