Law & Government Publications: Government Sources

The Government Gazette from 1910 to 2011 (in a complete set of bound volumes), is available in the library collection.

Online available from 1994 + on Sabinet Legal

The Library collects mostly documents of the Western Cape Province and selective items of the other eight provinces. Collections of the four pre-1994 provinces (Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal) are more complete (from approximately 1890 to 1993) (shelf number SP (CAP). Since1994 all provincial publications have been made available on the websites of the various provinces.

Printed copies of the various stages in which legislation is published (drafts of the bills, the final bills and acts) are housed in this section, and most will be listed when searched through Library Search

All acts in South Africa are published in the Government Gazette. It is the official and first publication of legislative material for the information of all citizens.

The Library and Information Service holds (almost) complete sets of the parliamentary debates from approximately 1890-2002.

Hansards are available electronically from 1999.

View the latest hansards.

View by year since 2006

The various government policies are published in different formats, i.e. as Discussion documents, Green papers and White papers (shelf number SP WP-2000).

Available online from 1994.

Open Gazettes South Africa:

The biggest freely available collection of gazettes in the country. 12380 gazettes from 2000 onwards.

A few documents of neighbouring states were collected by the Library and Information Service up to the late 1970’s. Library clients are encouraged to consult SACat provided by Sabinet Online for more recent publications on African countries. (SACat reflects the collection of libraries in Southern Africa and contains bibliographic information). It is also possible to request material by completing the online interlending request form, SEE Services.

The government-supported body, Statistics SA, collects and publishes all the official statistics of South Africa. The Library and Information Service holds printed copies of the statistical documents as well as the population censuses from 1900 onwards (shelf number will be SP STAT).