Government in South Africa is made up of three spheres – national, provincial and local. The 1996 Constitution describes these three parts of government as non-hierarchical; as ‘spheres’, not ‘tiers’, where no one part is subordinate to the others. However, all spheres are subject to the primacy of the Constitution itself, and the laws passed by national Parliament.

The Constitution also specifies that each sphere is functionally distinctive, and relatively autonomous to perform clearly defined competencies unique to each. But all three spheres are interdependent and interrelated to the others in a unitary whole. Each sphere is constitutionally mandated to preserve peace, national unity and the indivisibility of the Republic of South Africa.

This means that in Gauteng we have various national government departments performing their specific functions; we also have the Gauteng provincial government with its responsibilities; and we have various municipalities, making up local government, charged with taking care of other competencies.