Drakenstein Local Municipality


Drakenstein Municipality is a local municipality located within the Cape Winelands District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. it had a population of 251,262. Its municipality code is WC023.

Geography

The municipality covers a total area of in the valley of the Berg River to the west of the Boland mountain ranges. It stretches about from Saron in the north to beyond Paarl in the south. It abuts on the Witzenberg Municipality and Breede Valley Municipality to the east, the Stellenbosch Municipality to the south, the City of Cape Town and the Swartland Municipality to the west, and the Bergrivier Municipality to the north.
According to the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 251,262 people in 59,774 households. Of this population, 62.5% describe themselves as "Coloured", 22.7% as "Black African", and 13.5% as "White". The first language of 75.0% of the population is Afrikaans, while 16.7% speak Xhosa and 5.1% speak English.
The principal town and location of the municipal headquarters is Paarl, situated in the south of the municipality, which as of 2011 has a population of 112,045 people. Paarl is the southernmost part of a continuous built-up area along the Berg River which also includes Mbekweni and Wellington. In the northern part of the municipality are the smaller towns of Gouda and Saron.

Politics

The municipal council consists of sixty-five members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Thirty-three councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in thirty-three wards, while the remaining thirty-two 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 the Democratic Alliance obtained a majority of forty-three seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the 2016 election.
The local council sends eight representatives to the council of the Cape Winelands District Municipality: five from the Democratic Alliance, two from the African National Congress, and one from the Economic Freedom Fighters.