George Local Municipality
Encyclopedia
George Municipality is a municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. As of 2001, the population is 135,409. Its municipality code is WC044.

Government

The executive mayor of the municipality is Bazil Petrus of the DA who won the post with the support of a multi-party coalition which consists of the DA, ACDP, VF+ and the ID. In the local government elections of March 2006, the DA took 17 seats, ANC 15 seats, ACDP 2 seats, ID 2 seats and one for the VF+. The George Local Municipality is one of the most stable in the Western Cape and was governed by the DA since the December 2000 local poll. The DA has withstood three floor crossing windows which had resulted in government changes in many other Western Cape municipalities (in fact the DA obtained an outright majority in the September 2002 floor-crossing, which went against the prevailing trend that saw the party lose control of most other Western Cape municipalities). Bazil Petrus was preceded by Marius Swart who became mayor in 2000 and resigned in 2004.

Prior to this the George Local Municipality was governed by the ANC since the November 2005 local government elections.

It is divided into nineteen wards, with a total of thirty-seven councillors.

Adjacent municipalities

  • Baviaans Local Municipality
    Baviaans Local Municipality
    Baviaans Local Municipality is an administrative area in the Cacadu District of the Eastern Cape in South Africa.The municipality is named after the Baviaanskloof...

    , Cacadu District Municipality
    Cacadu District Municipality
    Cacadu District Municipality is situated in the Western Portion of the Eastern Cape province, covering an area of 58 242 square kilometres. The area of the district municipality includes nine local municipalities and other portions collectively known as the District Management Areas . The seat of...

    , Eastern Cape
    Eastern Cape
    The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province...

     (northeast)
  • Kou-Kamma Local Municipality
    Kou-Kamma Local Municipality
    The Kou-Kamma Municipality is a local municipality in South Africa. It is situated in the southwest corner of the Cacadu District Municipality along the Indian Ocean coastline, in the southwestern sector of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. To the west lies the Western Cape Province...

    , Cacadu District Municipality, Eastern Cape (east)
  • Bitou Local Municipality
    Bitou Local Municipality
    Bitou Local Municipality is a municipality part of Eden District Municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of 2001, its population is 29,149. Its municipality code is WC047....

     (southeast)
  • Knysna Municipality, Western Cape (south)
  • Mossel Bay Local Municipality
    Mossel Bay Local Municipality
    Mossel Bay Municipality is a municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of 2001, the population was 71,439.- Government :...

     (southwest)
  • Oudtshoorn Local Municipality
    Oudtshoorn Local Municipality
    Oudtshoorn Municipality is a municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of 2001, the population was 84,692.-Towns and villages:*De Hoop*De Rust*Dysselsdorp*Oudtshoorn*Volmoed- References :...

     (northwest)


The municipality also borders the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

 on the south.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 of 2001, there are 135,409 people and 35,525 households residing in the municipality. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 is 126.67/km². The density of households is 33.23/km². The racial makeup of the municipality is Black African
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

 27.28%, Coloured
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...

 50.38%, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n/Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n 0.26%, and White 22.08%.

15.5% of all households are made up of individuals. The average household size is 3.81.

In the municipality the population is spread out with 28.6% under the age of 15, 18.2% from 15 to 24, 32.7% from 25 to 44, 15.2% from 45 to 64, and 5.3% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 28 years. For every 100 females there are 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 93.0 males.

In the municipality 67.1% of residents speak Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

 at home, 7.4% speak English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, 0.0% speak IsiNdebele, 24.5% speak IsiXhosa, 0.2% speak IsiZulu, 0.0% speak Sepedi, 0.3% speak Sesotho, 0.0% speak Setswana, 0.0% speak SiSwati, 0.0% speak Tshivenda, and 0.0% speak Xitsonga. 0.2% of the population speaks a non-official language at home.

88.5% of residents are Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, 9.2% have no religion
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, 0.3% are Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, 0.0% are Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 0.0% are Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

. 2.0% have other or undetermined beliefs.

7.7% of residents aged 20 and over have received no schooling, 17.7% have had some primary school, 7.5% have completed only primary school, 32.0% have had some high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 education, 24.4% have finished only high school, and 9.8% have an education higher than the high school level. Overall, 34.2% of residents have completed high school.

56.2% of housing units have a telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 and/or cell-phone in the dwelling, 38.7% have access to a phone nearby, and 5.1% have access that is not nearby or no access. 83.5% of households have a flush or chemical toilet
Toilet
A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...

. 86.9% have refuse removed by the municipality at least once a week and 3.0% have no rubbish disposal. 59.8% have running water inside their dwelling, 82.8% have running water on their property, and 94.4% have access to running water. 80.8% of households use electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 for cooking, 76.1% for heating, and 86.6% for lighting. 76.5% of households have a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

, 70.2% have a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, 14.9% own a computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

, 66.1% have a refrigerator
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...

, and 39.2% have a cell-phone.

18.8% of the population aged 15-65 is unemployed. Of the unemployed persons, 53.5% are Black African, 43.0% are Coloured, 0.0% are Indian/Asian, and 3.4% are White. 36.2% of Black Africans are unemployed, 16.4% of Coloureds, 6.9% of Indians/Asians, and 2.8% of Whites.

The median annual income of working adults aged 15-65 is R 16 258 ($2,439). Males have a median annual income of R 17 181 ($2,578) versus R 14 753 ($2,214) for females. The median annual income by race is R 10 436 ($1,566) for Black Africans, R 12 978 ($1,947) for Coloureds, R 38 722 ($5,810) for Indians/Asians, and R 50 477 ($7,573) for Whites. The annual income distribution in George Municipality is:
  • No income 3.1%
  • R 12 – R 4,800 ($2 - $721) 8.7%
  • R 4,812 – R 9,600 ($723 - $1,443) 19.9%
  • R 9,612 – R 19,200 ($1,445 – $2,886) 26.4%
  • R 19,212 – R 38,400 ($2,888 - $5,772) 18.8%
  • R 38,412 – R 76,800 ($5,774 - $11,543) 12.5%
  • R 76,812 – R 153,600 ($11,545 - $23,087) 6.8%
  • R 153,612 – R 307,200 ($23,089 - $46,174) 2.4%
  • R 307,212 – R 614,400 ($46,176 - $92,348) 0.8%
  • R 614,412 or more ($92,350+) 0.6%


Statistics South Africa Census 2001

Cities and towns

  • George
    George, Western Cape
    George is a city with 203,253 inhabitants in South Africa's Western Cape province. The city is a popular holiday and conference centre and the administrative and commercial hub of the Garden Route.- Location :...

  • Herolds Bay
  • Pacaltsdorp
    Pacaltsdorp
    Pacaltsdorp is a suburb of George, Western Cape. In the Apartheid era, it was the coloured township associated with George. The N2 highway provided the natural boundary between the two, enforced by a curfew....

  • Thembalethu
  • Wilderness
    Wilderness, Western Cape
    Wilderness is a seaside town on the Garden Route of the southern Cape in South Africa.It is situated a short distance east from the city of George, on the N2 down the Kaaiman's River Pass. It is known for its long white sand beach and lagoons...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK