Overberg District Municipality

This article is about the District Municipality. For the region, see Overberg.

Overberg
District municipality
Seal
Location in South Africa
Local municipalities within the Overberg
Coordinates: 34°30′S 20°0′E
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
Seat	Bredasdorp
Local municipalities	List Theewaterskloof Overstrand Cape Agulhas Swellendam
Government
• Type	Municipal council
• Mayor	Andries Franken (DA)
• Deputy Mayor	Helen Coetzee (DA)
Area
• Total	12,241 km2 (4,726 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	258,176
• Density	21/km2 (55/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	25.6%
• Coloured	54.2%
• Indian/Asian	0.3%
• White	18.9%
First languages (2011)
• Afrikaans	70.3%
• Xhosa	17.9%
• English	6.8%
• Sotho	2.1%
• Other	2.9%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal code	DC3

The Overberg District Municipality (Afrikaans: Overberg-distriksmunisipaliteit; Xhosa: uMasipala weSithili sase Overberg) 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, Hermanus, Bredasdorp and Swellendam. The municipal area covers 12,241 square kilometres (4,726 sq mi) and had in 2007 an estimated population of 212,787 people in 60,056 households.

Geography

The Overberg municipal area covers 12,241 square kilometres (4,726 sq mi) lying to the south-east of Cape Town. It stretches from the Hottentots-Holland mountains in the west to the Breede River mouth in the east, and as far as the Riviersonderend Mountains in the north. It includes Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point in Africa, and has coastline on both the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

The largest town is Grabouw (pop. 44,593) in the Elgin Valley adjacent to the Hottentots-Holland on the north-western edge of the district. The municipal headquarters are located at Bredasdorp (pop. 12,749) in the southern part of the district. Other major towns are Swellendam (pop. 13,557) on the Breede River in the north-east, Caledon (pop. 10,650) in the western interior, and Hermanus (pop. 10,500) on the Atlantic coast.

The Overberg district is divided into four local municipalities, which are described in the following table.

Name	Seat	Population (2011)	Area (km2)	Density (inhabitants/km2)
Theewaterskloof	Caledon	108,790	3,232	33.7
Overstrand	Hermanus	80,432	1,708	47.1
Cape Agulhas	Bredasdorp	33,038	3,467	9.5
Swellendam	Swellendam	35,916	3,835	9.4
Total		258,176	12,241	21.1

It borders on the City of Cape Town to the west, the Cape Winelands District Municipality to the north, and the Garden Route District Municipality to the east.

Demographics

The following statistics are from the 2011 Census. Note that due to fuzzing applied to statistics, columns may not sum to exactly the indicated total.

First language Language Population % Afrikaans 176,037 70.3% Xhosa 44,857 17.9% English 17,123 6.8% Sotho 5,377 2.1% Tswana 1,002 0.4% Sign language 675 0.3% Zulu 629 0.3% Ndebele 462 0.2% Northern Sotho 229 0.1% Tsonga 211 0.1% Venda 129 0.1% Swazi 88 0.0% Other 3,574 1.4% Total 250,393 Not applicable 7,781 Race Race Population % Coloured 139,825 54.2% Black African 66,151 25.6% White 48,692 18.9% Indian or Asian 816 0.3% Other 2,692 1.0% Total 258,176

Gender Gender Population % Male 129,370 50.1% Female 128,806 49.9% Total 258,176 Age Age group Population % 0–4 22,804 8.8% 5–9 19,696 7.6% 10–14 19,634 7.6% 15–19 19,863 7.7% 20–24 22,349 8.7% 25–29 25,325 9.8% 30–34 20,040 7.8% 35–39 19,052 7.4% 40–44 18,159 7.0% 45–49 15,756 6.1% 50–54 13,314 5.2% 55–59 10,674 4.1% 60–64 9,983 3.9% 65–69 7,935 3.1% 70–74 6,012 2.3% 75–79 3,758 1.5% 80–84 2,181 0.8% 85+ 989 0.4% Total 258,176

Politics

The council of the Overberg District Municipality consists of twenty-one councillors. Nine councillors are directly elected by party-list proportional representation, and twelve are appointed by the councils of the local municipalities in the district: five by Theewaterskloof, four by Overstrand, two by Cape Agulhas and one by Swellendam.

After the elections of 3 August 2016, fourteen of the councillors are Democratic Alliance (DA) representatives and seven are African National Congress (ANC) representatives. The mayor is Andries Franken and the deputy mayor is Archibald Klaas; both are members of the DA. The following table shows the composition of the council after the 2016 election.

Party		Directly elected	Appointed by local councils				Total
			Theewaterskloof	Overstrand	Cape Agulhas	Swellendam
	DA	6	3	3	1	1	14
	African National Congress	3	2	1	1	0	7

The following table shows the results of the election of the nine directly-elected members on 3 August 2016.

Party		Votes	Vote %	Seats
	DA	53,502	57.9%	6
	African National Congress	32,707	35.4%	3
	Economic Freedom Fighters	1,852	2.0%	0
	Dienslewerings Party	1,417	1.5%	0
	VF+	1,311	1.4%	0
	Independent Civic Organisation	740	0.8%	0
	United Democratic Movement	706	0.8%	0
	People's Democratic Movement	155	0.2%	0
Total		92,390		9
Valid votes		92,390	97.9%
Spoilt votes		1,934	2.1%
Total votes cast		94,324
Registered voters		148,602
Turnout percentage		63.5%

External links

• Official website
• Overberg District Municipality on the Western Cape Government website
• Electronic Gateway to the Cape Overberg
• Overberg Website