Blouberg Municipality () is a local municipality within the

Capricorn District Municipality The Capricorn District Municipality () is one of the 5 Districts of South Africa, districts of the Limpopo province of South Africa. The district is named after the Tropic of Capricorn which runs through it. The capital is Polokwane. As of 2011, th ...

, in the

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, bordering

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. It takes its name from the Blouberg (literally meaning "blue mountain" in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

), a mountain range located to the west of the western end of the

Soutpansberg The Soutpansberg (formerly Zoutpansberg), meaning "Salt Pan Mountain" in Afrikaans, is a Mountain range, range of mountains in far northern South Africa. It is located in Vhembe District Municipality, Vhembe District, Limpopo. It is named for t ...

mountain range, north west of the town of Vivo. Blouberg is home to some of the most spectacular

rock climbing Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending climbing routes, routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in c ...

in South Africa. The rock climbing destination is famous for its

big wall Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * Big (film), ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka * ''Big!'', a ...

natural climbing with route lengths up to 350m. The vegetation ranges from sub-tropical savanna at the base, to alpine near the summit.

Demography

According to the 2001 census conducted by Statistics South Africa, the population of the greater Blouberg municipality was 161,314, of whom 99.4% are African, 0.5% white, 0.1% Coloured and 0.1% Asian.

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:

Politics

The municipal council consists of forty-four members elected by

mixed-member proportional representation Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a type of representation provided by some mixed electoral system, mixed electoral systems which combine local Winner-take-all system, winner-take-all elections with a Compensation (el ...

. Twenty-two councillors are elected by

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

in twenty-two wards, while the remaining twenty-two are chosen from

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

s so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 1 November 2021 the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC) won a majority of thirty-three seats on the council. The following table shows the results of the election.

References

External links

Blouberg Municipality Website
Local municipalities of the Capricorn District Municipality {{Limpopo-geo-stub