Districts of South Africa explained

The nine provinces of South Africa are divided into 52 districts (sing. district, Zulu: isifunda; Xhosa: isithili; Afrikaans: distrikte; Pedi; Sepedi; Northern Sotho: selete; Tswana: kgaolo; Sotho, Southern: setereke; Tsonga: xifundza; Swati: sigodzi; Venda: tshiṱiriki; Ndebele, South; South Ndebele: isiyingi), which are either metropolitan or district municipalities. They are the second level of administrative division, below the provinces and (in the case of district municipalities) above the local municipalities.

As a consequence of the 12th amendment of the Constitution in December 2005, which altered provincial boundaries, the number of districts was reduced from 53. Another effect of the amendment is that each district is now completely contained within a single province, thus eliminating cross-border districts. The districts also cover the entire area of the continental republic.

Types of district

There are two types of municipality at the district level. Most of the country is covered by the 44 district municipalities, which are divided into local municipalities and share responsibilities with them. The eight largest urban agglomerations are governed by metropolitan municipalities, which act as both local and district municipalities.

District municipality

A district municipality or Category C municipality is a municipality which executes some of the functions of local government for a district. The district municipality will in turn comprise several local municipalities, with which it shares the functions of local government. Although the word county is not used in legislation, district municipalities are regularly referred to as such informally. District municipalities are seen as successors to former Regional Services Councils (RSC).[1]

The Constitution, section 155.1.a,[2] defines "Category C" municipalities. The Municipal Structures Act[3] states that areas not eligible to have a metropolitan municipality must have a district municipality.

District municipalities have a municipality code that consists of the letters "DC" followed by a number from 1 to 48. The "DC" reflects the term for the elected political executive "District Councils".

District management areas

Currently all district municipalities are completely divided into local municipalities. However, before the alteration of municipal boundaries which occurred at the 2011 elections, some areas of the country did not fall within any local municipality. This usually occurred in areas with a very low population density, for example national parks and nature reserves. In these areas, which were known as District Management Areas, all local government services were provided by the district municipality.

List

The following map depicts the provinces and districts of South Africa. The district municipalities are labelled with numbers that correspond to their district code, while the metropolitan municipalities are labelled with letters that correspond to their names. Further details of the districts are listed in the table that follows the image.

