Buffalo City is a metropolitan municipality situated on the east coast of

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 199 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. It includes the towns of East London, Bhisho and Qonce, as well as the large townships of

Mdantsane Mdantsane is a South African urban township situated 15 km away from East London, Eastern Cape, East London and 37 km away from King William's Town, Qonce in the Eastern Cape. It is the second largest township in the Eastern Cape after ...

and

Zwelitsha Zwelitsha is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It forms part of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. History Zwelitsha was created in 1947 as corridor township to King William's Town to provide labour for the Good Hope ...

History

The municipality was established as a local municipality in 2000 after South Africa's reorganisation of municipal areas, and is named after the Buffalo River, at whose mouth lies the only river port in South Africa. On 18 May 2011, it was separated from the

Amathole District Municipality Amathole is one of the 7 districts of Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of Amathole is East London. Over 90% of its 892,637 people speak Xhosa (2011 Census). The district code is DC12. "Amathole" means calves, the name of the mou ...

and converted into a metropolitan municipality. The area has a well-developed manufacturing base, with the auto industry playing a major role.

Daimler AG The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufactu ...

through its wholly owned subsidiary Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) has a large assembly plant located next to the port of East London, which produces a variety of vehicles for export. The climate is mild, with year-round sunshine. Average rainfall is 850mm (33.5 inches). The population of 701,873 (2001) is largely African (85.2%), with White (8.4%) and Coloured (5.7%) minorities. There is also a small Indian community (0.6%). The previous mayor, Dr Sindisile Maclean (

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

), was elected in 2000. Buffalo City elected its first female mayor on Friday, 17 March 2006. Ntombentle Peter was voted in as Executive Mayor at the inaugural meeting of the new council following the municipal elections.

Main places

The 2011 census divided the municipality into the following main places: Note:''Only the most populated places are reported''

Politics

The municipal council consists of one hundred members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Fifty councillors are elected by

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

in fifty wards, while the remaining fifty are chosen from party lists 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 social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

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

Hospitals

The following hospitals are located in the municipal area: *Life Beacon Bay Hospital * Bhisho Provincial Hospital * Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (

) * Duncan Village Day Hospital *East London Private Hospital *Fort Grey TB Hospital * Frere Hospital * Grey Provincial Hospital ( Qonce) *Grey Monument Private Clinic (Qonce) *Mount Coke Hospital (replaced by Bhisho Hospital in December 1991)News article: Mt Coke hospital to get major facelift (published on 27 March 2007)
/ref> *Nkqubela Chest Hospital (Mdantsane) *St Dominic’s Hospital *St James Hospital *St Marks Clinic

Town twinning

Buffalo City's town twins are: * Gävle, Sweden *

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

* Milwaukee County,

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

References

External links

Buffalo City Official siteEastern Cape Dept of Health list of hospitals
{{Municipalities of the Eastern Cape