Govan Mbeki Municipality (; ), formerly the Highveld East Local Municipality, is a local municipality within the

Gert Sibande District Municipality Gert Sibande (until 2004 known as the Eastvaal District Municipality) is one of the 3 districts of Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The seat of Gert Sibande is Ermelo. The majority of its 900 007 people speak IsiZulu (2001 Census). The di ...

, in the

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

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 ...

. Secunda is the seat of the municipality. It was named after

Govan Mbeki Govan Archibald Mvunyelwa Mbeki (9 July 1910 – 30 August 2001) was a South African politician, military commander, Communist leader who served as the Secretary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, at its inception in 1961. He was also the younger son of Ch ...

, ANC activist.

Main places

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

Politics

The municipal council consists of sixty-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 ...

. Thirty-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 thirty-two

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

, while the remaining thirty-one 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) lost its majority, but remained the largest party, winning twenty-six seats. The following table shows the results of the election.

Corruption

After allegations of endemic corruption a forensic investigation was launched by the

Department of Cooperative Governance The Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) is a department of the South African government, responsible for the relationship between the national government and the provincial governments and municipalities as well as disaster management. Al ...

(DCoG). The Section 106 forensic investigation report released in 2020 revealed extensive political interference in its administration. The report revealed non-implementation of council resolutions, abuse of municipal property and assets, advertisement of tenders without following legislation and awarding of bursaries without following procedures. Senior positions were occupied by politically affiliated persons who lacked the minimum required qualifications or even a matric certificate. In addition several companies that got preferential treatment had senior politicians on their payroll. The senior politician and executive mayor, Ms Thandi Ngxonono, was implicated in the report and took special leave. In September 2024 the

Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture The minister of sport, arts and culture is a Minister (government), minister in the Cabinet of South Africa. The minister is responsible for Sport in South Africa, sport, recreation and Culture of South Africa, culture in South Africa. , the c ...

Gayton McKenzie Gayton McKenzie (born 10 March 1974) is a South African politician, businessman, and former convicted criminal, who has served as Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture in the Government of National Unity (GNU) since July 2024. After spending eig ...

, said that his office would investigate funds that went missing in 2017 that had been meant to renovate a theatre in Secunda.https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/gaytons-office-to-investigate-missing-r3-million-meant-for-dilapidated-theatres-refurbishment-20240915

References

External links

Official website
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