Part 2 (1/2)

OF THE VOLKSRAAD, THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY, OR THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

ARTICLE 26.--The Volksraad shall be the highest authority of the country, and the legislative power.

ARTICLE 27.--No civil servants are to be representatives of the people.

ARTICLE 28.--The Volksraad shall consist of at least twelve members, who must possess the following qualifications:--

They must have attained the age of thirty years, and be born in the Republic, or have for fifteen consecutive years been burghers ent.i.tled to vote, be members of a Protestant Church, reside, and possess immovable property, in the Republic. No persons of notoriously bad character, or who have had a dishonouring sentence p.r.o.nounced against them, and no uncertified or unrehabilitated insolvents shall be eligible. They may not be related to each other in the relations.h.i.+p of father and son or stepson. No coloured persons or b.a.s.t.a.r.ds shall be admitted into our a.s.semblies. In like manner no military officer or official of the State, who draws a fixed annual or monthly salary, shall be eligible as member of the Volksraad.

ARTICLE 29.--The members of the Volksraad are elected by a majority of votes from among the electors of each district. No one shall be considered as elected who has not obtained at least sixty votes.

Every one who is born in the country and has attained the age of twenty-one years, or has become naturalized, shall be a burgher qualified to vote. The members of the Volksraad are elected for the period of four years.

ARTICLE 30.--No one shall be eligible who has not received a requisition signed by at least twenty-five voters. The voters in one district are at liberty to vote for a candidate living in another district. (That is to say, they may be represented by a candidate who resides in a district other than that in which the voters reside.)

ARTICLE 31.--Every enfranchised burgher is allowed, if he wishes, to bring accusations against the President or members of the Executive Council for contravention of their duties or official crimes, and send those accusations to the President of the Volksraad, under the address; ”To the Hon. President of the Volksraad,” who then shall act according to his judgment of the affair.

ARTICLE 32.--The election of members for the Volksraad shall take place in the month of January or February, or in exceptional cases upon such times as shall be fixed. For each district two members shall be chosen, except the districts Pretoria, Potchefstrom, Rustenberg, Lydenburg and Vryheid, for which three members shall be elected.

Elective districts on the Gold-fields shall each elect one member. At the expiration of the second year it shall be decided by lot which half of the members shall go out; the other half shall vacate their seats at the end of the fourth year, and so on. New members of the Volksraad shall be chosen from the districts whose members fall out. Retiring members are re-eligible.

ARTICLE 33.--The Volksraad appoints, outside its members, a Secretary, to be proposed by the Executive Council.

ARTICLE 34.--A Volksraad member who absents himself, and does not comply with the notice to attend, incurs a penalty of Rds. 75.

ARTICLE 35.--The reasons for a Volksraad member's non-appearance are:--

(1) Indisposition and bodily infirmity, to be proved by the member chosen or summoned, by a signed declaration of the Landrost, Commandant, or Field-Cornet of his division.

(2) Such unforeseen circ.u.mstances, being actually proved, as make it impossible for him to be present, or to remain there.

ARTICLE 36.--All objections, excuses, and notices mentioned in Articles 34 and 35 shall be sent into the President and be decided upon by the Executive Council. Provision shall be made as soon as possible to fill in the places open in consequence.

ARTICLE 37.--The members of the Volksraad shall, before taking up their official duties, be sworn by the members of the Volksraad who are present on the day of the session; their oath shall be of the nature of the following:--

”As elected member of the Volksraad of this Republic, I declare, believe, and swear solemnly, that I have neither made nor promised gifts to anyone to reach this office; that I shall be faithful in this office to the people; that I shall act in accordance with the Const.i.tution and other laws of this country, according to the best of my knowledge and conscience, and consider only the furtherance of the happiness and welfare of the public at large.”

ARTICLE 38.--The members of the Volksraad present choose their Chairman after the opening of the session, and before the annual business.

ARTICLE 39.--All deliberations shall be settled by a bare majority of the votes of the members voting.

ARTICLE 40.--The Volksraad does not separate before all matters of business which must be treated of are finished, and the session is closed by the President of the Volksraad. A member can obtain leave of absence from the Volksraad, if he is in such case as mentioned in No. 2, Article 35.

ARTICLE 41.--The members of the Volksraad doing service as such shall be free from military service, without being free from the costs which the military authorities may exact from them: they shall enjoy remuneration for the period of their stay during the cessation of their private business.

ARTICLE 42.--The meetings are held with open doors, unless the Volksraad decide that the discussions upon some proposition be taken in secret. The persons present who have no seat in the Volksraad may only speak when they answer a question of the President.

ARTICLE 43.--The President shall bring forward for discussion the proposals for laws which have come in before the Volksraad, whether the latter have been made known to the public three months before the commencement of the session, or whether the same have come in during the session of the Volksraad.

ARTICLE 44.--When the notices of laws and Government notices to the public have not been given in time, the President shall examine with whom the blame of that delay lies. A Landrost found guilty hereof shall have a fine of Rds. 50 inflicted, and a Field-Cornet or lesser official of Rds. 25.