Politics
The council of the West Coast District Municipality consists of twenty-four councillors, of whom ten are directly elected by party-list proportional representation, and fourteen are appointed by the councils of the constituent local municipalities: two each by Matzikama, Cederberg and Bergrivier, and four each by Saldanha Bay and Swartland. As of August 2012 there are fourteen councillors representing the Democratic Alliance (DA), nine representing the African National Congress (ANC), and one representing the Congress of the People (COPE). The mayor is Harold Cleophas of the DA, and the deputy mayor is Jacob Josephus, also of the DA.
The following table shows the detailed composition of the council.
| DA | ANC | COPE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Directly elected | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| Appointed by Matzikama | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Appointed by Cederberg | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Appointed by Bergrivier | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Appointed by Saldanha Bay | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Appointed by Swartland | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 14 | 9 | 1 |
The following table shows the results of the election of the ten directly-elected councillors on 18 May 2011.
| Party | Votes | Vote % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic Alliance | 54,774 | 56.3 | 6 | |
| African National Congress | 34,243 | 35.2 | 4 | |
| Congress of the People | 4,493 | 4.6 | 0 | |
| The Peoples Independent Civic Organisation | 1,228 | 1.3 | 0 | |
| African Christian Democratic Party | 891 | 0.9 | 0 | |
| Pan Africanist Congress | 719 | 0.7 | 0 | |
| Liberal People's Party | 312 | 0.3 | 0 | |
| Cape Party | 230 | 0.2 | 0 | |
| South African Political Alliance | 185 | 0.2 | 0 | |
| South African Progressive Civic Organisation | 162 | 0.2 | 0 | |
| Total | 97,237 | 100.00 | 10 | |
| Spoilt votes | 2,607 | |||
Read more about this topic: West Coast District Municipality
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)
“All politics takes place on a slippery slope. The most important four words in politics are “up to a point.””
—George F. Will (b. 1941)
“They who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures and makeshifts merely. They put off the day of settlement, and meanwhile the debt accumulates.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)