Talk:List of cities in South Africa

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There are some interesting ommissions and inclusions on this list - I don't think the concept of a 'city' is used consistently here. Anyone know the official SA definition?

I don't think cities are defined exist in the South African system of government. We have provinces, and under these are municipalities, 6 of which belong to the class "metropolitan municipalities", roughly corresponding to most people's concept of a city. I don't think towns are recognised as discrete entities, either. If you look at the census 2001 information, for example, it's all arranged according to province, district and municipality. It's a difficult question, and one that will need more research. -198.54.202.242 16:35, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

I think this page, started before categories appeared in wikipedia, should be scrapped in favour of a Category. Wizzy…☎ 13:06, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

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None of the South Africa-related pages appear to link to this one. This page is also strange - all of the cities are listed with a name which isn't recognized by the article on it (e.g., Port Elizabeth is supposedly called 'Nelson Mandela Metropole', but Port Elizabeth doesn't mention this!). So, if some South African had some free time it would be nice if he or she could:

1. Verify the information on this page
2. Explain the official definition of city (why other cities aren't listed here, and why different cities are merged here)
3. Go to the articles on the cities listed here, and mention their supposedly new names. Perhaps even add redirects for these names.
4. Perhaps after listing the 9 "official" (?) cities, one should also list other towns which have a Wikipedia entry. See for example, Pietersburg and Messina.

Nyh 13:10, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Cities and Municipalities making the distinction

The matter of Cities in South Africa is generally done badly and the slant taken is normally a politically motivated thing. Subsequently I think it makes more sense to distinguish between "Cities in South Africa" and the Municipalities. Subsequently names such as Nelson Mandela Metropolitan should not appear in a list of cities but rather in a list of Municipalities. I am currently constructing an article on [South African Municipalities]. It is probably a good idea to include the name of the municipality serving each city in any list. This page does not give any accurate understanding of what is infact happening, which is as follows:

• In 2000, the Municipal Demarcation Board which determined the boundaries of the new municipalities announced that the South African municipalities were reduced to 284 municipalities which have in turn been divided into 6 metropolitan municipalities, 47 district municipalities and 231 local municipalities (http://sagns.dac.gov.za/)
• These replace over 1300 municipal structures
• Places still retain there old name unless changed, this is especially true with regard to post
• The position that the former entities remain towns and cities is suggested by several government documents etc ... including this comment:

There are, however several municipalities whose names are not new but are the names of seats or towns where administrative duties for these municipalities are executed. (http://sagns.dac.gov.za)

My suggestion would therefore be to compose a list looking something like this: Cape Town (Cape Town Unicity Metropolitan Council) Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Metropole) East London (Buffalo City) Durban (Ethekwini) Pietermaritzburg (Msunduzi) Bloemfontein (Mangaung) Johannesburg (Joburg Metropolitan Council) Pretoria (Tshwane)

With all of the cities listed. Several Municipalities will be double listed (for example Buffalo City would be listed for both Bisho and East London)

Furthermore "There are officially nine cities in South Africa (members of the South African cities network). These are:" is bluntly misleading and should be changed. The South African cities network is a non-governmental organisation and has no authority on the matter. Unfortunately at this time nobody does but that is a seperate issue.

This would create a situation where a person would look up Port Elizabeth and find in the article a line stating that it forms part of and is served by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Council. In an article on the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan a list of towns/cities etc in the Municipality will be listed and Port Elizabeth will be given as the seat.

Im not going to change this page until there is some form of consensus on the matter.

[edit] Purpose of this article

In light of the development of Municipality articles, Im struggling to see a point to this article as it appears to be nothing more than a page dedicated to the Cities Network. List of settlements in South Africa make sense but this article does not achieve that Paul Hjul 14:22, 6 July 2006 (UTC)