Buthelezi calls for re-introduction of PM

IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has called for the re-introduction of a Prime Minister as head of government in South Africa. Introducing his Draft Bill to Parliament's Committee for Private Members' Legislative Proposals, he said the President should be above party politics.

Buthelezi says the separation of the head of government does not mean that the president becomes a ceremonial head of state.

Even though all the executive power is transferred to the prime minister, the president has a broad range of his own powers which he exercises independently, such as those of assenting to laws and performing a preliminary assessment of constitutionality.

He also has other powers such as the appointment of ambassadors, dissolving parliament, appointing certain Constitutional Court judges and members of the Judicial Service Commission and other officers.