City of Cape Town

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The City of Cape Town (Afrikaans: Stad Kaapstad; Xhosa: Isixeko saseKapa; officially the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality; colloquially the Cape Town Unicity; formerly the Cape Metropolitan Administration) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of 2001, its population was 2,893,246.^[1]

The remote Prince Edward Islands are considered part of the City of Cape Town, specifically of ward 55.

[edit] Government

Cape Town is governed by a 210-member city council, which chooses the executive mayor, who in turn chooses an 11-member Mayoral Committee. The city is divided into 105 electoral wards; each ward directly elects one member of the council. The other 105 councillors are elected by a system of party-list proportional representation. The city manager is the non-political head of the city's administration. The current city manager is Achmat Ebrahim who was appointed in April 2006.

Helen Zille, current mayor of the City of Cape Town.

The current executive mayor is Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance.^[2] In the 2006 local government election, the Democratic Alliance (DA) was the largest single party and took 90 of the 210 seats on the council, ahead of the African National Congress (ANC) which took 81 seats, but with no party holding a majority. The Independent Democrats (ID) led by Patricia de Lille initially took 23 seats.^[3]

Helen Zille was elected executive mayor on March 15, 2006 by a 3-vote margin of 106 votes against former incumbent executive mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo who received 103 votes, including 22 votes from the ID (one rebel ID councillor voted for Zille). Helen Zille formed a DA-led coalition, also known as the Multi-Party Government with the support of six smaller parties who collectively became known as the Multi-Party Forum parties with a combined total of 105 seats out of 210 (a narrow one-seat majority) in the council. Andrew Arnolds of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) was elected executive deputy mayor and Jacob "Dirk" Smit of the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) was elected the speaker who also serves as the chairperson of the council meetings. The DA gained one seat in a June 2006 by-election held in Tafelsig (Mitchell's Plain) which was taken from the ID when the rebel ward councillor Sheval Arendse resigned to join the DA in order to protest the ID decision to vote with the ANC in the mayoral election and this doubled the coalition's majority to two seats. In January 2007 the DA-led coalition had increased its majority, by introducing the Independent Democrats (22 seats) to the coalition following the expulsion of the Africa Muslim Party (three seats) from the coalition when it supported a failed bid by controversial councillor Badih Chabaan (who demanded the deputy mayor's post) to oust Helen Zille and the DA and form a coalition with the ANC. As a result of the ID's support, the DA-led coalition increased its majority of two seats (106 seats) to 40 seats (125 seats) resulting in a much more stable coalition. As a result of the ID joining the coalition, Andrew Arnolds stepped down to allow Charlotte Williams of the ID to became executive deputy mayor on January 31, 2007. In the pivotal Hout Bay by-election in February 2007, the DA retained a safe seat and strengthened its position in Hangberg, a coloured fishing community.

During the recent floor-crossing period in September 2007, the DA increased their share of seats by four seats from 91 to 95, while the ID lost six seats and now has 16 seats rather than 22, primarily at the expense of the DA which gained two ID councillors, and the newly-formed National Peoples Party, led by controversial former councillor Badih Chabaan, which gained three ID councillors and one AMP councillor. Another new party was formed named the Social Democratic Party which took one seat from the ID as well. The ANC did not lose or gain a seat and stands at 81 seats. Following the floor-crossing period, Charlotte Williams of the ID announced her resignation as deputy mayor and there was uncertainty over who would replace her. Under the terms of the coalition agreement since March 2006 the position of deputy mayor was to be given to the ACDP. However Mayor Helen Zille had rejected four of the ACDP's nominations for the post and insisted that a DA member take the post. A row broke out between the two parties when Zille stated that the ACDP does not hold the balance of power and was stubborn over controlling the post for the DA. However after more than a month of the impasse which was accompanied by several rounds of negotiations, the Mayor Helen Zille conceded the post to the ACDP. On October 31, 2007, Grant Haskin of the ACDP was elected the third executive deputy mayor since Zille came to power. The DA lost one council seat after a by-election in Macassar in March 2008 which was unexpectedly won by the ID in an upset victory for a party which is a major partner in the coalition. Thus the by-election outcome has no impact on the DA-led coalition's position in the council other than to bolster the ID's position after it was dealt a blow in the recent floor-crossings.

Before the unification of Cape Town's local government into the so-called "Unicity", it was divided into six regional "Administrations"; many functions of the Unicity are still divided according to the old Administrations. The administrations were:

• Cape Town – the City Bowl, the Atlantic seaboard, the southern suburbs, Pinelands, Langa, and Mitchell's Plain.
• South Peninsula – Hout Bay, Wynberg, Constantia, Fish Hoek, Kommetjie, Noordhoek, and Simon's Town.
• Blaauwberg – Milnerton, Tableview, and Bloubergstrand.
• Tygerberg – Tygerberg, Durbanville, Bellvile, and Khayelitsha.
• Oostenberg – Kraaifontein, Brackenfell, Kuilsrivier, Blue Downs, and Eerste River.
• Helderberg – Somerset West, Strand, and Gordon's Bay.

After the unification, 16 subcouncils were formed which were increased to the present 23. Subcouncils are consist of geographically clustered wards with proportional councillors assigned to them and led by a subcouncil chairman who is elected by a majority vote of each subcouncil. After the March 2006 local government elections the DA took thirteen subcouncils, followed by seven for the ANC, two for the ACDP and one for the ID. After the floor crossing in September 2007, the subcouncils were reconstituted with fifteen going to the DA, four to the ID, two to the ACDP while the ANC retained only two after losing five subcouncils.

[edit] Council seat breakdown

Party of the elected councillor in each ward in the 2006 local government elections. DA in blue; ANC in green; ID in orange.

Updated after council was reconstituted as a result of the floor-crossing window of September 1-15, 2007.

[edit] Geography

The municipality has a total area of 2499 km².^[4]

[edit] Adjacent municipalities

• Swartland Local Municipality, West Coast District Municipality (north)
• Drakenstein Local Municipality, Cape Winelands District Municipality (northeast)
• Stellenbosch Local Municipality, Cape Winelands District Municipality (northeast)
• Theewaterskloof Local Municipality, Overberg District Municipality (southeast)
• Overstrand Local Municipality, Overberg District Municipality (southeast)
• Atlantic Ocean (south, west)

[edit] See also

• Cape Town
• Metropolitan municipality (South Africa)
• List of Cape Town suburbs

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• City of Cape Town official website

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