Metropolitan municipality (South Africa)

In South Africa, a metropolitan municipality or Category A municipality is a municipality which executes all the functions of local government for a city or conurbation. This is by contrast to areas which are primarily rural, where the local government is divided into district municipalities and local municipalities.

The Constitution, section 155.1.a, defines "Category A" municipalities.^[1] In the Municipal Structures Act it is laid out that this type of local government is to be used for conurbations, "centre[s] of economic activity", areas "for which integrated development planning is desirable", and areas with "strong interdependent social and economic linkages".^[2]

The metropolitan municipality is similar to the consolidated city-county in the US, although a South African metropolitan municipality is created by notice of the provincial government, not by agreement between district and local municipalities.

History

Metropolitan municipalities were brought about during reforms of the 1990s so that cities could be governed as single entities.^[3] For example, eThekwini (including Durban) is today a single municipality formed from what were more than 40 separate jurisdictions before 1994.^[4]

This reform process was a response to the way in which apartheid policy had broken up municipal governance. For example, Soweto had, until 1973, been administered by the Johannesburg City Council, but after 1973 was run by an Administration Board separate from the city council. This arrangement deprived Soweto of vital subsidies that it had been receiving from Johannesburg.^[5] A key demand of anti-apartheid civics in the 1980s was for 'one city, one tax base' in order to facilitate the equitable distribution of funds within what was a functionally integrated urban space.^[6]

Local government reform after apartheid produced six Transitional Metropolitan Councils following the 1995/6 local government elections. These were characterized by a two-tier structure.^[7][8] From 2000, these six Metropolitan Councils were restructured into their final single-tier form. In 2011, Buffalo City (including East London) and Mangaung (including Bloemfontein) were added to the category of metropolitan municipality.^[9]

List of metropolitan municipalities

Name	Code	Province	Seat	Area (km^2)[10]	Population (2022)[11]	Pop. density (per km^2)
Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality	BUF	Eastern Cape	East London	2,750	975,255	354
City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality	CPT	Western Cape	Cape Town	2,446	4,772,864	1,956
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality	JHB	Gauteng	Johannesburg	1,645	4,803,262	2,924
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality	TSH	Gauteng	Pretoria	6,298	4,040,315	642
City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality[12]	EKU	Gauteng	Germiston	1,975	4,066,691	2,058
eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality	ETH	KwaZulu-Natal	Durban	2,556	4,239,901	1,659
Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality	MAN	Free State	Bloemfontein	9,886	811,431	82
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality	NMA	Eastern Cape	Port Elizabeth	1,957	1,190,496	608

See also

• Urban planning in Africa

References

1. "Welcome to the official South African government online site! - South African Government". Info.gov.za. Archived from the original on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
2. "Welcome to the official South African government online site! - South African Government". Info.gov.za. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
3. Mabin, Alan (2006) Local government in South Africa's larger cities. In U. Pillay, R. Tomlinson, & J. du Toit (Eds.) Democracy and delivery: urban policy in South Africa (pp. 135-156). Cape Town: HSRC.
4. Freund, Bill (1 August 2010). "Is There Such a Thing as a Post-apartheid City?". Urban Forum. 21 (3): 283–298. doi:10.1007/s12132-010-9087-4. hdl:10419/54074. ISSN 1874-6330. S2CID 154026546.
5. Parnell, Susan and Gordon Pirie (1991) Johannesburg. In Anthony Lemon (eds) Homes apart: South Africa's segregated cities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press pp 129-145
6. Mark Swilling, Richard Humphries and Khehal Shubane (eds) Apartheid city in Transition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press
7. van Donk, Mirjam and Edgar Pieterse (2006) 'Reflections on the design of a post-apartheid system of (urban) local government' in Udesh Pillay; Richard Tomlinson; Jacques du Toit (eds.) Democracy and Delivery: Urban Policy in South Africa. Cape Town HSRC Press
8. Cameron, Robert (2006) Local government boundary reorganization. In Udesh Pillay, Richard Tomlinson, Jacques du Toit (eds.) Democracy and Delivery: Urban Policy in South Africa. Cape Town HSRC Press pp 76-106
9. Lynelle John; Landiwe Mahlangu (21 June 2011). "Metros in SA: Debate on national policy choices". Mail and Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
10. "Shapefiles Statistics". Demarcation.org.za. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
11. "South Africa: Administrative Division (Provinces and Municipalities) - Population Statistics, Charts and Map". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
12. "Amendment of Notice Establishing the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (Notice No. 3585 OF 2005)". Ekurhuleni.gov.za. Archived from the original on 16 July 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2017.

Other sources

• Government Communication & Information Services (2005) Categories of municipalities
• Parliament of the Republic of South Africa (1996) Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Chapter 7: Local Government
• Parliament of the Republic of South Africa (1998) Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, Act 117 of 1998.
• South African Local Government Association