There are 257 municipalities in South Africa, comprising eight metropolitan, 44 districts and 205 local municipalities. They are focused on growing local economies and providing infrastructure and service.
As directed by the Constitution, the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 (Act 117 of 1998) contains criteria for determining when an area must have a category-A municipality (metropolitan municipalities) and when municipalities fall into categories B (local municipalities) or C (district municipalities).
The Act also determines that category-A municipalities can only be established in metropolitan areas.
Metropolitan councils have single metropolitan budgets, common property ratings and service-tariff systems, and single-employer bodies.
South Africa has eight metropolitan municipalities, namely:
- Buffalo City (East London)
- City of Cape Town
- Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (East Rand)
- City of eThekwini (Durban)
- City of Johannesburg(link is external)
- Mangaung Municipality(link is external) (Bloemfontein)
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality (Gqeberha)
- City of Tshwane (Pretoria).
Metropolitan councils may decentralise powers and functions. However, all original municipal, legislative and executive powers are vested in the metropolitan council.
In metropolitan areas, there is a choice of types of executive system: the mayoral executive system where executive authority is vested in the mayor, or the collective executive committee system where these powers are vested in the executive committee.
Non-metropolitan areas consist of district councils and local councils. District councils are primarily responsible for capacity-building and district-wide planning. The Local Government: Municipal Structures Act of 1998 provides for ward committees whose tasks, among other things, are to:
- prepare, implement and review integrated development plans
- establish, implement and review municipalities’ performance-management systems
- monitor and review municipalities’ performances
- prepare municipalities’ budgets
- participate in decisions about the provision of municipal services
- communicate and disseminate information on governance matters.