Merafong City Local Municipality

Merafong City Local Municipality is a local municipality in West Rand District Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa. Its boundaries encloses some of the richest gold mines in the world. It is situated about 65 km from Johannesburg and is serviced by a number of major roads, including the N12 from Johannesburg to Beaufort West and the N14 (the main road between Gauteng and Vryburg via Ventersdorp).

Merafong City
Local municipality
Seal
Location of Merafong City Local Municipality within Gauteng
Coordinates: 26°25′S 27°25′E
CountrySouth Africa
ProvinceGauteng
DistrictWest Rand
SeatCarletonville
Wards28
Government
 • TypeMunicipal council
 • MayorS.M Mogale-Letsie (ANC)
Area
 • Total1,631 km2 (630 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[2]
 • Total197,520
 • Density120/km2 (310/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
 • Black African86.5%
 • Coloured1.1%
 • Indian/Asian0.3%
 • White11.8%
First languages (2011)
 • Xhosa24.9%
 • Tswana21.4%
 • Sotho19.3%
 • Afrikaans12.8%
 • Other21.6%
Time zoneUTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal codeGT484

Formerly a cross-border municipality, the entire municipality was transferred to the North West province[4] following the abolition of cross-border municipalities by an amendment to the South African Constitution in 2005. The municipality was a part of the North West Province from 2005 to 2009, when it was reincorporated into the Gauteng Province by another amendment to the Constitution, following often violent protests in the township of Khutsong.[5]

Merafong's historical development is closely knit with the discovery of rich gold deposits in the early 1930s.

Fochville is the oldest town in the region and was declared a town in 1951.[6]

The town Carletonville was named after Guy Carleton Jones, an engineer from the Gold Fields Ltd mining company, who played a prominent role in the discovery of the West Wits gold field, of which Carletonville forms a part. The mining company decided in November 1946 to establish the town. Carletonville was proclaimed in 1948 and attained Town Council Status on 1 July 1959.[6]

Wedela is situated in between Western Deep Levels and Elandsrand mine. The town's name is derived from the prefixes of the two mines: the "Wed-" from Western Deep Levels and the "-ela" from Elandsrand. Wedela was established as a mining village in December 1978 by Harry Oppenheimer, and municipal status was granted to the town on 1 January 1990.[6]

Attached to Fochville and Carletonville are the towns of Khutsong, Kokosi, Greenspark, Welverdiend, and Blybank.

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:[7]

PlaceCodeArea (km2)PopulationMost spoken language
Blybank788016.90471Zulu
Blyvooruitzicht788026.316,461Xhosa
Carletonville7880312.6718,364Afrikaans
Deelkraal788049.413,356Afrikaans
Doornfontein788051.512,575Xhosa
East Driefontein Mine788062.0311,481Xhosa
Elandsfontein688010.435,256Sotho
Elandsrand688020.191,786Sotho
Elandsridge788072.782,881Afrikaans
Fochville688039.5311,344Afrikaans
Khutsong788088.6069,858Tswana
Kokosi688044.9023,062Tswana
Leeupoort688050.301,176Sotho
Letsatsing788090.761,511Xhosa
Oberholzer788113.095,368Afrikaans
Phomolong788120.25947Xhosa
Wedela688072.1814,159Xhosa
Welverdiend788134.062,226Afrikaans
Westdriefontein7881438.294,792Sotho
Western Deep Levels Mine7881544.7211,274Sotho
Remainder of the municipality78810 + 688061,471.5312,144

Politics

The municipal council consists of fifty-five members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Twenty-eight councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in twenty-eight wards, while the remaining twenty-seven 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 African National Congress (ANC) won a majority of seats on the council.

The following table shows the results of the election.[8][9]

PartyVotesSeats
WardListTotal%WardListTotal
African National Congress 28,90928,02256,93154.023730
Democratic Alliance 11,48811,42522,91321.75712
Economic Freedom Fighters 8,5648,50917,07316.2099
African Independent Congress 6001,6532,2532.1011
Freedom Front Plus 1,0531,0722,1252.0011
Inkatha Freedom Party 7267111,4371.4011
United Democratic Movement 7246901,4141.3011
Others 7536101,3631.3000
Total 52,81752,692105,509100.0282755
Spoilt votes 8129841,796
gollark: <@278889690596376576> Can you update CC Tweaked? SquidDev updated it to allow binary websocket sending.
gollark: <@152960219390017538> PHP is bad.
gollark: Somehow!
gollark: Well, combined with the rest of the code, it does!
gollark: ```javapackage com.seriouscompany.business.java.fizzbuzz.packagenamingpackage.impl.strategies;import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;import com.seriouscompany.business.java.fizzbuzz.packagenamingpackage.impl.loop.LoopContext;import com.seriouscompany.business.java.fizzbuzz.packagenamingpackage.impl.loop.LoopRunner;import com.seriouscompany.business.java.fizzbuzz.packagenamingpackage.interfaces.loop.LoopPayloadExecution;import com.seriouscompany.business.java.fizzbuzz.packagenamingpackage.interfaces.strategies.FizzBuzzSolutionStrategy;@Servicepublic class EnterpriseGradeFizzBuzzSolutionStrategy implements FizzBuzzSolutionStrategy { private final LoopPayloadExecution _loopPayloadExecution; @Autowired public EnterpriseGradeFizzBuzzSolutionStrategy(final LoopPayloadExecution _loopPayloadExecution) { super(); this._loopPayloadExecution = _loopPayloadExecution; } @Override public void runSolution(final int nFizzBuzzUpperLimit) { final LoopContext loopContext = new LoopContext(nFizzBuzzUpperLimit); final LoopRunner loopRunner = new LoopRunner(loopContext, loopContext, this._loopPayloadExecution); loopRunner.runLoop(); }}```

References
  1. "Contact list: Executive Mayors". Government Communication & Information System. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  2. "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  3. "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  4. Integrated Development Plan. Archived 2011-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Merafong City Local Municipality. Retrieved on Oct 6, 2009.
  5. "NCOP Passes Merafong Bills." Archived 2010-11-28 at the Wayback Machine Press release. Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. Retrieved on Oct 15, 2009.
  6. About Merafong. Merafong City Local Municipality. Retrieved on Oct 6, 2009.
  7. Lookup Tables - Statistics South Africa
  8. "Results Summary – All Ballots: Merafong City" (PDF). Independent Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  9. "Seat Calculation Detail: Merafong City" (PDF). Independent Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.