Kouga Municipality is a local municipality in the Eastern Cape of South Africa,approximately 80 km west of Gqebera. It forms part of the Sarah Baartman District Municipality. Its territory includes the coastal zone between the Van Stadens River in the east and the Tsitsikamma River in the west,and stretches inland towards the Baviaanskloof Mountains in the north.
Cathlene Labuschagne is a South African politician serving as a permanent delegate to the National Council of the Provinces from the Western Cape since 2014. Labuschagne is a party member of the Democratic Alliance.
Roland Athol Price Trollip is a South African politician and provincial chairman of ActionSA in the Eastern Cape. He was previously a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA),serving as the Federal Chairperson of the DA from 2015 to 2019 and the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality,serving from 2016 until he was unseated in a vote of no confidence in 2018.
Daniel Plato,known as Dan Plato,is a South African politician and a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament since January 2022,previously serving from June 2011 until October 2018. He is the former mayor of Cape Town,a position he held for two nonconsecutive terms from May 2009 until June 2011 and again from November 2018 until October 2021. From June 2011 to October 2018,he was the Western Cape Provincial Minister of Community Safety.
Christian "Chris" Hattingh is a South African politician. A member of the Democratic Alliance (DA),South Africa's official opposition,he has served at various times in the local,provincial and national tiers of his country's government. He was the longest-serving member of the North West Provincial Legislature before moving to the National Council of Provinces,the upper house of the national parliament in Cape Town,serving between 2015 and 2019. He is currently a DA councillor in JB Marks Local Municipality.
Bennet Mzwenqaba Bhanga,known as Nqaba Bhanga,is a South African politician. He is the former Leader of the Official Opposition in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature,the former Provincial Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Eastern Cape,a former Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay,a former Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Human Settlements in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality,a former member of Parliament,and the DA's former Shadow Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
Tertuis Alfred Simmers is a South African politician who has been serving as the Western Cape Provincial Minister of Infrastructure since April 2022. He previously served as the Western Cape Provincial Minister of Human Settlements from May 2019 to April 2022. He has been a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament since 2017. Simmers is a member of the Democratic Alliance.
The 2021 South African municipal elections were held on 1 November 2021,to elect councils for all district,metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. It is the sixth municipal election held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994,held every five years. The previous municipal elections were held in 2016. On 21 April 2021,President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the elections will be held on Wednesday,27 October 2021. It had been recommend by Dikgang Moseneke to delay the municipal elections until 2022. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) requested the Constitutional Court to support the date postponement. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supported the date postponement while the Democratic Alliance (DA) was against the postponement of the date. The Constitutional Court dismissed the application to postpone the date until 2022,ruling that they had to take place between 27 October and 1 November. On 9 September 2021,the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs,Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that the elections would be held on 1 November.
Wendy Felecia Philander is a South African politician serving as a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament since August 2018. She is the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Health. She was previously a Member of the Mayoral Committee of the Drakenstein Local Municipality. Philander is a member of the Democratic Alliance.
Nomakhosazana Meth is a South African politician who has been the Eastern Cape MEC for Health since March 2021 and a Member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since May 2019. She was the MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform from May 2019 to March 2021. Meth is a member of the African National Congress. She was previously both the speaker and mayor of the OR Tambo District Municipality and the speaker of the Mbizana Local Municipality.
Virginia Alice Camealio-Benjamin is a South African politician who has been a Member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since May 2019. She was a councillor of the Kouga Local Municipality before her election to provincial legislature. Camealio-Benjamin is a member of the African National Congress.
Retief Odendaal is a South African politician who served as the Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay from 21 September 2022 until his removal in a motion of no confidence on 26 May 2023. Before serving as mayor,he was a Member of the Provincial Legislature in the Eastern Cape for the Democratic Alliance and was the Shadow Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Finance,Rural Development and Agrarian Reform from May 2019 until August 2022.
Cilliers Brink is a South African politician who is the Mayor of Tshwane,in office since 28 March 2023. A member of the Democratic Alliance,he was the party's Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2020 until 2023 and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2019 to 2023. He was the party's Shadow Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs between 2019 and 2020.
Andrew Grant Whitfield is a South African politician who has been the Shadow Minister of Police since 2019 and a Member of the National Assembly for the Democratic Alliance since 2019 and previously from 2014 to 2016. Having served as the provincial chairman of the DA in the Eastern Cape from 2017 to 2023,he is currently the provincial leader of the party and the leader of the party's Tsitsi-Kouga Constituency. Whitfield had previously served on the Nelson Mandela Bay city council and in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature.
Samantha Jane Graham is a South African politician from the Eastern Cape who was elected to the National Assembly of South Africa in the 2019 general election as a member of the Democratic Alliance. Graham has been the party's Shadow Minister of Electricity since 2023. Graham served as the shadow deputy minister of public works and infrastructure from 2019 to 2020 and as the shadow minister for the portfolio between 2020 and 2023. She is a former councillor of the Dr Beyers NaudéLocal Municipality.
Eleanore Rochelle Jacquelene Spies is a South African politician,currently a Member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance,and the current Shadow Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Nonkqubela Ntomboxolo Pieters is a South African politician and educator who has been the Eastern Cape's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform since 2021 and a member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature since 2019,representing the African National Congress (ANC). She previously served as the MEC for Human Settlements from 2019 to 2021. Pieters served as the speaker of the Cacadu District Municipality from 2006 to 2018.
Tania Lynette Campbell is a South African Democratic Alliance politician who served as the Mayor of Ekurhuleni twice,from November 2021 until her removal in a motion of no confidence in October 2022 and again from November 2022 until her removal in a second motion of no confidence in March 2023.
Elizabeth Christina "Elza" van Lingen was a South African politician. A member of the Democratic Alliance,she was elected a councillor of the Cacadu District Municipality in 2002. She was elected to the National Council of Provinces in 2009. Van Lingen became leader of the DA caucus in the NCOP in 2011,and was re-elected to the NCOP in 2014. From 2016 until her death,she served as the mayor of the Kouga Local Municipality.
