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Cape Winelands District Municipality

Coordinates: 33°20′S 19°40′E / 33.333°S 19.667°E / -33.333; 19.667
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cape Winelands
Kaapse Wynland
Brede River District
Official seal of Cape Winelands
The Cape Winelands District Municipality is located in the Western Cape province, encompassing the area to the north-east of Cape Town.
Location in South Africa
Going clockwise from the southwest corner, the Cape Winelands District municipality is made up of the Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Breede Valley, and Langeberg Local Municipalities. Along its eastern border is a District Management Area.
Local municipalities within the Cape Winelands
Coordinates: 33°20′S 19°40′E / 33.333°S 19.667°E / -33.333; 19.667
CountrySouth Africa
ProvinceWestern Cape
SeatWorcester
Local municipalities
Government
 • TypeMunicipal council
 • MayorHelena von Schlicht (DA)
Area
 • Total21,473 km2 (8,291 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[1]
 • Total787,490
 • Density37/km2 (95/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
 • Black African23.7%
 • Coloured62.1%
 • Indian/Asian0.4%
 • White12.9%
First languages (2011)
 • Afrikaans74.8%
 • Xhosa16.6%
 • English4.3%
 • Sotho1.9%
 • Other2.4%
Time zoneUTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal codeDC2

The Cape Winelands District Municipality (Afrikaans: Kaapse Wynland-distriksmunisipaliteit; Xhosa: uMasipala weSithili sase Cape Winelands), 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.[1] The largest towns in the municipality are Paarl, Worcester, Stellenbosch and Wellington.

Geography

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Stellenbosch office of the Cape Winelands District Municipality

The boundaries of this municipality, which covers an area of 22,289 square kilometres (8,606 sq mi),[2] coincide roughly with the boundaries of the geographical area that has been known since the early days of the Cape Colony as "The Boland". In Afrikaans Boland means "up land" or "the higher land" or "the land above" (i.e. in contrast to the low coastal areas of the original Dutch settlement at the Cape). However, the term "Boland", as originally used, was a loose concept, with no defined borders (cf. the informal but not meaningless terms "The Sahara" or "The Rocky Mountains"). The Boland is generally mountainous, with range after range of beautiful and isolated sandstone peaks reaching towards 2000m but also has broad, fertile valleys that are home to some of the country's finest vineyards.

The region has a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers are hot and cool, damp winters, with snow on the peaks during August and September. The diverse geography includes peaks, ranges, escarpments, valleys, cliffs, rivers, pools, waterfalls, screes, canyons, springs, forests, caves and other natural features.

The Cape Winelands District Municipality is divided into five local municipalities, which are described in the following table.

Name Seat Population
(2011)
Area
(km2)
Density
(inhabitants/km2)
Witzenberg[3] Ceres 115,946 10,753 10.8
Drakenstein[4] Paarl 251,262 1,538 163.4
Stellenbosch[5] Stellenbosch 155,733 831 187.4
Breede Valley[6] Worcester 166,825 3,833 43.5
Langeberg[7] Ashton 97,724 4,518 21.6
Total 787,490 21,473 36.7

Adjacent municipalities

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History

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At the end of the apartheid era the area that is today the Cape Winelands District Municipality formed part of two Regional Services Councils (RSCs). The western part—today's Drakenstein and Stellenbosch local municipalities—was joined with the Cape Town metropolitan area in the Western Cape RSC. The eastern part—today's Witzenberg, Breede Valley and Langeberg local municipalities—formed the Breërivier RSC. The towns within the area were governed by various local authorities divided along racial lines.

After the national elections of 1994 a process of local government transformation began, in which negotiations were held between the existing local authorities, political parties, and local community organisations. In late 1994 and early 1995 the racially-divided local authorities were replaced by transitional local councils (TLCs) for each town and village. In February 1995 the Western Cape RSC was divided into the Cape Metropolitan Council for the Cape Town metropolitan area and the Winelands RSC for the Drakenstein–Stellenbosch area.

When elections were held in May 1996, the Winelands and Breërivier RSCs were reconstituted as District Councils (DCs). Transitional representative councils (TRCs) were also elected to represent the rural areas—Paarl and Stellenbosch TRCs in the Winelands RSC, and Witzenberg, Matroosberg and Wynland TRCs in the Breërivier RSC.

The local government transformation process was completed with the local elections of December 2000, when the Winelands and Breërivier DCs were replaced by the Boland District Municipality. The TLCs and TRCs were replaced by five local municipalities as well as a large District Management Area (DMA) in the sparsely-populated eastern part of the district. In 2004 the name "Boland" was changed to "Cape Winelands". In 2011 DMAs were abolished and the local municipalities extended to cover the whole district.

