Bitou Local Municipality

Coordinates: 33°55′S 23°25′E / 33.917°S 23.417°E / -33.917; 23.417
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bitou
Plett
Local municipality
UTC+2 (SAST
)
Municipal codeWC047

Bitou Municipality (

Afrikaans: Bitou Munisipaliteit; Xhosa: uMasipala wase Bitou), formerly known as Plettenberg Bay Municipality, is a local municipality within the Garden Route District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa
. Its municipality code is WC047.

Geography

The municipality covers an area of 992 square kilometres (383 sq mi) between the

Kou-Kamma Municipality
to the east.

According to the

White". The first language of 43.4% of the population is Afrikaans, while 38.0% speak Xhosa and 13.3% speak English.[4]

A majority of residents of the municipality live in the town of

Kurland (pop. 4,033) and Wittedrif
(pop. 1,822).

History

At the end of the

Kurland was also governed by a management committee, while the Griqua settlement at Kranshoek was governed by a board of management. The villages of Wittedrif, Keurboomstrand and Nature's Valley
were governed by local councils.

After the

national elections of 1994
a process of local government transformation began, in which negotiations were held between the existing local authorities, political parties, and local community organisations. As a result of these negotiations, the existing local authorities were dissolved and the Greater Plettenberg Bay Transitional Local Council (TLC) was established to replace all of them in December 1994.

The TLC was initially made up of members nominated by the various parties to the negotiations, until May 1996 when elections were held. At the time of these elections the South Cape District Council was established in place of the South Cape RSC, and transitional representative councils (TRCs) were elected to represent rural areas outside the TLCs on the District Council. The area that was to become Bitou Municipality included a part of the Outeniqua TRC.

At the

Eden District Municipality
. In 2003 the Plettenberg Bay Municipality was renamed the Bitou Municipality.

Politics

Main article: Bitou Local Municipality elections
This article is part of a series on the
Politics of the Western Cape
Constitution
List of acts of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament
Executive
Premier

The Hon Alan Winde MMP

Provincial Cabinet
Provincial Parliament
Western Cape Parliament

The Sixth Provincial Parliament

Speaker

Masizole Mnqasela MMP
Deputy Speaker
Beverley Schäfer MMP

Chief Whip of the Majority Party
Mireille Wenger MMP
Leader of the Opposition
Cameron Dugmore MMP
Chief Whip of the Official Opposition
Pat Lekker MMP

Judiciary
Western Cape Division
Administrative divisions
List of municipalities in the Western Cape
Elections
Provincial:

Municipal:

Related topics
Other provinces

The municipal council consists of thirteen members elected by

election of 18 May 2011 no party obtained a majority; the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC) won six seats each, with the remaining seat going to the Congress of the People (COPE). The DA and COPE formed a coalition to govern the municipality.[6]

The DA won a ward from the ANC in a by-election held in 2014, and governed Bitou alone with an outright majority of seats on the council.[7]

A hung council was elected following the 2016 municipal elections, with the DA and ANC each winning six seats, and the final seat going to the

null and void and declared that a new mayor should be elected on 8 June. However, on 8 June, this did not happen. ANC speaker Euan Wildeman suspended Lobese, which made ineligible to cast a vote for mayor, leading to a split vote between the DA's Nel and the ANC's Gcabayi. The DA then approached the High Court, requesting that Lobese's suspension be declared unlawful. the High Court sided with the DA and declared Lobese's unlawful, which made it null and void. The High Court also ordered the speaker to convene a council meeting for 9 July.[11] The meeting was then delayed as the ANC councillors appealed the High Court's decision.[12] On 10 September, the High Court overturned its initial decision to declare the suspension of Lobese's council membership unlawful.[13]

In the November 2021 local government elections, a hung council was once again elected. The DA won five out of the thirteen seats, the ANC won four, the Ikhwezi Political Movement (IPM), the Patriotic Alliance (PA), the PDC and the Active United Front (AUF) all won one seat. The DA then formed a coalition with the PDC and AUF to govern the municipality with the DA mayoral candidate, Dave Swart, voted in as mayor.[14]

The following table shows the results of the 2021 election.[15]

Bitou local election, 1 November 2021
Party Votes Seats
Ward List Total % Ward List Total
Democratic Alliance 7,914 7,921 15,835 40.4% 3 2 5
African National Congress 5,685 5,726 11,411 29.1% 3 1 4
Active United Front 1,806 1,738 3,544 9.0% 0 1 1
Plett Democratic Congress 1,335 1,219 2,554 6.5% 1 0 1
Patriotic Alliance
 1,125 1,118 2,243 5.7% 0 1 1
Ikhwezi Political Movement 610 645 1,255 3.2% 0 1 1
12 other parties 1,202 1,189 2,391 6.1% 0 0 0
Total 19,677 19,556 39,233 7 6 13
Valid votes 19,677 19,556 39,233 98.9%
Spoilt votes 207 219 426 1.1%
Total votes cast 19,884 19,775 39,659
Voter turnout 19,902
Registered voters 30,863
Turnout percentage 64.5%

References

  1. ^ "Contact list: Executive Mayors". Government Communication & Information System. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Bitou Local Municipality". Census 2011.
  5. ^ Sum of the Main Places Bossiesgerf, New Horizons, Kwanokuthula and Plettenberg Bay from Census 2011.
  6. ^ "Political composition of councils" (PDF). Western Cape Department of Local Government. August 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  7. ^ "'Important' win for DA in Plett by-election". Independent Online. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  8. ^ "ANC booted in Bitou municipality, DA takes over". The Citizen. 2017-05-13. Archived from the original on 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  9. ^ "Plett's new mayor to prioritise cost-cuts, service delivery". Knysna-Plett Herald. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  10. ^ "Bitou has new mayor". Knysna-Plett Herald. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  11. ^ "Bitou ordered to select mayor". Knysna-Plett Herald. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  12. ^ "Fresh twist in battle leaves Bitou muni still rudderless". Knysna-Plett Herald. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  13. ^ "Court orders Lobese's suspension". Knysna-Plett Herald. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  14. ^ "New Bitou mayor and speaker elected". Knysna-Plett Herald. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  15. ^ "Election Result Table for LGE2021 — Bitou". wikitable.frith.dev. Retrieved 2021-11-08.

External links

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