George 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 ...

. , the population is 294,929. Its municipality code is WC044.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of in the Garden Route and Little Karoo regions. It includes the coastal plateau around the city of George, and extends northeast over the

Outeniqua Mountains The Outeniqua Mountains, named after the Outeniqua Khoikhoi who lived there, is a mountain range that runs a parallel to the southern coast of South Africa, and forms a continuous range with the Langeberg to the west and the Tsitsikamma Mountai ...

to include the eastern end of the Little Karoo as far as the Swartberg mountains and the boundary with the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

province. It abuts on the Mossel Bay Municipality to the west, the Oudtshoorn Municipality to the northwest, the Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality to the northeast, the Kou-Kamma Municipality to the east, and the Bitou and

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

Municipalities to the southeast.

Demographics

According to the 2022 census, the population of the municipality was 294,929 people, increasing at an annual rate of 4.2% from 2011. 44.4% of the population 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 ...

," 35% 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 ...

," and 18.4% 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 ...

." At the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 193,672 people in 53,551 households. Of this population, 50.4% describe themselves as "

", 28.2% as "

", and 19.7% as "

". The

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

of 67.2% of the population is

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 ...

, while 21.7% speak Xhosa and 8.1% speak English. The majority of the residents of the municipality are in the city of George, which as of 2011 has a population of 157,394.Sum of the Main Place
George
an
Thembalethu
from Census 2011. Close to George are the coastal resorts of Herolds Bay (pop. 704) and

Wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plurale tantum, plural) are Earth, Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human impact on the environment, human activity, or any urbanization, nonurbanized land not u ...

(pop. 6,164).

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

(pop. 2,376) and Uniondale (pop. 4,525) are in the interior of the municipality at the top of the Langkloof.

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 George Municipality was divided between two Regional Services Councils (RSCs): the coastal area around George and

formed part of the South Cape RSC, while the interior area north of the Outeniqua Mountains formed part of the Klein Karoo RSC. The town of George was governed by a municipal council elected by its

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

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 George were governed by a management committee subordinate to the white council. There was a separate municipal council in neighbouring

Pacaltsdorp Pacaltsdorp is a suburb of George, Western Cape. In the Apartheid era, it was the coloured township associated with George but administrated independently. The N2 highway provided the natural boundary between the two, enforced by a curfew. The ...

where, uniquely amongst

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

municipalities,

voters retained the right to vote. Thembalethu was governed by a town council established under the Black Local Authorities Act, 1982. In the Wilderness area there were three local councils for

proper, Wilderness Heights, and Hoekwil. Herolds Bay was also governed by a local council. In the Langkloof, the white voters of Uniondale elected a local council while the coloured voters elected a management committee, and the former mission settlement of

was governed by a board of management. While the negotiations to end apartheid were taking place a process was established for local authorities to agree on voluntary mergers. In September 1992 the Municipality of George and the George Management Committee merged to form a single municipal council. In July 1993 a further agreement incorporated the Herolds Bay Local Council into the Municipality of George. 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. * Wilderness TLC replaced the local councils of Wilderness, Wilderness Heights and Hoekwil in January 1995. * Uniondale TLC replaced the Uniondale Local Council and Management Committee in January 1995. * Haarlem TLC replaced the Haarlem Management Board in January 1995. * George TLC replaced the municipalities of George and Pacaltsdorp as well as Thembalethu Town Council in February 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 Regional Services Councils were replaced by District Councils (DCs), and transitional representative councils (TRCs) were elected to represent rural areas outside the TLCs on the DCs. The area that is today the George Municipality included part of the Outeniqua TRC under the South Cape DC, and the Uniondale TRC and most of the Bo-Langkloof TRC under the Klein Karoo DC. At the local elections of December 2000 the transitional councils were dissolved. The South Cape and Klein Karoo DCs were replaced by the Eden District Municipality. George Municipality was established as a single local authority to govern the coastal area, while the interior area north of the Outeniqua Mountains became a District Management Area (DMA) of the Eden District. In 2011 this area was incorporated into George Municipality when District Management Areas were abolished. Also in 2011 the Hoogekraal Plantation area north of Sedgefield was transferred from George Municipality to Knysna Municipality.

Politics

The municipal council consists of fifty-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 ...

. Twenty-seven 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-seven wards, while the remaining twenty-six 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 no party obtained a majority of seats on the council. The DA did, however, win the largest amount of seats. The DA then formed a majority coalition government with the

Freedom Front Plus The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus or FF+; , ''VF Plus'') is a right-wing political party in South Africa that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Corné Mulder. Since 2024, it is a part of the current South African Third Cabin ...

(FF Plus) and the

African Christian Democratic Party The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) is a South African political party founded in 1993. It is a conservative Christian Christian party based on Biblical principles. The leader of the party is Kenneth Meshoe. Following the 2016 municipa ...

(ACDP) to govern the municipality. The following table shows the results of the 2021 election.

References

External links

* http://www.george.org.za/ {{Municipalities of the Western Cape Local municipalities of the Garden Route District Municipality