The Garden Route District Municipality (; ), formerly known as the Eden District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. 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 mountains on the west, where it abuts the Overberg District Municipality and (for a short distance) the Cape Winelands District Municipality. To the north the boundary with the Central Karoo District Municipality runs along the Swartberg mountains. In the east the municipality runs up to the Eastern Cape provincial boundary.
The district is divided into seven local municipalities, described in the following table.
Name Seat Population(2022) Area(km2) Density(inhabitants/km2) Kannaland Ladismith 31,986 4,765.4 6.7 Hessequa Riversdale 71,918 5,732.6 12.5 Mossel Bay Mossel Bay 140,075 2,001 70.0 George George 294,929 5,191 56.8 Oudtshoorn Oudtshoorn 138,257 3,540.4 39.1 Bitou Plettenberg Bay 65,240 991.9 65.8 Knysna Knysna 96,055 1,108.8 86.6 Total 838,45723,331.1 35.9
Demographics The following statistics are from the 2011 CensusCensus 2011 statistical tables accessible through Stats SA SuperWEB . and the 2022 Census.
First language (2011) Language Population % Afrikaans 397,462 70.8% Xhosa 102,740 18.3% English 42,266 7.5% Sotho 3,412 0.6% Tswana 2,675 0.5% Zulu 1,960 0.3% Sign language 1,856 0.3% Ndebele 1,014 0.2% Tsonga 739 0.1% Northern Sotho 654 0.1% Venda 527 0.1% Swazi 296 0.1% Other 5,687 1.0% Total 561,288 Not applicable 12,975
Race (2022) Race Population % Coloured 416,542 49.7% Black African 232,882 27.8% White 164,589 19.6% Indian/Asian 2,816 0.3% Other 21,628 2.6% Total 838,457Gender (2022) Gender Population % Female 431,377 51.4% Male 407,080 48.6% Total 838,457
Age (2022) Age group Population % 0–4 64,010 7.6% 5–14 121,769 14.5% 15–34 266,976 31.8% 35–59 261,901 31.2% 60+ 123,775 14.8% Total 838,457
Politics
The council of the Garden Route District Municipality consists of thirty-five councillors. Fourteen councillors are directly elected by party-list proportional representation, and twenty-one are appointed by the councils of the local municipalities in the district: six by George, four by Mossel Bay, three each by Oudtshoorn and Knysna, 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 (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.
Party DirectlyelectedAppointed by local councils Total Kannaland Hessequa Mossel Bay George Oudtshoorn Bitou Knysna 8 1 1 3 3 2 1 2 21 5 1 1 2 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 1
The following table shows the results of the election of the fourteen directly elected councillors. Party Votes Vote % Seats 106,24253.2%8 61,75530.9%5 10,7915.4%1 3,9652.0%0 3,6041.8%0 3,3801.7%0 2,5921.3%0 2,4391.2%0 1,8040.9%0 1,0180.5%0 8580.4%0 5250.3%0 3780.2%0 3140.2%0 1630.1%0 Total 199,828 14 Valid votes 199,828 98.1% Spoilt votes 3,819 1.9% Total votes cast 203,647 Registered voters 326,165 Turnout percentage 62.4%
References
External links Garden Route District Municipality official website