The Garden Route District Municipality (; ), formerly known as the Eden District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Its municipality code is DC4.

Geography

The Garden Route District Municipality covers an area of 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 The Langeberg Range is a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its highest peak is Keeromsberg at 2,072 m that lies 15 km northeast of the town of Worcester. Some of the highest peaks of the range are located just ...

mountains on the west, where it abuts the Overberg District Municipality and (for a short distance) the

Cape Winelands District Municipality The Cape Winelands District Municipality (; ), formerly the Boland District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Boland region of the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2011, it had a population of 787,490. The large ...

. To the north the boundary with the Central Karoo District Municipality runs along the

Swartberg The Swartberg mountains (''black mountain'' in English language, English) are a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is composed of two main mountain chains running roughly east–west along the northern edge of the sem ...

mountains. In the east the municipality runs up to the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

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

Demographics

The following statistics are from the 2011 CensusCensus 2011 statistical tables accessible throug
Stats SA SuperWEB
. and the 2022 Census.

Politics

The council of the Garden Route District Municipality consists of thirty-five councillors. Fourteen councillors are directly elected by

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

, and twenty-one are appointed by the councils of the local municipalities in the district: six by George, four by

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay () is a harbour town of about 170,000 people on the 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 country's seat of parliament, Ca ...

, three each by Oudtshoorn and

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

, 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 The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

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

References

External links

Garden Route District Municipality official website
{{Municipalities of the Western Cape District municipalities of the Western Cape Garden Route District Municipality