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The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa made two technical changes, one relating to national election procedures and the other to the membership of the Financial and Fiscal Commission. It was enacted by the Parliament of South Africa, signed by Acting President Thabo Mbeki on 17 March 1999, and came into force two days later. It was signed and came into force simultaneously with the Fourth Amendment; the two amendments were separated because the Fourth involved provincial matters and had to be passed by the National Council of Provinces while the Fifth did not.

Provisions

The Act made two technical modifications to the Constitution. The first was to clarify that, when the term of the National Assembly is due to expire, the President may issue the proclamation calling an election either before or after the term actually expires. The Fourth Amendment made the same change for elections to provincial legislatures. The second was to allow that the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the Financial and Fiscal Commission need not necessarily be permanent members of the commission.

Formal title

The official short title of the amendment is "Constitution Fifth Amendment Act of 1999". It was originally titled "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Fifth Amendment Act, 1999" and numbered as Act No. 2 of 1999, but the Citation of Constitutional Laws Act, 2005 renamed it and abolished the practice of giving Act numbers to constitutional amendments.

External links

• Official text (PDF)

v t e Constitution of South Africa
Chapters	1: Founding Provisions 2: Bill of Rights 3: Co-operative Government 4: Parliament 5: President and National Executive 6: Provinces 7: Local Government 8: Courts and Administration of Justice 9: State Institutions supporting Constitutional Democracy 10: Public Administration 11: Security Services 12: Traditional Leaders 13: Finance 14: General Provisions Schedules
Amendments	First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth Tenth Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth Fourteenth Fifteenth Sixteenth Seventeenth Eighteenth
Previous	South Africa Act 1909 Constitution Act, 1961 Constitution Act, 1983 Interim Constitution, 1993
Related	Constitutional Court Chapter nine institutions Negotiations to end apartheid Citation of Constitutional Laws Act
Text of the Constitution

• Amendments of the Constitution of South Africa
• 1999 in South African law