Garden Route District Municipality

The Garden Route District Municipality (Afrikaans: Tuinroete-distriksmunisipaliteit; Xhosa: uMasipala weSithili sase Garden Route), formerly known as the Eden District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its municipality code is DC4.

Garden Route Eden
District municipality
Seal
Location in South Africa
Local municipalities within the Garden Route District
Coordinates: 33°45′S 22°00′E
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
Seat	George
Local municipalities	List Kannaland Hessequa Mossel Bay George Oudtshoorn Bitou Knysna
Government
• Type	Municipal council
• Mayor	Andrew Stroebel (DA)
Area
• Total	23,331 km2 (9,008 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	574,265
• Density	25/km2 (64/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	24.7%
• Coloured	54.2%
• Indian/Asian	0.4%
• White	19.2%
First languages (2011)
• Afrikaans	70.8%
• Xhosa	18.3%
• English	7.5%
• Other	3.4%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal code	DC4

Geography

The Garden Route District Municipality covers an area of 23,331 square kilometres (9,008 sq mi) in the southeastern part of the Western Cape, covering the regions known as the Garden Route and the Little Karoo. It stretches to the Breede River mouth and the Langeberg mountains on the west, where it abuts the Overberg District Municipality and (for a short distance) the Cape Winelands District Municipality. To the north the boundary with the Central Karoo District Municipality runs along the Swartberg mountains. In the east the municipality runs up to the Eastern Cape provincial boundary.

The district is divided into seven local municipalities, described in the following table.

Name	Seat	Population (2011)	Area (km2)	Density (inhabitants/km2)
Kannaland	Ladismith	24,767	4,758	5.2
Hessequa	Riversdale	52,642	5,733	9.2
Mossel Bay	Mossel Bay	89,430	2,011	44.5
George	George	193,672	5,191	37.3
Oudtshoorn	Oudtshoorn	95,933	3,537	27.1
Bitou	Plettenberg Bay	49,162	992	49.6
Knysna	Knysna	68,659	1,109	61.9
Total		574,265	23,331	24.6

Demographics

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

First language Language Population % Afrikaans 397,462 70.8% Xhosa 102,740 18.3% English 42,266 7.5% Sotho 3,412 0.6% Tswana 2,675 0.5% Zulu 1,960 0.3% Sign language 1,856 0.3% Ndebele 1,014 0.2% Tsonga 739 0.1% Northern Sotho 654 0.1% Venda 527 0.1% Swazi 296 0.1% Other 5,687 1.0% Total 561,288 Not applicable 12,975 Race Race Population % Coloured 311,178 54.2% Black African 141,830 24.7% White 110,314 19.2% Indian or Asian 2,526 0.4% Other 8,418 1.5% Total 574,265

Gender Gender Population % Female 293,346 51.1% Male 280,919 48.9% Total 574,265 Age Age group Population % 0–4 53,344 9.3% 5–9 47,897 8.3% 10–14 47,222 8.2% 15–19 47,552 8.3% 20–24 48,218 8.4% 25–29 50,138 8.7% 30–34 42,028 7.3% 35–39 41,617 7.2% 40–44 40,188 7.0% 45–49 35,231 6.1% 50–54 29,921 5.2% 55–59 24,726 4.3% 60–64 21,322 3.7% 65–69 16,455 2.9% 70–74 12,525 2.2% 75–79 7,845 1.4% 80–84 4,559 0.8% 85+ 2,162 0.4% Total 574,265

Politics

The council of the Garden Route District Municipality consists of thirty-five councillors. Fourteen councillors are directly elected by party-list proportional representation, and twenty-one are appointed by the councils of the local municipalities in the district: six by George, four by Mossel Bay, three each by Oudtshoorn and Knysna, two each by Hessequa and Bitou, and one by Kannaland.

After the election of 3 August 2016 there are twenty-one councillors from the Democratic Alliance (DA), twelve from the African National Congress (ANC), and one each from the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (ICOSA) and the African Independent Congress (AIC).

The following table shows the detailed composition of the council.

Party		Directly elected	Appointed by local councils							Total
			Kannaland	Hessequa	Mossel Bay	George	Oudtshoorn	Bitou	Knysna
	DA	8	1	1	3	3	2	1	2	21
	ANC	5		1	1	2	1	1	1	12
	Independent Civic Organisation	1								1
	AIC					1				1

The following table shows the results of the election of the fourteen directly elected councillors.

Party		Votes	Vote %	Seats
	DA	106,242	53.2%	8
	ANC	61,755	30.9%	5
	Independent Civic Organisation	10,791	5.4%	1
	VF+	3,965	2.0%	0
	EFF	3,604	1.8%	0
	AIC	3,380	1.7%	0
	Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners	2,592	1.3%	0
	ACDP	2,439	1.2%	0
	COPE	1,804	0.9%	0
	South African Religious Civic Organisation	1,018	0.5%	0
	South Africa Civics	858	0.4%	0
	Knysna Unity Congress	525	0.3%	0
	Democratic New Civic Organisation	378	0.2%	0
	Christian Democrats	314	0.2%	0
	George Independent Ratepayers Forum	163	0.1%	0
Total		199,828		14
Valid votes		199,828	98.1%
Spoilt votes		3,819	1.9%
Total votes cast		203,647
Registered voters		326,165
Turnout percentage		62.4%

External links

• Garden Route District Municipality official website