Hessequa Municipality (), known before 24 June 2005 as Langeberg Municipality, is a local municipality within the

Garden Route District Municipality The Garden Route District Municipality (; ), formerly known as the Eden District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its municipality code is DC4. Geography The Garden Route District Muni ...

, in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

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 ...

. It is flanked by the lower

Breede River The Breede River (), also known as Breë River, is a river in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Travelling inland north from the city of Cape Town, the river runs in a west to east direction. The surrounding western mountains formed th ...

to the west and the

Gourits River Gourits River (), sometimes spelled 'Gouritz River', is situated in the Western Cape, South Africa. The Gourits River flows from the confluence of the Gamka River and Olifants River and is joined by the Groot River, before flowing through the ...

to the east. , the population was 71,918. Its municipality code is WC042. The name Hessequa, meaning "people of the trees", refers to the indigenous

Khoikhoi Khoikhoi (Help:IPA/English, /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally Nomad, nomadic pastoralist Indigenous peoples, indigenous population of South Africa. They ...

people.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of between the

Langeberg The Langeberg Range is a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its highest peak is Keeromsberg at 2,072 m that lies 15 km northeast of the town of Worcester. Some of the highest peaks of the range are located just ...

mountains and the Indian Ocean, stretching from the

in the west to the

in the east. It abuts on the Swellendam Municipality to the west, the

Kannaland Municipality Kannaland Municipality () is a local municipality located within the Garden Route District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The municipal area is situated in the western part of the Little Karoo and includes the towns of ...

to the north, the

Oudtshoorn Municipality Oudtshoorn Municipality () is a Local municipality (South Africa), local municipality within the Garden Route District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2022, the population was 138,257. Geography The municipality c ...

to the northeast, and the Mossel Bay Municipality to the east. The largest town in the municipality is Riversdale, which had a population of 16,176 in 2011. It’s also where the municipal headquarters are located. Riversdale sits on the

Vet River The Vet River (, "fat river") is a westward-flowing tributary of the Vaal River in central South Africa. Its sources are between Marquard and Clocolan and the Vet River flows roughly northwestwards to meet the Vaal at the Bloemhof Dam near Hoopst ...

near the foothills of the

. To the west are

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

(8,259) and Slangrivier (3,011), while Albertinia (6,372) lies to the east. Stilbaai (3,514) is on the coast south of Riversdale, at the mouth of the Vet River, with the smaller communities of Jongensfontein (355) and Melkhoutfontein (2,533) nearby. Vermaaklikheid (365), a small rural village known for its natural surroundings, is located south of Riversdale along the Duiwenhoks River. On the edges of the municipality, Witsand (321) sits at the mouth of the

in the west, and Gouritsmond (515) lies at the mouth of the

in the east.

History

At the end of the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

era, the area that is today the Hessequa Municipality formed part of the South Cape Regional Services Council (RSC). The towns of Riversdale,

, Albertinia and Stilbaai were governed by municipal councils elected by their

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

residents. The

coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

residents of Riversdale, Heidelberg and Theronsville (Albertinia) were governed by management committees subordinate to the white councils. The seaside resorts of Witsand, Jongensfontein and Gouritsmond were governed by elected local councils, and the town of Slangrivier was governed by a board of management. While the

negotiations to end apartheid The apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of bilateral and multi-party negotiations between 1990 and 1993. The negotiations culminated in the passage of a new interim Constitution in 1993, a precursor to the Constitution ...

were taking place a process was established for local authorities to agree on voluntary mergers. In March 1992, the Municipality of Riversdale and the Riversdale Management Committee merged into a single municipal council, and in August 1992 a similar merger took place in Heidelberg. After the national elections of 1994 a process of local government transformation began, in which negotiations were held between the existing local authorities, political parties, and local community organisations. As a result of these negotiations, the existing local authorities were dissolved and transitional local councils (TLCs) were created for each town and village. The smaller seaside resorts were also combined with larger towns. * Riversdale TLC replaced the Municipality of Riversdale in October 1994. * Heidelberg TLC replaced the Municipality of Heidelberg and the Witsand Local Council in December 1994. * Albertinia-Gourits TLC replaced the Municipality of Albertinia, the Theronsville Management Committee and the Gouritsmond Local Council in January 1995. * Stilbaai TLC replaced the Municipality of Stilbaai and the Jongensfontein Local Council in January 1995. * Slangrivier TLC replaced the Slangrivier Management Board in January 1995. The transitional councils were initially made up of members nominated by the various parties to the negotiations, until May 1996 when elections were held. At the time of these elections the Albertinia-Gourits TLC was dissolved and replaced by separate TLCs for Albertinia and Gouritsmond. The South Cape District Council was established in place of the South Cape RSC, and transitional representative councils (TRCs) were elected to represent rural areas outside the TLCs on the District Council. The area that was to become Hessequa Municipality formed part of the Langeberg TRC. At the local elections of December 2000 the TLCs and TRCs were dissolved and the Langeberg Municipality was established as a single local authority. At the same election the South Cape District Council was also dissolved and replaced by the Eden District Municipality. In 2005 the name of the local municipality was changed from Langeberg to Hessequa. (The Langeberg name was subsequently reused for the municipality formerly known as Breede River/Winelands.)

Demographics

According to the 2022 census, the municipality had a population of 71,918 people, increasing at an annual rate of 3.2% from 2011. Of these, 72.5% identified as "

Coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

," 22% as "

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

," and 4.5% as "

Black African Black is a racial classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and ofte ...

Politics

The municipal council consists of seventeen 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 ...

. Nine 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 nine wards, while the remaining eight 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 Democratic Alliance (DA) won a majority of seats on the council. The following table shows the results of the 2021 election.

References

External links

* {{Municipalities of the Western Cape Local municipalities of the Garden Route District Municipality