Emfuleni Local Municipality

The Emfuleni Local Municipality is one of three local municipalities comprising the Sedibeng District[4] in Gauteng, South Africa. It is the westernmost local municipality in the District, and covers an area of 987 km².

Emfuleni Tivas
Local municipality
Seal
Location of Emfuleni Local Municipality within Gauteng
Coordinates: 26°40′S 27°45′E
Country	South Africa
Province	Gauteng
District	Sedibeng
Seat	Vanderbijlpark
Wards	45
Government [1]
• Type	Municipal council
• Mayor	Jacob Khawe
Area
• Total	966 km^2 (373 sq mi)
Population  (2011)[2]
• Total	721,663
• Density	750/km^2 (1,900/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011) [2]
• Black African	85.4%
• Coloured	1.2%
• Indian/Asian	1.0%
• White	12.0%
First languages (2011) [3]
• Sotho	52.5%
• Zulu	13.1%
• Afrikaans	12.5%
• Xhosa	7.8%
• Other	14.1%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal code	GT421

Emfuleni shares boundaries with Metsimaholo Local Municipality in the Free State to the south, Midvaal Local Municipality to the east, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality to the north and Westonaria and Tlokwe (Potchefstroom) Municipalities to the west.

The Emfuleni Local Municipality is rich in history: it encapsulates the Anglo-Boer War, the Sharpeville Massacre[5] of 1960, and the 1996 signing of the Constitution of South Africa in Sharpeville.

Emfuleni is a largely urbanised municipality, with a high population density compared to other municipalities making up the Sedibeng District. In fact, the municipality houses around 80% of the district's total population.

The municipality is strategically located with access to a well-maintained road network – e.g. the N1 national route. The Vaal River forms the southern boundary of the municipality; its strategic location affords it many opportunities for tourism and other forms of economic development.

Emfuleni has two main town centres: Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark. Sasolburg is 10 kilometers to the south, across the provincial boundary. The municipality forms the heartland of what was formerly known as the Vaal Triangle, renowned for its contribution to the iron and steel industry in South Africa. It also contains six large townships (Evaton, Sebokeng[6], Sharpeville, Boipatong, Bophelong and Tshepiso), which currently lack the facilities generally associated with towns of their size.

There are a number of small settlements, mostly within approximately six kilometers of the above towns: Bonanne, Steelpark, Duncanville, Unitas Park, Sonland Park, Waldrift, Rust-ter-Vaal, Roshnee and Debonair Park. The area also comprises a number of large residential areas, all of which require considerable investment in infrastructure and environmental upgrading.

Main places

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

Place	Code	Area (km^2)	Population	Most spoken language
Boipatong	70401	1.62	16,867	Sotho
Bophelong	70402	5.97	37,782	Sotho
Evaton	70404	35.20	143,157	Sotho
Orange Farm	70405	3.79	16,720	Zulu
Sebokeng	70406	32.80	222,045	Sotho
Sharpeville	70407	5.04	41,032	Sotho
Tshepiso	70408	5.26	22,952	Sotho
Vanderbijlpark	70409	207.69	80,205	Afrikaans
Vereeniging	70410	191.33	73,283	Afrikaans
Remainder of the municipality	70403	498.77	4,378	Sotho

Politics

The municipal council consists of ninety members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Forty-five councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in forty-five wards, while the remaining forty-five 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]

Party		Votes				Seats
		Ward	List	Total	%	Ward	List	Total
	African National Congress	108,435	109,030	217,465	55.6	37	13	50
	Democratic Alliance	48,162	48,199	96,361	24.7	8	14	22
	Economic Freedom Fighters	23,865	23,814	47,679	12.2	0	11	11
	African Independent Congress	3,902	5,995	9,897	2.5	0	3	3
	Freedom Front Plus	4,354	4,186	8,540	2.2	0	2	2
	Pan Africanist Congress	1,857	1,517	3,374	0.9	0	1	1
	Congress of the People	2,015	808	2,823	0.7	0	1	1
	Others	2,692	2,090	4,782	1.2	0	0	0
Total		195,282	195,639	390,921	100.0	45	45	90
Spoilt votes		2,543	2,696	5,239

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. "Sedibeng District Municipality", Wikipedia, 2019-11-27, retrieved 2019-12-25
5. "Sharpeville massacre", Wikipedia, 2019-12-19, retrieved 2019-12-25
6. "Sebokeng", Wikipedia, 2019-12-25, retrieved 2019-12-25
7. Lookup Tables - Statistics South Africa
8. "Results Summary – All Ballots: Emfuleni" (PDF). Independent Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
9. "Seat Calculation Detail: Emfuleni" (PDF). Independent Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 August 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Annual Report July 2007 - June 2008. Emfuleni Local Municipality.