What are the Provinces of South Africa?

South Africa is divided into nine provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu- Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Northern Cape and Western Cape. Each has its own elected legislature, premier and executive council. The provinces were created in 1994, when apartheid ended and South Africa held its first democratic elections. They replaced the four old provinces (Cape Province, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State) and reabsorbed the ten 'homelands' or bantustans that the apartheid government had created for Black South Africans. Several provinces were renamed in their early years. For example, Pretoria–Witwatersrand–Vereeniging became Gauteng, Eastern Transvaal became Mpumalanga, and Northern Province became Limpopo.