Municipal boundaries unchanged for 2026 elections as Demarcation Board faces backlash

The Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) will not add to the country's 257 municipalities ahead of the 2026 local government elections, and KwaZulu-Natal's capital, Pietermaritzburg, will not become a metropolitan municipality.

The MDB on Thursday informed Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa, the nine CoGTA MECs, chairpersons of the national and provincial Houses of Traditional and Khoisan leaders, SA Local Government Association (SALGA) President Bheke Stofile, and Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) Chairperson Mosotho Moepya, among others, about its decision.

Acting MDB Chairperson Dr Matheakuena Mohale said the board met a week ago and considered reports on 13 deferred cases, having evaluated the findings of research reports, public meetings, and/or formal investigations reports, and other relevant reports.

“The board resolved not to re-determine any municipal boundaries and elected to maintain the status quo… The MDB recognises that these matters are complicated with far-reaching implications for the affected communities, municipalities, provinces and the nation,” he explained.

Mohale said the MDB wanted to assure everyone that these matters were given deserved and thorough consideration and attention in compliance with all relevant legislative provisions, especially the demarcation criteria as provided for in terms of Sections 24 and 25 of the Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act of 1998.

Its decision has also been communicated to mayors and municipal managers of the affected metropolitan, district, and local municipalities, heads of provincial CoGTA departments, Chief Surveyor-General Siyabonga Mdubeki, IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo, SALGA Chief Executive Sithole Mbanga, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke, as well as members of the extended boundaries, powers, and functions, and local elections technical committees.

Mohale said the MDB is cognisant that its decisions may not satisfy everyone.

“However, we are confident that these decisions will be received well as they represent an outcome of a rich democratic process.

“It is our considered view that stakeholders and members of the public who might be aggrieved by any of these decisions will, rightly so, express their views within the confines of our treasured democratic constitutional dispensation,” he added.

Angry residents of Greater Harrismith and Kestel in the troubled Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality in the Free State have threatened legal action against the MDB after it shot down proposals to separate it and create a new municipality.

The proposed redetermination of the municipality’s boundaries would have seen the exclusion of 25 wards in the former Qwa-Qwa homeland area (including the former transitional local councils of Phuthaditjhaba and Qwa-Qwa rural) from Maluti-A-Phofung to create a new municipality.

Additionally, residents of the Greater Harrismith and Kestel want to initiate a complete boycott of municipal service payments to the dysfunctional Maluti-A-Phofung and are planning a total boycott of next year’s municipal elections, which they demand must not be staged until their demands are met. They are also demanding that President Cyril Ramaphosa dissolve the MDB immediately.

In the case of the Msunduzi Local Municipality in Pietermaritzburg, the proposal was for its municipal boundaries to be redetermined as well as those of the Richmond local and uMgungundlovu district municipalities, by amalgamating the two local municipalities to establish a new metropolitan municipality in the Umgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.

In both proposals, the MDB resolved not to redetermine the municipal boundaries, and as a result, the status quo will be maintained, and it considers the matter closed.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za