Municipal Demarcation Board

TO REPORT SUSPECTED ACTS OF CORRUPTION IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE, CALL THE TOLL FREE HOTLINE AT 0800 701 701.

VISION OF THE MDB

The board’s vision is to be “the leading demarcation and spatial knowledge hub”

MISSION OF THE MDB

To produce municipal and ward boundaries that are functional, beyond reproach and contribute towards a responsive spatial configuration, including municipal capacity assessments that lay the foundation for a developmental local government.

VALUES OF THE MDB

• Independence
• Fairness, transparency, and integrity
• Stakeholder engagement
• Knowledge sharing
• Good governance

Local Time

22:56
Today
June 27, 2017
Wednesday
June 28, 2017
Latitude

25°52'N
Longitude

28°10'W

Municipal Demarcation Board

3 months ago

MEDIA STATEMENT

27 March 2017

REDETERMINATION OF MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES 2017 - 2019

The Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) takes this opportunity to inform all its key stakeholders and the South African public at large of its decision regarding the municipal boundary re-determinations process in the period between 2017and 2019. (Process included in Annexure A).

The MDB considered all the circumstances and challenges regarding the demarcation process (including lessons learned over years of interaction with the public and legislative deficiencies) and resolved that: No major redetermination of municipal boundaries (i.e. amalgamations, annexations and categorizations) will take place within a period preceding the 2019 national elections.

Only correction of technical misalignment of municipal boundaries will be considered for re-determination, which will involve minor adjustments to align municipal boundaries to either cadastral boundaries, natural or man-made features (e.g. farm boundaries, rivers, roads) or addressing split settlements. This is mainly aimed at improving the quality of boundaries by providing clearly defined boundaries that are legally defensible. (Detailed definitions included in Annexure B)

Although they may not affect a large size of the population, these technical adjustments still have to follow the entire legal demarcation process.

The work of the municipalities and other key stakeholders such as the IEC will be impacted negatively if these boundary misalignments are not addressed due to reasons that include the following:
• Misaligned boundaries create confusion in management of municipal property rates when one farm is split into two municipalities.
• Disruptions during electoral processes when communities realize that a portion of their settlement, which they expect to be in one ward, is actually located in a different municipality.
•
• Due to growth of settlements and uncoordinated site allocations, some settlements straddle across municipal boundaries.
• A need to provide legally identifiable boundaries and enhance effective administration.

The MDB intends to widely consult affected provinces, municipalities, members of the public and other stakeholders during the technical municipal boundary adjustment process. Consultation with key stakeholders to verify and confirm the misalignments is scheduled to take place between April and June 2017, with consultations with the members of the public to be conducted thereafter.

The success of this project is dependent on efficient collaboration with all stakeholders including; municipalities, provincial departments responsible for local government, traditional leadership, political parties, the media and members of local communities. The MDB is looking forward to strengthening its relations with all stakeholders and optimal participation by the South African public through all its processes during this project.

ENDS

For further information, kindly contact:
Bulelwa Mbali-Khoele
Stakeholder Management and Communications
Tel: 012 342 2481
Direct: 012 150 4450
Cell: 073 364 7280
Email: bulelwa@demarcation.org.za

ANNEXURE A
DEMARCATION PROCESS 2017-2021

a) The 2017 – 2021 demarcation process is aimed at addressing boundary misalignments, and not major boundary redeterminations.
b) The sequence of events for demarcation process culminating in Iocal government elections processes are broadly planned as follows (as illustrated in the diagram below):
• Municipal boundary determinations and redeterminations (technical boundary alignments) conducted between 2017 and 2019.
• Ward delimitation in local and metropolitan municipalities between the 2019 and 2020, and IEC processes for the local government elections occurring in 2020 to 2021.

FIGURE 1 Process 2017-2021 (See picture attached)

ANNEXURE B

Categorization of technically misaligned outer boundaries

In 2016, the MDB has conducted preliminary technical municipal boundary assessments to determine boundary misalignment and these are divided into four broad categories:

1. Split communities: These cases may have occurred either as a result of the previous municipal boundary redeterminations conducted without the availability of adequate data to identify the extent of these communities, or as a result of the growth of these communities beyond their original boundaries. This category of boundary misalignment cases affect service delivery, as these communities are caught between more than one municipalities, which may not be aware of the boundary anomaly, thus withhold their services to the affected communities.

2. Cadastre misalignments: This category is mainly caused by the difference in accuracy of spatial base data used, thus causing minor shifts between the municipal boundaries and the cadastral boundaries. Invariably, this category does not affect large areas or populations, thus can be adjusted with minimal impact to the functioning of municipalities.

Split farms: This is similar to cadastre misalignment, as it affects the cadastral boundaries of farms, but it affects large portions of a farm split between municipalities. This affects the property valuations of municipalities and eventually their rates and taxes on those on those properties.

3. Split Traditional communities: This category is result of municipal boundaries splitting the traditional council areas, due to the lack of validated dataset for traditional council areas and at times the vastness of the traditional council areas that makes it difficult for them to fit into a single municipality. Most of the traditional council areas have not been surveyed, thus validity of this dataset remains disputed, and makes it a risk to be used as the base for municipal boundary redetermination. This process could take longer than the period of the demarcation process, therefore making it difficult to include this category of boundary misalignment cases into the forthcoming demarcation process. ... See MoreSee Less

Municipal Demarcation Board

TO REPORT SUSPECTED ACTS OF CORRUPTION IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE, CALL THE TOLL FREE HOTLINE AT 0800 701 701.

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