Time zone SAST (UTC+2) Area 21,473 km² Black african population 23.7% | Seat Worcester Municipal code DC2 White population 12.9% | |
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Local municipalities ListWitzenbergDrakensteinStellenboschBreede ValleyLangeberg Points of interest Afrikaans Language Monument, Franschhoek Motor Museum, Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, Pniel - Western Cape, Fairview Wine and Cheese Destinations Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Robertson, Worcester | ||
The Cape Winelands District Municipality, formerly the Boland District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Boland region of the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2011, it had a population of 787,490. The largest towns in the municipality are Paarl, Worcester, Stellenbosch and Wellington.
Contents
Map of Cape Winelands, South Africa
Geography
The boundaries of this municipality, which covers an area of 22,289 square kilometres (8,606 sq mi), coincide roughly with the boundaries of the geographical area that has been known since the early days of the Cape Colony as "The Boland". In Afrikaans Boland means "up land" or "the higher land" or "the land above" (i.e. in contrast to the low coastal areas of the original Dutch settlement at the Cape). However, the term "Boland", as originally used, was a loose concept, with no defined borders (cf. the informal but not meaningless terms "The Sahara" or "The Rocky Mountains"). The Boland is generally mountainous, with range after range of beautiful and isolated sandstone peaks reaching towards 2000m but also has broad, fertile valleys that are home to some of the country's finest vineyards.
The region has a Mediterranean climate. Summers are hot and dry and winters cool and damp, with snow on the peaks during August and September. The extent and diversity of the geographical features here are truly marvellous. There are so many peaks, ranges, escarpments, valleys, cliffs, rivers, pools, waterfalls, screes, canyons, springs, forests, caves and other natural features that no person could visit all of them in a lifetime.
The Cape Winelands District Municipality is divided into five local municipalities, which are described in the following table.
Adjacent municipalities
Politics
The council of the Cape Winelands District Municipality consists of forty councillors, of whom sixteen are directly elected by party-list proportional representation, and twenty-four are appointed by the councils of the constituent local municipalities: eight by Drakenstein, five each by Stellenbosch and Breede Valley, and three each by Witzenberg and Langeberg. As of August 2012 there are twenty-four councillors representing the Democratic Alliance (DA), thirteen representing the African National Congress (ANC), and one each representing the Congress of the People (COPE), the National People's Party (NPP) and the Stellenbosch Civic Association (SCA). The mayor is Neels de Bruyn of the DA, and the Deputy Mayor is HM Jansen, also of the DA.
The following table shows the detailed composition of the council.
The following table shows the results of the election of the sixteen directly-elected councillors on 18 May 2011.
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.