own affair, noun phrase

Forms:
Also with initial capitals.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Translation of Afrikaans eie saak, eie see own + saak affair, business, as defined in the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, No. 110 of 1983 (see quotation).
historical
1. A matter defined as being specific to a particular ethnic group, and thus controlled by that group through a chamber of the tricameral parliament, in terms of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983; frequently in the plural. Also figurative. See also group rights (group sense 2), Ministers’ Council. Cf. general affair.
Note:
Schedule 1 of the 1983 Constitution Act lists fourteen areas of ‘own affairs’, including social welfare, education, art, culture and recreation, health matters, local government, and agriculture.
1983 Daily Dispatch 6 May 8The appointment of marriage officers for a specific population group is an own affair of that group.
1983 E. Prov. Herald 6 May 4Matters particular to one group only are to be known as ‘own affairs’ and can be decided solely by the chamber for that group. Issues of common interest are to be called ‘general affairs’ and must be passed by all three chambers.
1983 Govt Gaz. Vol.219 No.8914, 12Matters which specially or differentially affect a population group in relation to the maintenance of its identity and the upholding and furtherance of its way of life, culture, traditions and customs, are, subject to the provisions of section 16, own affairs in relation to the population group...Matters which are not own affairs of a population group in terms of section 14 are general affairs.
1983 Govt Gaz. Vol.219 No.8914, 14Any question arising in the application of this Act as to whether any particular matters are own affairs of a population group shall be decided by the State President.
1984 Daily Dispatch 13 July 5The bill organised the financial transfer of the state revenue account to other accounts of the state revenue fund to finance the own affairs of the three houses.
1986 C. Heunis in Cape Times 8 Feb. 11Please remember, gentlemen, that hospitals are ‘own affairs’ rather than ‘general affairs’.
1987 N.S. Ndebele in Eng. Academy Rev. Vol.4 12English, unlike the other languages in South Africa, is not ‘an own affair’ of the ESSAs. It is everybody’s affair, because it is indispensable in a way that our other languages are not.
1987 S. Afr. Digest 10 July 2The new Constitution established a tricameral Parliament. Each of the three Houses of Parliament (for Whites, Coloureds and Indians) is responsible for handling the ‘own affairs’ of its particular population group (such as education and housing). The three Houses are jointly responsible for general affairs (such as defence and foreign affairs).
1987 P. Cull in E. Prov. Herald 18 Sept. 7Education is an ‘own affair’ in terms of the constitution, with an own affairs minister who exercises control over all schools, training colleges, and technikons.
1988 C. Legum in Afr. Contemp. Rec. 1986–7 B719The Vanderbijlpark public library evicted a Black woman because the library is an ‘own affair’.
1988 Daily Dispatch 23 Feb. 17The pre-occupation with race was still with the government, and found expression in the whole concept of ‘own’ and ‘general’ affairs.
1988 J. Clarke in Sunday Star 22 May 8Your island..could be manoeuvred..into a parking position off, say, Australia. Anywhere!..Where you eventually anchor would, of course, be an ‘own affair’.
2. In the plural : The system under which each of the three ethnically-based chambers of the tricameral Parliament was given control of those matters considered to be particular to it. Also attributive, passing into adjective, of or pertaining to this system.
1983 Financial Mail 16 Sept. 51If there is to be maximum devolution of power to the ethnic chambers there is every prospect that their demands for ‘own affairs’ funds will grow increasingly more strident.
1984 Cape Herald 25 Jan. 4The intrusion of politics — and especially ‘own affairs’ politics — into education.
1984 Rand Daily Mail 10 Feb. 6The whole basis of ‘own affairs’ under the new constitution is a multitude of separate bureaucracies.
1987 G.D.M. Deas in Daily Dispatch 4 May 10Their pernicious apartheid system..is not dead. It is simply called by another name — ‘own affairs’.
1988 J. Joubert in Daily Dispatch 23 Feb. 17Until apartheid in every form and guise — whether it be the old fashioned apartheid of ‘blankes alleen’ or the new mode of ‘own affairs’ — was rooted out, there could be no long-term peace or stability.
1990 A. Sachs in Weekly Mail 2 Feb. 23While each one of us has a particularly intimate relationship with one or other cultural matrix, this does not mean that we are locked into a series of cultural ‘own affairs’ ghettos.
1990 Sunday Times 20 May 14It is a system with an unlovely genealogy. Apartheid begat separate development and separate development begat own affairs.
1992 E. Prov. Herald 15 Sept. 2The first steps towards the dismantling of apartheid structures such as the three Own Affairs administrations and the six non-independent homelands will be set in motion next month when Parliament reconvenes.
1993 K. Davie in Sunday Times 21 Mar. (Business Times) 1White Own Affairs will spend R1-billion less, but then many white parents are now paying much more for education under Model C.
1993 W. Hartley in Weekend Post 12 June 8This year the whole ‘own affairs’ structure began to crumble in advance of changes to the tricameral Parliament itself.
A matter defined as being specific to a particular ethnic group, and thus controlled by that group through a chamber of the tricameral parliament, in terms of the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983; frequently in the plural. Also figurative.
In the plural :The system under which each of the three ethnically-based chambers of the tricameral Parliament was given control of those matters considered to be particular to it. Also attributive, passing into adjective, of or pertaining to this system.
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historical
figurative or allusive
own, adjectiveadj.oxpecker, nounn.
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