South Africa is divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, known as Bantustans, were reintegrated into the country, and the four provinces were increased to nine. The borders of Natal and the Orange Free State were retained, while the Cape Province and Transvaal were divided into three provinces each, plus North West Province which straddles the border of and contains territory from both these two former provinces. The twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments to the Constitution of South Africa changed the borders of seven of the provinces.
Elections in South Africa are held for the National Assembly, National Council of Provinces, provincial legislatures and municipal councils. Elections follow every 2 to 3 years with General Elections and Municipal Elections. The electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation, which means that parties are represented in proportion to their electoral support. For municipal councils there is a mixed-member system in which wards elect individual councillors alongside those named from party lists.
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 largest towns in the municipality are Paarl, Worcester, Stellenbosch and Wellington.
Local government in South Africa consists of municipalities of various types. The largest metropolitan areas are governed by metropolitan municipalities, while the rest of the country is divided into counties called district municipalities, each of which consists of several boroughs called local municipalities. Since the boundary reform at the time of the municipal election of 3 August 2016 there are eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities and 205 local municipalities.
In South Africa, a metropolitan municipality or Category A municipality is a municipality which executes all the functions of local government for a city or conurbation. This is by contrast to areas which are primarily rural, where the local government is divided into district municipalities and local municipalities.
The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of the East Rand region of Gauteng, a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. Ekurhuleni means "place of peace" in XiTsonga. Ekurhuleni is one of the five districts of Gauteng and one of the eight metropolitan municipalities of South Africa. The seat of Ekurhuleni is Germiston and the most spoken language is Zulu at 28.6%. The city is home to South Africa's busiest airport, OR Tambo International Airport, which is in the Kempton Park area of Ekurhuleni.
The City of Cape Town is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of 4,772,846.
The nine provinces of South Africa are divided into 52 districts, which are either metropolitan or district municipalities. They are the second level of administrative division, below the provinces and above the local municipalities.
The Mopani District Municipality is one of the 5 districts of the Limpopo province of South Africa. The seat of the district is Giyani. According to the 2016 Community Survey, it had a population of 1,159,185. The district code is DC33. After the 12th amendment to the Constitution of South Africa, parts of the Bohlabela District Municipality were incorporated into Mopani.
In South Africa, wards are geopolitical subdivisions of municipalities used for electoral purposes. Each metropolitan and local municipality is delimited by the Municipal Demarcation Board into half as many wards as there are seats on the municipal council. Each ward then elects one councillor directly, and the remaining councillors are elected from party lists so that the overall party representation is proportional to the proportion of votes received by each party.
Bushbuckridge Municipality is a local municipality within the Ehlanzeni District Municipality, in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Commercial farming, which consists of pine and bluegum plantations, tobacco, cotton, sub-tropical fruits and vegetables, is practised in the municipality's countryside. The municipality includes the southern part of Kruger National Park. Bushbuckridge is the largest local municipality in Mpumalanga in terms of land size.
The 2016 South African municipal elections were held on 3 August 2016, to elect councils for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. It was the fifth municipal election held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994; municipal elections are held every five years.
The council of the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape, South Africa is elected every five years by a system of mixed-member proportional representation. Half of the councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting from individual wards, while the other half are appointed from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. By-elections are held to replace the councillors elected by wards if a vacancy occurs.
Thabo Manyoni is a South African politician who was the Mayor of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality from 2011 to 2016. He represented his party, the African National Congress (ANC), in the Free State Executive Council from 2009 to 2011 and in the National Assembly from 2016 to 2017. He was Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the ANC's Free State branch from 2008 to 2017. He was also Chairperson of the South African Local Government Association from 2011 to 2016 and in 2019 he was appointed to a five-year term as Chairperson of South Africa's Municipal Demarcation Board.
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