Witzenberg Municipality (; ) is a local municipality located within the

Cape Winelands District Municipality The Cape Winelands District Municipality (; ), formerly the Boland District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Boland region of the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2011, it had a population of 787,490. The large ...

, 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 ...

. As of 2022 it had a population of 103,765.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of which includes the Land van Waveren (

Tulbagh Tulbagh (), previously named Roodezand, then Land van Waveren later in 1804 named after Cape of Good Hope Governor Ryk Tulbagh, is a town located in the "Land van Waveren" mountain basin (also known as the Tulbagh basin), in the Cape Winelands ...

) valley, the Warm Bokkeveld, the

Koue Bokkeveld The Koue Bokkeveld, meaning "Cold Buck Shrubland" in Afrikaans, is a mountain range in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Geologically the range is composed of Table Mountain Sandstone, Cedarberg Sandstone of the Cape System. Location and ...

and the Ceres-

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

. It stretches from the Groot Winterhoek Mountains in the west and the

Hex River Mountains The Hex River Mountains () make up the second highest mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa and are located north-east of Cape Town. They form part of a large anticline in the Cape Fold Belt mountain system and form a nort ...

in the south as far as the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

provincial border in the north and east. It abuts on the

Hantam Municipality Hantam Municipality () is a local municipality within the Namakwa District Municipality, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. ''Hantam'' is a Khoekhoe word that means "mountains where the bulbs grow". The municipality is named after th ...

to the north, the

Karoo Hoogland Municipality Karoo Hoogland Municipality () is a local municipality within the Namakwa District Municipality, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The municipality incorporates the towns of Williston, Fraserburg and Sutherland. Although the towns a ...

to the northeast, the Laingsburg Municipality to the southeast, the Breede Valley Municipality to the south, the

Drakenstein Municipality Drakenstein Municipality (; ) is a local municipality (South Africa), local municipality located within the Cape Winelands District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. , it had a population of 251,262. Its municipality code ...

to the southwest, the Bergrivier Municipality to the west and the

Cederberg Municipality Cederberg Municipality () is a local municipality which governs an area of the Western Cape province of South Africa stretching from the Cederberg mountains through the middle valley of the Olifants River to the Atlantic coast. It includes the ...

to the northwest. The principal town and location of the municipal head office is Ceres on the eastern slope of the Skurweberg mountains, which as of 2011 has a population of 33,224. To the west of Ceres, on the other side of the mountains, is the Land van Waveren valley with the towns of Wolseley (pop. 12,130) and

(pop. 8,969). To the north of Ceres is the town of Prince Alfred Hamlet (pop. 6,810), and further north, in the Koue Bokkeveld, the village of Op-die-Berg (pop. 1,531). There are a number of informal settlements: Pine Valley,

Chris Hani Chris Hani (28 June 194210 April 1993; born Martin Thembisile Hani ) was a South African military commander, politician and revolutionary who served as the leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and chief of staff of uMkhonto we S ...

, Mooiblom, Zibonele, Polocross, Die Gaatjie and Kleinbegin. In addition in Ward 2, Dwarsrivier, is the settlement of Romansrivier. Other settlements include: Tulbagh Road, Steinthal, Drostdy, Waterval, Kluitjieskraal, Breede River Station, and Prince Alfred Hamlet Station.

Demographics

According to the

2022 South African census The South African National Census of 2022 is the 4th comprehensive census performed by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). The census results were released on 10 October 2023 and recorded a total of 62 million people in the country. Key findi ...

, the municipality had a population of 103,765 people, decreasing from 115,946 in 2011. "

Coloureds 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 ...

" were the largest ethnic group, at 63.7% of the population, followed by "

Black Africans Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical c ...

" at 26.8% and "

Whites White is a racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly European ancestry. It is also a skin color specifier, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, ethnicity and point of view. De ...

" at 7.9%.

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, in the area that is today the Witzenberg Municipality there were municipal councils for Ceres, Wolseley,

and Prince Alfred Hamlet. These councils were elected by the

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, while 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 Ceres, Tulbagh and Wolseley were governed by management committees subordinate to the white councils. The township of Nduli near Ceres had a town council established under the

Black Local Authorities Act, 1982 The Black Local Authorities Act of 1982 provided for the establishment of a series of local government structures similar to those operating in the South African Apartheid "White areas". For the first time under Apartheid, African black residents ...

. The remaining rural areas were served by the Breërivier Regional Services Council. 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. The Tulbagh municipality and management committee took part in this process, merging to form a new non-racial municipality in October 1993. 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. * Tulbagh TLC replaced the merged Tulbagh Municipality as well as the Gouda Municipality (which lies outside of the area that is now Witzenberg) in October 1994. * Wolseley TLC replaced Wolseley Municipality and Wolseley Management Committee in November 1994. * Ceres TLC replaced Ceres Municipality, Ceres Management Committee and Nduli Town Council in December 1994. * Prince Alfred Hamlet TLC replaced Prince Alfred Hamlet Municipality 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 these elections the Breërivier District Council was established, replacing the Breërivier Regional Services Council. Transitional representative councils (TRCs) were also elected to represent rural areas outside the TLCs on the District Council; the area that was to become Witzenberg Municipality included most of the Witzenberg TRC and a small part of the Matroosberg TRC. At the local elections of December 2000 the TLCs and TRCs were dissolved and the Witzenberg Municipality was established as a single local authority. Originally it only covered the western part of its current area, while the sparsely-populated Ceres-Karoo area to the east was a District Management Area. This area was incorporated into Witzenberg Municipality when District Management Areas were abolished in 2011.

Politics

The municipal council consists of twenty-three 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 ...

. Twelve 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 twelve wards, while the remaining eleven 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 no party obtained a majority of seats. The following table shows the results of the 2021 election. On 22 November 2021, the DA's Hennie Smit was elected mayor, the ANC's Johnnerey Mouton was elected speaker and Katrina Robyn of the GOOD party was elected deputy mayor. The following are the results of the election (after a recount in December 2021 allocated a seat previously awarded to GOOD to the DA):

Municipal audits

In June 2022, the municipality received an unqualified clean audit for the 2020-21 financial year, one of 41 of the country's 257 municipalities to do so. It has received a clean audit each year since 2016–17.

Partners

Since 2002 Witzenberg has an official town twinning agreement with the town Essen in Belgium. The city-to-city cooperation consists of sustainable development programs in the vulnerable areas concerning youth, local economic development and environment.

References

External links

Official website

Witzenberg Local Municipality on the Government Communication and Information Systems website
{{Municipalities of the Western Cape Local municipalities of the Cape Winelands District Municipality