Metsimaholo Local Municipality


Metsimaholo Local Municipality is an administrative area in the Fezile Dabi District of the Free State in South Africa. "Metsimaholo" means "big water" in Sesotho.

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:
PlaceCodeArea PopulationMost spoken language
Bertha Village0.58666Sotho
Coalbrook0.6930Xhosa
Deneysville6.501,124Afrikaans
Holly Country0.93614Afrikaans
Metsimaholo0.793,193Sotho
Oranjeville7.73297Afrikaans
Refengkgotso5.6513,792Sotho
Richmond Valley0.37209Afrikaans
Sasolburg49.8224,568Afrikaans
Taaibos1.501,301Afrikaans
Vaal Power0.65798Sotho
Viljoensdrift2.49589Sotho
Zamdela10.2157,070Sotho
Remainder of the municipality1,651.3711,723Sotho

Politics

The municipal council consists of forty-two members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Twenty-one councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in twenty-one wards, while the remaining twenty-one 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 Democratic Alliance formed a coalition with the Metsimaholo Community Association and the Freedom Front Plus, supported by the Economic Freedom Fighters, to govern the municipality. The MCA's Sello Hlasa was elected mayor, while Arnoldi du Ploy and Linda Radebe of the DA were elected Speaker and Council Whip respectively. The following table shows the results of the election.
The municipal council failed to adopt a budget for the 2017/18 financial year because of disagreements between the coalition members. As a result the council was dissolved in July 2017 and an administrator appointed by the provincial government. A new council was elected on 29 November 2017. Once again, no party won a majority on the council. The African National Congress regained control by forming a coalition with the South African Communist Party, the African Independent Congress, Metsimaholo Community Association and the Forum 4 Service Delivery to govern the municipality. Lindiwe Tshongwe of the SACP was elected mayor. The following table shows the results of the election.