Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality which governs Bloemfontein and surrounding towns in the Free State province of South Africa. Mangaung is a Sesotho name meaning "place of leopards". Legend has it that when the first settlers arrived on these shores, they were stunned by the vast plains that were roamed freely by leopards.[3]
Before the municipal elections of 18 May 2011 Mangaung was a local municipality under the Motheo District Municipality.[4] In the election, the ANC won 65 out of 97 seats on the Metro Council, while the Democratic Alliance won 26 seats and COPE won 3 seats.
Main places
The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:[5]
Place | Code | Area (km2) | Population | Most spoken language |
Baralong Boo Moroka | 40501 | 911.66 | 8,556 | Sotho |
Bloemfontein | 40502 | 287.46 | 111,697 | Afrikaans |
Botshabelo | 40503 | 228.79 | 175,822 | Sotho |
Mangaung | 40504 | 46.23 | 217,076 | Sotho |
Morago | 40505 | 221.37 | 3,941 | Tswana |
Opkoms | 40506 | 2.84 | 15,397 | Afrikaans |
Peter Swart | 40507 | 1.97 | 10,002 | Sotho |
Rodenbeck | 40508 | 2.05 | 7,837 | Sotho |
Sonskyn | 40509 | 0.80 | 3,630 | Sotho |
Thaba Nchu | 40510 | 216.23 | 67,269 | Tswana |
Remainder of the municipality | 40511 | 4,364.11 | 24,220 | Sotho |
Politics
The municipal council consists of ninety-seven members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Forty-nine councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in forty-nine wards, while the remaining forty-eight are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 18 May 2011 the African National Congress (ANC) won a majority of sixty-five seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the election.[6][7]
Party | Votes | Seats |
Ward | List | Total | % | Ward | List | Total |
|
African National Congress |
132,282 | 134,441 | 266,723 | 66.3 | 38 | 27 | 65 |
|
Democratic Alliance |
54,958 | 54,164 | 109,122 | 27.1 | 11 | 15 | 26 |
|
Congress of the People |
6,062 | 6,661 | 12,723 | 3.2 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
|
Freedom Front Plus |
3,247 | 2,826 | 6,073 | 1.5 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
|
African People's Convention |
786 | 1,113 | 1,899 | 0.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
|
African Christian Democratic Party |
585 | 1,123 | 1,708 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
Independent |
1,191 | – | 1,191 | 0.3 | 0 | – | 0 |
|
Dikwankwetla Party |
443 | 512 | 955 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
Pan Africanist Congress |
417 | 526 | 943 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
United Residents Front |
395 | 274 | 669 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
Black Consciousness Party |
182 | 300 | 482 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total |
200,548 | 201,940 | 402,488 | 100.0 | 49 | 48 | 97 |
Spoilt votes |
3,146 | 2,597 | 5,743 |
References
External links