Free State municipal merger proposal withdrawn

Briefing the media in Pretoria, Mahlangu said after consultations and investigations, the board was convinced that the proposal did not comply with the criteria set in the legislation.

"The board has taken a decision not to further pursue the merger of Metsimaholo and Ngwathe, and various local municipalities," he said.

In January, residents of Zamdela outside Sasolburg protested over the proposed merger of Metsimaholo and Ngwathe municipalities.

The board has also decided to include the proposal on the request for a metropolitan municipality, which would have included Emfuleni and Midvaal local municipalities, currently under Sedibeng District Municipality, as part of a section 21 notice, which is is the last opportunity for participation in the boundary redetermination process.

Last month, a group of people picketed and delivered objection letters at the MDB offices about the proposal amalgamating the Midvaal and Emfuleni local municipalities into forming a metropolitan municipality.

Section 21 notice

According to Mahlangu, the majority of municipalities that are going to be affected by the section 21 notice are in KwaZulu-Natal, where a number of municipalities are going to be amalgamated.

"The KwaZulu-Natal province has the highest proposals and if all of them are sustained, the province will have its municipalities reduced by six as a result of amalgamations and mergers.

"In the Eastern Cape, most municipal proposals are along the periphery of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality and there is no major amalgamation in that province."

Mahlangu said once the section 21 notice has been gazetted, all the affected stakeholders and interested parties will have 30 days from the day of publication to register their objections.

Proposals that form part of the section 21 notice are in Kwazulu-Natal, with 37 proposals; Western Cape 35; Eastern Cape 26; North West 20; Northern Cape 21; Limpopo 7; Free State 6; Gauteng 3 and Mpumalanga 2.

Mahlangu said the total of 49 proposals that have been resolved and are not going to proceed to section 21 are the Eastern Cape with 12 proposals; KwaZulu-Natal 12; Free State 4; Mpumalanga 4; North West 5; Limpopo 7 and Western Cape 4.

MDB chief executive officer, Gabu Gumbi-Masilela, said the next phase of ward delimitation will have been preceded by the final decision of the board after considering objections as per section 21 of Local Government Municipal Demarcation Act of 1998.

She said as the board, they will then hand over a list of final boundaries to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

"After the 30-day period for objections has lapsed, the board will consider all objections with a view to either confirm, vary or withdraw the re-determination.

"The final decisions of the board will then be gazetted in the relevant Provincial Gazette," she said, adding that the current boundary review programme was approaching its end.

Gumbi-Masilela said as the next local government elections will be in 2016, following the 2014 General Elections, this required that all changes to municipal boundaries be finalised in 2013.

"This is to ensure that the voters' roll can be divided into municipal segments and wards can be delimited for the 2016 local elections," she said.