Polokwane Municipality () is a
local municipality within the
Capricorn District Municipality, in the
Limpopo
Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...
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 shares its name with the city of
.
Polokwane Municipality accounts for 3% of the total surface area of Limpopo; however, over 10% of the population of Limpopo resides within its boundaries. The municipality serves as the economic hub of Limpopo and has the highest population density in the Capricorn District Municipality. In terms of its physical composition, Polokwane Municipality is 23% urbanised and 71% rural.
The largest sector of the community resides in rural tribal villages, followed by urban settlements.
Controversies
In October 2024 FF PLUS has opened a case against ghost workers overtime, that costed Polokwane Municipality 200 million Rands.
Cities and settlements
The municipal spatial pattern reflects that of the historic apartheid city model, characterised by segregated settlement. At the centre of the area is the Polokwane economic hub, which comprises the
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
, industrial area, and a range of social services and well-established formal urban areas servicing the more affluent residents of Polokwane.
Situated on the outskirts in several clusters are less formal settlement areas, which are experiencing enormous influx from rural urban migration trends. These areas are in dire need of upgraded services and infrastructure, both social and engineering, and are struggling to cope with the informal influx of more and more people who want access to an improved quality and standard of living.
Main places
The
2001 census divided the municipality into the following
main places:
Politics
The municipal council consists of ninety 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 ...
. Forty-five 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 forty-five
wards, while the remaining forty-five 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 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) won a majority of fifty-six seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the election:
Demographics
As of 2007, the Polokwane Local Municipality was home to approximately 561,772 people. Growth figures from 1996 to 2001 showed that the municipal population increased by about 3.27% per year on average. Much of this growth is ascribed to an influx of people from other, more rural, municipal areas into Polokwane, where the perception of more employment and greater economic wealth exists.
79% of its households are using electricity for lighting, 62% for cooking, and 58% for heating.
In 2007, 94.1% of the population was Black African, 4.8% White, 1.1% Coloured, Indian or Asian.
Racial groups
Education
The Turfloop campus of the
University of Limpopo
The University of Limpopo () is a public university in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2005, by merger of the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA). These previous institution ...
is located in
Mankweng and the
Tshwane University of Technology has a satellite campus in
.
Although the municipality's overall level of education has improved slightly in recent years, only 24% of the population have attained a Grade 12 education, and only 5.7% have achieved a tertiary education qualification. As a result of low education levels and a largely unskilled population, large numbers of residents earn very little or no income, and poverty is a major problem in the municipal area.
References
External links
Polokwane Municipality: Official Website
{{Authority control
Local municipalities of the Capricorn District Municipality