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The President's Council was a government advisory body in apartheid South Africa between 1981 and 1992. It was chaired by the Vice State President of South Africa. The council was first proposed by the Schlebusch Commission in May 1980, which envisioned the President's Council as a board of experts (despite no qualifications being required ) that would be appointed by the State President to advise him on certain matters. The council was part of the National Party's greater constitutional plan to accommodate coloureds and Indians in the political system, based on "the principle of self-determination for all population groups and guarantee white control of its own affairs". This would later culminate in the 1983 "Tricameral" Constitution.

According to Laurence J. Boulle, the President's Council "was conceived as a consociational-type body -- a 'grand coalition' of white, coloured and Indian elites, which would depoliticise contentious issues and resolve them along accommodationist lines". Boulle, however, wrote that there were "several structural features" that undermined its consociational potential: it was unrepresentative by not including black South Africans; it had limited powers, meaning the inclusion of non-dominant groups like coloureds, Indians, and Chinese would not seriously bind the dominant white group; and it did not provide for proportional representation or a veto for minority groups.

The President's Council was abolished on 17 June, before South Africa adopted the 1993 "Interim" Constitution, paving the way for non-racial democratic elections.

Under the 1961 Republican Constitution
The council was first introduced in terms of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Fifth Amendment Act, 1980, which amended the Constitution of 1961 and was later retained in the Tricameral Constitution. Its establishment has been described as a "major deviation from the Westminster model and is an historic step in the country's constitutional development".

The President's Council was a multi-racial body meant to give legitimacy to the apartheid government's policies. The Fifth Amendment Act provided that it may only consist of "White, Coloured, Indian or Chinese" individuals, thus it continued to exclude South Africa's black majority. When the council was first convened it consisted of 43 whites, 12 coloureds, four Indians, and one Chinese. The government justified its exclusion of blacks on the grounds of its separate development policy, whereby blacks would pursue their political affairs in the various homeland (or bantustan) territories scattered throughout South Africa.

The council's dual roles under the Fifth Amendment Act was to provide the State President with advice at his request, or of its own volition if it considered a matter in the public interest, and "to advise any supra-local legislative body", at its request, on draft legislation. None of the council's opinions were binding.

Under the 1983 Tricameral Constitution
When the 1961 Constitution (and thus the Fifth Amendment Act) was replaced with the 1983 Constitution which introduced the Tricameral Parliament with a house each for whites, coloureds, and Indians, the composition of the President's Council was fixed. Section 70(1) of the Constitution provided that it shall consist of 20 members designated by the House of Assembly (the white chamber), ten designated by the House of Representatives (the coloured chamber), five designated by the House of Delegates (the Indian chamber), and 25 appointed by the State President.

The council's mandate under the Tricameral Constitution included that it had to resolve disagreements "among houses of parliament on specific legislation". This arrangement was, however, institutionally skewed in favor of the dominant white National Party government, given that the white House of Assembly combined with the State President's appointments would always form a majority in the council. This gave the dominant group "substantial weight in determining the outcome of all legislative debates".

Known members

 * Alwyn Schlebusch (ex officio as Vice State President)
 * Denis Worrall
 * Jack Penn
 * James Selfe
 * Clive Derby-Lewis
 * Willie van Niekerk