Houses of Parliament

As someone interested in governance models, I was intrigued to learn that South Africa also has three branches of government, but the “separation” of powers is made even more complete by locating each branch in three different cities.  The executive capital is Pretoria, the judicial capital is in Bloemfontein, while the legislative is in Cape Town.   (I don’t believe this would work well in practice, but who knows?) 

Jim and I have arranged for our students to tour The Houses of Parliament when we go to Cape Town in early April.  Unfortunately, Parliament won’t be in session, or we could have listened in on their debating session.  The complex will still be interesting to walk through.  During apartheid, three separate legislative bodies operated there, representing what the apartheid law deemed as three separate races: white, black, and coloured.  Today's sprawling complex is a reminder of that not-too-distant past.  It is is also the spot where the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoed, was stabbed by Dmitri Tsafendas, an unhinged white parliamentary messenger, who explained “a tapeworm made me do it.”