Politics

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The council of the Cape Winelands District Municipality consists of forty-one councillors, of whom seventeen are directly elected by party-list proportional representation. The other twenty-four councillors are appointed by the councils of the constituent local municipalities: eight by Drakenstein, five each by Stellenbosch and Breede Valley, and three each by Witzenberg and Langeberg.

After then elections of 3 August 2016 the Democratic Alliance (DA) obtained a majority of 27 seats on the council. The executive mayor is Dr Helena von Schlicht of the DA, and the deputy mayor is Dirk Swart, also of the DA.[8]

The following table shows the composition of the council after the 2016 election.[9]

Party Directly
elected
Appointed by local councils Total
Witzenberg Drakenstein Stellenbosch Breede Valley Langeberg
DA 11 2 5 4 3 2 27
African National Congress 5 1 2 1 1 1 11
Economic Freedom Fighters 1 1 2
Breedevallei Onafhanklik 1 1

The following table shows the results of the election of the seventeen directly-elected councillors.[10][11]

Party Votes Vote % Seats
DA 143,305 61.5 11
African National Congress 61,932 26.6 5
Economic Freedom Fighters 6,633 2.8 1
Breedevallei Onafhanklik 3,654 1.6 0
African Christian Democratic Party 2,657 1.1 0
People's Democratic Movement 2,525 1.1 0
Congress of the People 2,350 1.0 0
Independent Civic Organisation 2,098 0.9 0
VF+ 1,989 0.9 0
Witzenberg Aksie 1,295 0.6 0
Democratic New Civic Association 909 0.4 0
Langeberg Independent Party 874 0.4 0
Alliance for Democratic Freedom 799 0.3 0
PA 655 0.3 0
Federation of Democrats 599 0.3 0
Nationalist Coloured Party 316 0.1 0
United Franschhoek Valley 281 0.1 0
Total 232,871 17
Valid votes 232,871 98.5
Spoilt votes 3,600 1.5
Total votes cast 236,471
Registered voters 388,899
Turnout percentage 60.8

Demographics

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The following statistics are from the 2011 Census.[12] Note that due to fuzzing applied to statistics, columns may not sum to exactly the indicated total.

First language

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Language Population %
Afrikaans 568,100 74.8%
Xhosa 126,087 16.6%
English 32,815 4.3%
Sotho 14,309 1.9%
Sign language 3,154 0.4%
Tswana 2,979 0.4%
Zulu 1,331 0.2%
Ndebele 969 0.1%
Northern Sotho 678 0.1%
Tsonga 494 0.1%
Venda 449 0.1%
Swazi 295 0.0%
Other 8,087 1.1%
Total 759,747
Not applicable 27,744

Race

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Race Population %
Coloured 489,189 62.1%
Black African 186,472 23.7%
White 101,491 12.9%
Indian or Asian 3,153 0.4%
Other 7,184 0.9%
Total 787,490

Gender

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Gender Population %
Female 399,278 50.7%
Male 388,212 49.3%
Total 787,490

Age

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Age group Population %
0–4 74,012 9.4%
5–9 64,252 8.2%
10–14 65,212 8.3%
15–19 72,747 9.2%
20–24 84,092 10.7%
25–29 74,212 9.4%
30–34 58,571 7.4%
35–39 56,719 7.2%
40–44 55,901 7.1%
45–49 48,551 6.2%
50–54 39,824 5.1%
55–59 30,404 3.9%
60–64 22,580 2.9%
65–69 15,097 1.9%
70–74 10,862 1.4%
75–79 7,000 0.9%
80–84 4,161 0.5%
85+ 1,958 0.2%
Total 787,490

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  2. ^ "Cape Winelands District Municipality". Municipal Demarcation Board. Retrieved 20 June 2010.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Witzenberg Local Municipality". The Local Government Handbook. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  4. ^ "Drakenstein Local Municipality". The Local Government Handbook. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  5. ^ "Stellenbosch Local Municipality". The Local Government Handbook. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  6. ^ "Breede Valley Local Municipality". The Local Government Handbook. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Langeberg Local Municipality". The Local Government Handbook. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  8. ^ "Mayoral Committee". Cape Winelands District Municipality. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  9. ^ "Political composition of councils February 2017" (PDF). Western Cape Department of Local Government. February 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  10. ^ "Detailed DC 40% Ballot Results Report: DC2 - Cape Winelands" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Seat Calculation Detail: DC2 - Cape Winelands" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  12. ^ Census 2011 statistical tables accessible through Stats SA SuperWEB Archived 2013-09-30 at the Wayback Machine.
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