The Western Province Zionist Council was formed in 1943 in order to centralize and to coordinate the activities of the various Zionist societies, that had been operating independently in the Western Province since the late 1890s and early 1900s. An umbrella body of all the Zionist societies in South Africa and the former Southern Rhodesia, had been established in 1898 in Johannesburg. However, in 1943 a need was felt to create a coordinating body at the Cape as well. The Western Province Zionist Council is a constituent body of the South African Zionist Federation, that also has an office in Tel-Aviv in Israel to deal with South African immigration to Israel and to manage the various fund raising projects that are sponsored by South African Jewry.