Mossel Bay Municipality ( af, Mosselbaai Munisipaliteit; xh, uMasipala wase Mossel Bayi) is a municipality located in the

Western Cape Province The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. the population was 89,430.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of on the coastal plain between the

Outeniqua Mountains The Outeniqua Mountains, named after the Outeniqua Khoikhoi who lived there, is a mountain range that runs a parallel to the southern coast of South Africa, and forms a continuous range with the Langeberg to the west and the Tsitsikamma Mountains ...

and the sea. It stretches from the

Gourits River Gourits River ( af, Gouritsrivier), sometimes spelled 'Gouritz River', is situated in the Western Cape, South Africa. The Gourits River flows from the confluence of the Gamka River and Olifants River and is joined by the Groot River, before flo ...

in the west to beyond the Great Brak River in the east. It is drained by the Gourits,

Hartenbos Hartenbos is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is located some 45 kilometres outside George, South Africa. It belongs, together with 20 other settlements, to the Mossel Bay Local Municipality. Originally a farm, the ...

, Little Brak and Great Brak Rivers. It abuts on the

Hessequa Municipality Hessequa Local Municipality ( af, Hessequa Munisipaliteit, before 24 June 2005 the Langeberg Local Municipality) is a municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is flanked by the lower Breede River to the west and the Gou ...

to the west, the

Oudtshoorn Municipality Oudtshoorn Municipality ( af, Oudtshoorn Munisipaliteit) is a municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. , the population was 95,933. Geography The municipality covers an area of in the Little Karoo, stretching from the S ...

to the north and the

George Municipality George Municipality ( af, George Munisipaliteit; xh, uMasipala wase Joji) is a municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. the population is 193,672. Its municipality code is WC044. Geography The municipality covers an ar ...

to the east. According to the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 89,430 people in 28,025 households. Of this population, 43.5% describe themselves as "

Coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

", 29.5% as "

Black African Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...

", and 25.5% as "

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

". The

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

of 67.6% of the population is

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

, while 21.5% speak

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

, 6.5% speak

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and 1.3% speak

Sotho Sotho may refer to: *Sotho people (or ''Basotho''), an African ethnic group principally resident in South Africa, Lesotho and southern Botswana * Sotho language (''Sesotho'' or ''Southern Sotho''), a Bantu language spoken in southern Africa, an off ...

. The principal town is

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay ( af, Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 99,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the ...

on the

Cape St Blaize A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a Hood (headgear), hood in t ...

peninsula, which as of 2011 has a population of 59,031. Northeast of Mossel Bay is a string of coastal resorts along the shores of the bay:

(pop. 4,196), Little Brak River (pop. 2,037),

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

(pop. 1,112), Tergniet (pop. 1,264) and Great Brak River (pop. 10,619). To the southwest of Mossel Bay are the smaller coastal villages of Boggomsbaai (pop. 69) and Vleesbaai (pop. 193). Herbertsdale (pop. 666), Brandwag (pop. 1,470) and Friemersheim (pop. 1,235) are situated in the interior of the municipality closer to the mountains.

History

At the end of the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era, the area that is today the Mossel Bay Municipality formed part of the South Cape Regional Services Council (RSC). The towns of

, Great Brak River and Herbertsdale were governed by municipal councils elected by their

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

residents. The

coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

residents of D'Almeida (Mossel Bay) and Great Brak River were governed by management committees subordinate to the white councils. Kwanonqaba was governed by a town council established under the

Black Local Authorities Act, 1982 The Black Local Authorities Act of 1982 provided for the establishment of a series of local government structures similar to those operating in the South African Apartheid "White areas". For the first time under Apartheid, African black residents ...

. The smaller coastal resorts were governed by local councils: a council for Boggomsbaai, a council covering Little Brak River,

and Tergniet, and another council named Gleniqua covering Glentana, Outeniquastrand and

Bothastrand Glentana is a village on the Indian Ocean coast to the southwest of George in the Western Cape province of South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to ...

. The former missionary settlement of Friemersheim was governed by a board of management. While the negotiations to end apartheid were taking place a process was established for local authorities to agree on voluntary mergers. In March 1992, the Municipality of Great Brak River, the Great Brak River Management Committee and the Gleniqua Local Council merged into a single Municipality for the Area of Great Brak River. After the national elections of 1994 a process of local government transformation began, in which negotiations were held between the existing local authorities, political parties, and local community organisations. As a result of these negotiations, the existing local authorities were dissolved and transitional local councils (TLCs) were created for each town and village. The smaller seaside resorts were also combined with larger towns. * Herbertsdale TLC replaced the Municipality of Herbertsdale in December 1994. * Friemersheim TLC replaced the Friemersheim Management Board in January 1995. * Mossel Bay TLC replaced the Municipalities of Mossel Bay and Hartenbos, the D'Almeida Management Committee, the Kwanonqaba Town Council, the Boggomsbaai Local Council, and the Klein Brak River, Reebok and Tergniet Local Council in February 1995. * Great Brak River TLC replaced the Municipality for the Area of Great Brak River in February 1995. The transitional councils were initially made up of members nominated by the various parties to the negotiations, until May 1996 when elections were held. At the time of these elections the South Cape District Council was established in place of the South Cape RSC, and transitional representative councils (TRCs) were elected to represent rural areas outside the TLCs on the District Council. The area that was to become Mossel Bay Municipality included the Mossel Bay TRC and a small part of the Outeniqua TRC. At the local elections of December 2000 the TLCs and TRCs were dissolved and the Mossel Bay Municipality was established as a single local authority. At the same election the South Cape District Council was dissolved and replaced by the

Eden District Municipality The Garden Route District Municipality ( af, Tuinroete-distriksmunisipaliteit or ''Garden Route Distriksmunisipaliteit''; xh, uMasipala weSithili sase Garden Route; formerly known as the Eden District Municipality) is a district municipality loca ...

Politics

The municipal council consists of twenty-nine members elected by

mixed-member proportional representation Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

. Fifteen councillors are elected by

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

in fifteen wards, while the remaining fourteen are chosen from

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

s so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. Marie Ferreira of the Democratic Alliance (DA) became executive mayor after the March 2006 local government elections when the DA formed a coalition with

Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa The Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (ICOSA) is a minor South African political party. It was founded by former Karoo District Municipality manager Truman Prince, who was expelled from the African National Congress (ANC) in 2006. ...

(ICOSA) since no single party had obtained an outright majority. The DA held 10 seats in the (then) 23-seat council followed by 8 for the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

(ANC) and 3 for ICOSA. Following the September 2007, floor-crossing window the DA gained an outright majority when 3 councillors defected to the DA resulting in the DA holding 13 seats out of 23 while the ANC lost a seat to the DA and currently has 7. ICOSA lost its representation in the council when 2 councillors defected to the DA and its one ward councillor became an independent. In the election of 18 May 2011 the DA won a majority of sixteen seats on the council. In the election of 3 August 2016 the DA increased its majority to seventeen seats. The DA further expanded that majority to nineteen seats in the election of 1 November 2021. The following table shows the results of the 2021 election.

Crime and corruption

In 2007, crime figures revealed that Mossel Bay recorded the lowest crime rates in the country. Between August 2006 and July 2007, there were no murders, hijackings, or business robberies. The low unemployment rate has been cited as a factor for the low crime rates. In 2018 two minicipal workers were arrested after swindling the municipality out of R138,000 by changing the amounts charged for grave sites. Each received a three year jail sentence.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Local municipalities of the Garden Route District Municipality