South Africa thus became a unitary state with a single central Parliament that has "unlimited legislative authority". Given this parliamentary sovereignty, the constitution itself could be amended with a simple majority of both houses of Parliament, with the potential exception of two "entrenched" clauses governing the equality of languages and the qualified franchise in the Cape. Before unification, each of the four colonies that would become South Africa had their own franchise policy. The Cape had a franchise qualified by property and wages. By the time of the convention, there were 22,784 black and coloured voters in the Cape, out of a total electorate of 152,221. Natal had a similar policy, having had 200 black and coloured voters on the roll out of a total electorate of 22,686. In the Transvaal and Orange River, only white men could vote or stand for election. Four potential solutions to the franchise problem were tabled at the convention:   A standardized "civilization test" would have meant legal equality between whites, blacks and coloureds in South Africa, which was unacceptable to the conservative electorate in the Transvaal, Orange River and Natal. Furthermore, neither the Cape nor the two former Boer republics were willing to compromise on their respective franchise systems. This led to the fourth option being adopted, with the Cape qualified franchise receiving constitutional protection in section 35 of the South Africa Act until such a time as it is amended by a joint sitting of Parliament with a supporting vote of two-thirds of the members. This victory for the Cape delegation did however not extend to the ability of blacks and coloureds to sit in Parliament or provincial councils. While they could thus continue to vote in the Cape, blacks and coloureds could no longer be elected to legislative office. As South Africa was to be a unitary rather than a federal state, the provinces would have no legislatures of their own, but instead a system of provincial councils wholly subordinate to the national Parliament. No conflict would thus be possible between the councils and Parliament, as the provinces had no exclusive powers - only those assigned to them by the sovereign legislature. In their desire to keep the provincial council non-partisan, the delegates sought to model it largely on that of Switzerland. In this regard, choosing the executive committee of the council was made to be through proportional representation, with the executive Administrator of each province being independently appointed. Education was one of the key areas of jurisdiction added to the provincial council system, primarily for the fears raised by Natal and the Orange River that their language rights would be undermined.