Witzenberg Local Municipality

The municipality covers an area of 10,753 square kilometres (4,152 sq mi) which includes the Land van Waveren (Tulbagh) valley, the Warm Bokkeveld, the Koue Bokkeveld and the Ceres-Karoo. It stretches from the Groot Winterhoek Mountains in the west and the Hex River Mountains in the south as far as the Northern Cape provincial border in the north and east. It abuts on the Hantam Municipality to the north, the Karoo Hoogland Municipality to the northeast, the Laingsburg Municipality to the southeast, the Breede Valley Municipality to the south, the Drakenstein Municipality to the southwest, the Bergrivier Municipality to the west and the Cederberg Municipality to the northwest.

According to the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 115,946 people in 27,419 households. Of this population, 65.9% describe themselves as "Coloured", 25.3% as "Black African", and 7.7% as "White". The first language of 75.2% of the population is Afrikaans, while 16.6% speak Xhosa, 4.5% speak Sotho and 2.0% speak English.[4]

The principal town and location of the municipal head office is Ceres on the eastern slope of the Skurweberg mountains, which as of 2011 has a population of 33,224.[5] To the west of Ceres, on the other side of the mountains, is the Land van Waveren valley with the towns of Wolseley (pop. 12,130)[6] and Tulbagh (pop. 8,969).[7] To the north of Ceres is the town of Prince Alfred Hamlet (pop. 6,810),[8] and further north, in the Koue Bokkeveld, the village of Op-die-Berg (pop. 1,531).[9] There are a number of informal settlements: Pine Valley, Chris Hani, Mooiblom, Zibonele, Polocross, Die Gaatjie and Kleinbegin.[10] In addition in Ward 2, Dwarsrivier, is the settlement of Romansrivier. Other settlements include: Tulbagh Road, Steinthal, Drostdy, Waterval, Kluitjieskraal, Breede River Station, and Prince Alfred Hamlet Station.[11]

The municipal council consists of twenty-three members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Twelve councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in twelve wards, while the remaining eleven 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 18 May 2016 no party obtained a majority of seats. The following table shows the results of the 2016 election.[12][13][14]

The eleven councillors from the Democratic Alliance (DA) formed a coalition with the single councillor from the Congress of the People (COPE) to govern the municipality.[15] The local council sends three representatives to the council of the Cape Winelands District Municipality: two from the Democratic Alliance and one from the African National Congress.[15]

• Official website
• Witzenberg Local Municipality on the Government Communication and Information Systems website