ABSTRACT
On 12th October, 1908, a National Convention of delegates, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State met at Durban, under the presidency of Lord de Villiers, 'to consider and report on the most desirable form of South African Union and to prepare a Draft Constitution'. Some minor amendments were agreed upon in England before the draft was introduced into the Parliament at Westminster. In 1936 the Representation of Natives Act was passed by a two-thirds majority of both Houses of Parliament sitting together. In the Vote case, the Court was given a mass of material which was not before it in Ndlwana's case. The Statute of Westminster admittedly gave the Union Parliament powers of repealing British Acts which it did not possess before, but this did not involve new powers of repeal in regard to the South Africa Act. The inference must be drawn that the Statute of Westminster intended to modify the provisions of the South African Constitution.
