District municipality (South Africa)

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South Africa
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In South Africa, a district municipality or Category C municipality is a municipality which executes some the functions of local government for a district. The district municipality will in turn comprise several local municipalities, with which it shares the functions of local government.

The Constitution, section 155.1.a[1], defines "Category C" municipalities. The Municipal Structures Act[2] states that areas not eligible to have a metropolitan municipality must have a district municipality.

District municipalities have a municipality code that consists of the letters "DC" followed by a number from 1 to 48. The "DC" reflects the fact that they were originally named "District Councils".

[edit] District Management Areas

Some areas of the country are not eligible to have a local municipality, usually due to having too low a population density to make it viable. In particular, many national parks and nature reserves (for example, the Kruger National Park) are not part of any local municipality. In these areas, all local government services are provided directly by the district municipality; they are known as District Management Areas.