Jozini Local Municipality


Jozini is an administrative area in the Umkhanyakude District of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Significant portions of Jozini have been neglected in terms of economic development. There is a great disparity between the level of service and infrastructure provision between settlement nodes, such as the towns of Mkuze and Jozini, and the surrounding rural areas. Most of the rural area is associated with a lack of development, poverty and poor service provision.

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:
PlaceCodeArea Population
Ingwavuma1.721,089
Jozini0.45543
Manukuza/Jobe280.6518,277
Mathenjwa435.1326,332
Mkuze1.041,834
Mngomezulu277.8218,676
Myeni/Ngwenya138.3410,146
Myeni/Ntsinde172.9116,524
Ndumu Game Reserve110.4372
Nyawo909.8568,148
Sqakatha238.2219,818
Remainder of the municipality523.022,628

Politics

The municipal council consists of forty members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Twenty councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in twenty wards, while the remaining twenty 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 won a majority on the council. The Inkatha Freedom Party eventually formed a minority government, supported by the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters. One member of the African National Congress, which had the support of the independent councillor, is believed to have spoilt their ballot, thereby solving the 20-20 deadlock in the council.
The following table shows the results of the election.
The IFP, DA and EFF later gained an outright majority following a by-election held on 4 April 2018 in which a ward previously held by an ANC councillor was won by the IFP candidate. Council composition was reconfigured as seen below: