Prior to its first fully democratic elections in 1994 South Africa consisted of four provinces and a collection of so-called bantustans or "black homelands". The latter was an Apartheid creation to banish black South Africans to remote corners of the country, which was designated their "homelands" where they could supposedly rule themselves although the Apartheid government pulled the strings behind the scenes.

After 1994 the four existing provinces (Transvaal, Free State, Natal and the Cape) and the "black homelands" were all scrapped and nine new provinces created, they are: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo (until recently the Northern Province), Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape and the Western Cape.