Beaufort West Local Municipality


Beaufort West Local Municipality is a municipality located in Western Cape Province, South Africa. the population is 49,586. Its municipality code is WC053.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of, making it the largest local municipality in the Western Cape and the sixth-largest in South Africa. It is located in the furthest northeastern part of the province in the Great Karoo. It abuts on the Karoo Hoogland Municipality to the northwest, the Ubuntu Municipality to the north, the Camdeboo Municipality to the east, the Baviaans Municipality to the southeast, the Prince Albert Municipality to the south and the Laingsburg Municipality to the southwest.
According to the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 49,586 people in 13,089 households. Of this population, 73.5% describe themselves as "Coloured", 16.3% as "Black African", and 9.2% as "White". The first language of 84.3% of the population is Afrikaans, while 10.7% speak Xhosa and 2.5% speak English.
The main town in the municipality is Beaufort West, which as of 2011 has a population of 34,085. Murraysburg is situated in the far east of the municipality. Nelspoort is situated northeast of Beaufort West, while Merweville is in the far west of the municipality.

Politics

The municipal council consists of thirteen members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Seven councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in seven wards, while the remaining six 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 3 August 2016 no party obtained a majority; the Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress won six seats each, and the Karoo Democratic Force won the remaining seat. The DA and KDF formed a coalition to govern the municipality.
The following table shows the results of the 2016 election.
The local council sends five representatives to the council of the Central Karoo District Municipality. this delegation consisted of two councillors from the Democratic Alliance, two from the African National Congress, and one from the Karoo Democratic Force.

Mayors