THE home towns of former presidents Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma will not become metropolitan municipalities following a determination by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB).
The King Sabata Dalindyebo local and King Cetshwayo district municipalities’ hopes of becoming the country's newest cities were dashed by the MDB.
Mandela’s home town, Mthatha, where he is buried in his village Qunu, and Mqanduli make up the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
The King Cetshwayo District Municipality includes the City of uMhlathuze, Nkandla, Mthonjaneni, uMlalazi and Mfolozi local municipalities, and also wanted to be recategorised as a category A (metropolitan) municipality.
Zuma’s sprawling homestead, KwaDakwadunuse, is in KwaNxamalala village in Nkandla ward 14.
According to the MDB, the board decided not to proceed with the matter to redetermine municipal boundaries in terms of the Municipal Demarcation Act, which requires the entity to publish its determination or redetermination of a municipal boundary in the relevant provincial gazette.
The act also allows any person aggrieved by a determination of a municipal boundary to, within 30 days of publication of that determination, submit objections in writing and the MDB must consider them and either confirm, vary or withdraw its determination.
The King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality was informed that the proposed area does not meet criteria for categorisation of a category A municipality as provided for in the Municipal Structures Act (MSA).
The MSA states that for an area to be reasonably regarded as a category A municipality, it must be a conurbation with high population density, intense movement of people, goods and services, extensive development as well as multiple business districts and industrial areas.
It must also be a centre of economic activity, with a complex and diverse economy, a single area for which integrated development planning is desirable and have strong interdependent social and economic linkages between its constituent units.
The proposed redetermination of municipal boundaries to establish the Eastern Cape’s third metro would have affected the King Sabata Dalindyebo, King Mhlontlo, Nyandeni and Mbhashe local municipalities in the OR Tambo and Amathole district municipalities.
A number of selected wards in the other local municipalities would have been amalgamated with the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality to establish a new metro.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the five local municipalities under the King Cetshwayo district were also given the similar reasons as King Sabata Dalindyebo, that they do not meet the criteria for categorisation of a category A municipality in accordance with the MSA.
City of uMhlathuze mayor Xolani Ngwezi told the “Sunday Independent” that the proposal to have the King Cetshwayo district categorised as a metro was not put forward by the current administration but the one led by the ANC between 2016 and 2021, which was ousted by the IFP at the last local government elections.
He said the councils of both the City of uMhlathuze and the King Cetshwayo district, which is also under IFP control, decided not to proceed with the re-categorisation.
However, Ngwezi did not rule out bringing the proposal back in the future.
”We do want the municipality to become a metro, but there are requirements in terms of the MSA,” he explained.
Ngwezi said establishing a metro should not kill other municipalities and that the country’s economy was not growing.
”It’s no use bringing in other municipalities who will not bring revenue and put pressure on the existing services,” he added.
The MDB indicated that since the proposals were not proceeding in terms of the Municipal Demarcation Act they are deemed closed and no further input is required.
Nyaniso Nelani, Mbhekiseni Biyela and Thami Ntuli, mayors of the King Sabata Dalindyebo and Nkandla local and King Cetshwayo district municipalities, respectively, did not respond to questions this week.