Map
key		NameCodeProvinceSeatArea
(km2)[4] 		Population
(2016)[5] 		Pop. density
(per km2)
Alfred Nzo District MunicipalityEastern CapeMount Ayliff10,731867,86480.9
Amajuba District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalNewcastle7,102531,32774.8
Amathole District MunicipalityEastern CapeEast London21,117880,79041.7
Bojanala Platinum District MunicipalityNorth WestRustenburg18,3331,657,14890.4
BBuffalo City Metropolitan MunicipalityEastern CapeEast London2,750834,997303.6
Cape Winelands District MunicipalityWestern CapeWorcester21,473866,00140.3
Capricorn District MunicipalityLimpopoPolokwane21,7051,330,43661.3
Central Karoo District MunicipalityWestern CapeBeaufort West38,85474,2471.9
Chris Hani District MunicipalityEastern CapeKomani36,407840,05523.1
CCity of Cape Town Metropolitan MunicipalityWestern CapeCape Town2,4464,005,0161,637.6
JCity of Johannesburg Metropolitan MunicipalityGautengJohannesburg1,6454,949,3473,008.8
TCity of Tshwane Metropolitan MunicipalityGautengPretoria6,2983,275,152520.0
Dr Kenneth Kaunda District MunicipalityNorth WestKlerksdorp14,671742,82150.6
Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District MunicipalityNorth WestVryburg43,764459,35710.5
Ehlanzeni District MunicipalityMpumalangaMbombela27,8961,754,93162.9
EkEkurhuleni Metropolitan MunicipalityGautengGermiston1,9753,379,1041,710.6
EteThekwini Metropolitan MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalDurban2,5563,702,2311,448.5
Fezile Dabi District MunicipalityFree StateSasolburg20,668494,77723.9
Frances Baard District MunicipalityNorthern CapeKimberley12,836387,74130.2
Garden Route District MunicipalityWestern CapeGeorge23,331611,27826.2
Gert Sibande District MunicipalityMpumalangaErmelo31,8411,135,40935.7
Harry Gwala District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalIxopo10,386510,86549.2
iLembe District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalKwaDukuza3,269657,612201.2
Joe Gqabi District MunicipalityEastern CapeBarkly East25,617372,91214.6
John Taolo Gaetsewe District MunicipalityNorthern CapeKuruman27,322242,2648.9
King Cetshwayo District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalRichards Bay8,213971,135118.2
Lejweleputswa District MunicipalityFree StateWelkom32,287646,92020.0
MMangaung Metropolitan MunicipalityFree StateBloemfontein9,886787,80379.7
Mopani District MunicipalityLimpopoGiyani20,0111,159,18557.9
Namakwa District MunicipalityNorthern CapeSpringbok126,836115,4880.9
NNelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan MunicipalityEastern CapePort Elizabeth1,9571,263,051645.4
Ngaka Modiri Molema District MunicipalityNorth WestMahikeng28,114889,10831.6
Nkangala District MunicipalityMpumalangaMiddelburg16,7581,445,62486.3
OR Tambo District MunicipalityEastern CapeMthatha12,1411,457,384120.0
Overberg District MunicipalityWestern CapeBredasdorp12,239286,78623.4
Pixley ka Seme District MunicipalityNorthern CapeDe Aar103,411195,5951.9
Sarah Baartman District MunicipalityEastern CapePort Elizabeth58,245479,9238.2
Sedibeng District MunicipalityGautengVereeniging4,173957,528229.5
Sekhukhune District MunicipalityLimpopoGroblersdal13,5281,169,76286.5
Thabo Mofutsanyana District MunicipalityFree StatePhuthaditjhaba32,734779,33023.8
Ugu District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalPort Shepstone4,791753,336157.2
uMgungundlovu District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalPietermaritzburg9,6021,095,865114.1
uMkhanyakude District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalMkuze13,855689,09049.7
uMzinyathi District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalDundee8,652554,88264.1
uThukela District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalLadysmith11,134706,58863.5
Vhembe District MunicipalityLimpopoThohoyandou25,5961,393,94954.5
Waterberg District MunicipalityLimpopoModimolle44,913745,75816.6
West Coast District MunicipalityWestern CapeMoorreesburg31,119436,40314.0
West Rand District MunicipalityGautengRandfontein4,087838,594205.2
Xhariep District MunicipalityFree StateTrompsburg34,250125,8843.7
ZF Mgcawu District MunicipalityNorthern CapeUpington102,484252,6922.5
Zululand District MunicipalityKwaZulu-NatalUlundi14,799892,31060.3

Boundary alignment

Several projects are underway to align various services with the district boundaries.[6] These include:

Controversy

South Africa's official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, believes that the districts add an unnecessary fourth layer of government (between provinces and municipalities) and has called for them to be eliminated.[7]

See also

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Towards Co-Operative Relations Between District And Local Municipalities . 2017-09-13.
  2. Web site: Documents – Constitution – 1996 – Chapter 7 – Local Government . Info.gov.za . 2009-08-19 . 2017-09-13.
  3. Web site: Local Government: Municipal Structures Act [No. 117 of 1998] G 19614 GoN 1650]. Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. 9 February 2024. 18 December 1998.
  4. Web site: 2016 Boundaries . Shapefile . . 2016 . 4 February 2017 . 29 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190529233921/http://www.demarcation.org.za/site/shapefiles/ . dead .
  5. Web site: Community Survey 2016 . Data file . . 2016 . 4 February 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180920075115/http://interactive2.statssa.gov.za/webapi/ . 20 September 2018 . dead .
  6. http://www.demarcation.org.za/boundaryalignment/service_bnd.html Service Delivery Boundary Alignment
  7. Web site: The Arms Deal Scandal. https://web.archive.org/web/20060503183713/http://www.da.org.za/da/Site/Eng/campaigns/AlternativeBudget2006.asp. dead. 3 May 2006. 3 May 2006. 3 April 2018.

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