Reflecting on the formation of metropolitan regions in South Africa

Abstract

During apartheid, the spatial structures of South Africa’s administration were based on racial profiles, both at the macroscale and the microscale. The rise of democracy brought with it one of its primary aims, which was to create a new sense of nationhood. One way in which this aim has been sought was by reshaping the country’s administrative structure from the former racially segregated structure to a wall-to-wall structure to symbolise a de-racialised nation that is built on democracy and equality. In 1996 the final Constitution (South Africa, 1996) made provision for three categories of administrative entity in the country: category A (metropolitan municipalities), category B (local municipalities), and category C (district municipalities). However, criteria on how the various municipalities should be categorised and demarcated was only communicated in 1998 with the passing of Sections 2 and 3 and Sections 83 to 89 of the Municipal Structures Act (117 of 1998 as amended in 2000) and Sections 24 and 25 of the Municipal Demarcation Act (27 of 1998) (Todes et al., 2010b; South Africa, 2014; Fuzile, 2015; National Treasury, 2013; Nene, 2015). Before the 2000 local government elections, the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) demarcated and categorised six municipalities as category A metropolitan municipalities against the criteria set out by the various acts. In 2011 the MDB included Buffalo City and Mangaung as metropolitans in addition to the six metropolitan municipalities. However, these eight metropolitan municipal entities varied in structure and composition, which led a 2012 report by the South African Cities Network (SACN) to comment that it had found the criteria that defined a metropolitan municipality in South Africa to be unclear. This study sought to reflect on the processes that the MDB followed in interpreting and implementing the Section 2 criteria of the Municipal Structures Act (117 of 1998) (henceforth the Section 2 criteria) between 1999 and 2011 by conducting a comprehensive analysis across the current eight metropolitan municipalities to compare and contrast their adherence to the said criteria during that period. This study found the interpretation and application of the Section 2 criteria to have been inconsistent and calls for more objective implementation criteria by the MDB to ensure consistency in the categorisation of category A metropolitan municipalities in future. This study contributes to the academic discourse on urban hierarchy and administrative restructuring of South Africa, and provides planning recommendations to guide municipal categorisation in South Africa going forward