Theewaterskloof Municipality is a local municipality located within the

Overberg District Municipality The Overberg District Municipality is a district municipality that governs the Overberg region in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is divided into four local municipalities and includes the major towns of Grabouw, Caledon, Hermanu ...

, in the

Western Cape 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 ...

province of

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

. As of 2007, the population was 108,790. Its municipality code is WC031. The enormous Theewaterskloof Dam, which provides water for

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and the surrounding areas, is located in this municipality.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of in the western interior of the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the ...

region. It occupies the area between the

Riviersonderend Mountains The Riviersonderend Mountains are a mountain range in the Cape Fold Belt of the Western Cape province of South Africa. They run east to west from Riviersonderend to Villiersdorp, separating the Breede River Valley from the Overberg region. They ...

to the north and the

Kogelberg The Kogelberg is a range of mountains along the False Bay coast in the Western Cape of South Africa. They form part of the Cape Fold Belt, starting south of the Elgin valley and forming a steep coastal range as far as Kleinmond. The Kogelberg ...

and

Kleinrivier Mountains The Kleinrivier Mountains are a mountain range in the Cape Fold Belt of the Western Cape province of South Africa. Kleinrivier means "Small River" in Afrikaans and is named after the river in the area that mouths out near Hermanus where the ran ...

to the south; to the west it stretches as far as the

Hottentots-Holland The Hottentots Holland Mountains are part of the Cape Fold Belt in the Western Cape, South Africa. The mountain range forms a barrier between the Cape Town metropolitan area and the southern Overberg coast. The range is primarily composed of Ta ...

mountains. The western area of the municipality is the

Elgin Valley Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Chatham-Kent, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontari ...

, drained by the

Palmiet River Palmiet River ( af, Palmietrivier) is a river located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The Palmiet River is a typical Western Cape river, experiencing winter rainfall and it is important for the Western Cape Water Supply System. It ...

. The northern part is the valley of the

Sonderend River The Sonderend River, also known as the Riviersonderend (Afrikaans for ''River without an end''), is a main tributary of the Breede River, located in Western Cape Province, South Africa. The village of Riviersonderend is believed to have taken its ...

including the Theewaterskloof Dam. The southeastern part is in the Overberg plain, drained by the Bot and Klein Rivers. According to the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 108,790 people in 28,884 households. Of this population, 62.9% describe themselves as " Coloured", 26.4% 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 9.4% 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 o ...

". 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 73.6% 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 16.9% 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 ...

, 3.9% 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 3.6% 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 largest town in the municipality is

Grabouw Grabouw is a town located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Grabouw is located some 65 km south-east of Cape Town, over Sir Lowry's Pass from Somerset West, along the N2 highway.The town is the commercial centre for the vast Elg ...

in the Elgin Valley, which as of 2011 has a population of 30,337. However, the municipal headquarters are situated in Caledon (pop. 13,020) on the plain. Between Grabouw and Caledon is

Botrivier Botrivier is a small town of approximately 10 000 people, situated in the Overberg region of the Western Cape in South Africa. Village in the former Caledon district, 93 km southeast of Cape Town. It takes its name from the Bot River on the ...

(pop. 5,505) at the base of the Houwhoek Pass.

Villiersdorp Villiersdorp is a town of approximately 10,000 people located in the Western Cape province of South Africa in the Overberg region. Unlike most of the geographical region which specialises in wheat and canola farming, the Villiersdorp Valley is no ...

(pop. 10,004) is located in the northern part of the municipality close to the Theewaterskloof Dam. Downstream from the dam along the Sonderend River are the villages of Genadendal (pop. 5,663),

Greyton Greyton is a small town in the Overberg area in the Western Cape, South Africa. Early history Before Greyton was established in 1854, the verdant plains and forested ravines of the area were home to the Hessequas Khoikhoi tribe who had their k ...

(pop. 2,780) and

Riviersonderend Riviersonderend is a village in the Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, about east of Cape Town. It is located on a loop of the Sonderend River, from which it takes its name. In the census of 2011 it was recorded as having a popul ...

(pop. 5,245). The smallest town in the district is Tesselaarsdal, which is approximately 20km south-east of Caledon.

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, in the area that was to become Theewaterskloof, there were municipal councils for the towns of

, Caledon,

, and

, and a local council for the village of

. These councils were elected by the

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 o ...

residents. The coloured residents of Pineview (Grabouw), Bergsig (Caledon), Myddleton, Heuwelkruin (Greyton), and Riviersonderend were governed by management committees subordinate to the white councils. The former mission station of Genadendal was governed by a management board, and the remaining rural areas fell under the Overberg Regional Services Council. While the negotiations to end apartheid were taking place a process was established for local authorities to negotiate voluntary mergers. Such mergers took place in two towns in the Theewaterskloof region: in August 1993 the Municipality of Riviersonderend merged with the Riviersonderend Management Committee to form the Municipality for the Area of Riviersonderend, and in January 1994 the Municipality of Caledon merged with the Bergsig Management Committee to form the Municipality for the Area of Caledon. After the national elections of 1994 the process of negotiation became mandatory, and included political parties and local community organisations as well as the existing local authorities. Transitional local councils (TLCs) were established in each town or village as a result of this process. * In October 1994: ** the Municipality of Grabouw and the Pineview Management Committee were replaced by the Grabouw TLC. ** the Villiersdorp Municipality and the Villiersdorp Management Committee were replaced by the Villiersdorp TLC. * In November 1994 the Botrivier Local Council was replaced by the Botrivier TLC. * In December 1994 the Municipality for the Area of Riviersonderend was replaced by the Riviersonderend TLC. * In January 1995: ** the Municipality for the Area of Caledon was replaced by the Caledon TLC. ** the Municipality of Greyton and the Heuwelkruin Management Committee were replaced by the Greyton TLC. ** the Genadendal Management Board was replaced by the Genadendal TLC. * In February 1995 the Myddleton Management Committee was replaced by the Myddleton TLC. These transitional councils were initially made up of members nominated during the negotiations, some of whom had been councillors of the previous local authorities, while others represented political parties and community organisations. In May 1996 elections were held to replace the nominated councils with elected councils. At these elections the

District Council was established, replacing the Overberg Regional Services Council. Transitional representative councils (TRCs) were also elected to represent rural areas outside the TLCs on the District Council; the area that was to become Theewaterskloof included parts of the Nuweberg, Caledon and Swellendam TRCs. At the local elections of December 2000 the TLCs and TRCs were dissolved, and the Theewaterskloof Local Municipality was created as a single local authority incorporating both rural and urban areas.

Politics

The municipal council consists of twenty-seven members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Fourteen 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 thei ...

in fourteen wards, while the remaining thirteen 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 1 November 2021 the Democratic Alliance (DA) won a plurality of eleven seats on the council. The

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

(ANC) then formed a minority coalition government with the Patriotic Alliance which is supported by

Good In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

. The following table shows the results of the 2021 election.

References

External links

*
Theewaterskloof Local Municipality on the Western Cape Government website
{{Municipalities of the Western Cape Local municipalities of the Overberg District Municipality