Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality

In 2001, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality was formed as an administrative area covering Port Elizabeth, the neighbouring towns of Uitenhage and Despatch and the surrounding agricultural areas.

Geographical distribution of home languages in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro

  Afrikaans

  English

  Xhosa

  No language dominant

As of the census of 2001,[2] there are 1,005,776 people and 260,798 households in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality. The official estimate of population in 2007 was 1,050,930.

In the 2007 census, 60.4% of respondents described themselves as Black African, 22.6% Coloured, 16.1% White and 0.9% Indian/Asian.

The largest religious groupings are Christian (89.4% of residents), no religion (6.1%), Muslim (1.5%), Jewish (0.4%) and Hindu (0.3%).

57.3% of the residents speak Xhosa as their mother tongue. Afrikaans is the mother tongue of 29.7%, and English, 12.1%.

• 16.0% of all households are single-person.
• The average household size is 3.86.
• The median age is 26 years.
• For every 100 females there are 91.2 males.
• 28.2% of the population aged 15–65 is unemployed.
• The median annual income of working adults aged 15–65 is ZAR 21 837 ($3,282).

According to the 2009 edition of the municipality's 2006–2011 Integrated Development Plan, manufacturing is the single largest contributor to the local economy (33%), followed by community services (27%). Tourism represents a key sector of the economy that has increasingly contributed to job creation in recent years, thanks in large part to the municipality's seaside location and its abundance of unspoiled beaches, of which four carry Blue Flag status.[3]

100% of households have access to a source of water within a 200 m radius. 91% of households have access to a basic level of sanitation. 100% of households within the urban boundary have access to a basic level of solid waste removal, and 97% of households in formally demarcated municipal residential areas have access to a basic level of electricity. The municipality has 41 permanent and satellite clinics, 13 mobile clinics, eight hospitals, 22 libraries, 31 community and municipal halls, 79 sports facilities, 19 beaches, 18 pools, 273 schools, one university (the Nelson Mandela University), four technical colleges and two Further Education and Training institutions.[3]

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:[4]

See also: List of mayors of Nelson Mandela Bay (in French)

The municipal council consists of one hundred and twenty members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Sixty councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in sixty wards, while the remaining sixty are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received.

The council was dominated by the African National Congress (ANC) since its inception in 2000 until 2016. In the most recent election on 3 August 2016, the ANC lost its majority and the Democratic Alliance (DA) became the biggest party with 57 seats. This was however 4 seats short of a majority. On 17 August 2016, the DA announced a coalition government with the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), the Congress of the People (COPE), and the United Democratic Movement (UDM).[5] The UDM later withdrew, and were replaced by the Patriotic Alliance (PA).

In August 2018, DA councillor Victor Manyati abstained from supporting his party's speaker, Jonathan Lawack. Lawack was removed from his position by 60 votes to 59. The DA and its supporters then left the council, and in their absence, the UDM's candidate Mongameli Bobani was elected mayor, with 61 votes in favour and zero against.[6] Bobani appointed a mayoral committee consisting almost entirely of ANC members. Bobani was ousted as mayor on 4 December 2019 and Thsonono Buyeye of the AIC was his interim successor.[7] Buyeye served in the position until the election of the DA's Nqaba Bhanga in December 2020.[8]

The following table shows the results of the 2016 election.[9][10]

• Algoa Bay
• Port Elizabeth
• Coega
• Uitenhage

• Official website of the municipality
• Official tourism website of the municipality