The ward delimitation process commenced formally on 15 July 2009 when the Minister gazetted formulae for the number of councillors for different categories of municipalities.
The formulae were, in terms of legislation, based on the total number of registered voters in each municipality, which came from the national common voters’ roll, as divided into municipal segments by the IEC.
The formulae as published by the Minister, were used by the Provincial MECs for local government to determine the number of councillors for each municipality.
The MECs published the numbers of councillors for each municipality, in the relevant Provincial Gazettes.
The MDB then determined the number of wards, by dividing the number of councillors by 2.
Where it resulted in an uneven number, the additional number became a ward eg. a council with 21 councillors would have 11 wards.
All wards in a particular municipality must have approximately the same number of voters. To determine the number of voters allowed per ward in a municipality a norm is used.
The norm is determined by dividing the total number of registered voters in the municipality by the number of wards.
The Chairperson of MDB, Mr Landiwe Mahlangu remarked that “this year’s ward delimitation constitutes a watershed in the history of local government in that for the first time all local municipalities will have wards with the minimum of 4 and the maximum of 130.
For the first time over 10 000 council seats which includes 4277 wards, will be contested in 8 metropolitan councils, 45 districts and 231 local municipalities”.