# Garden Route District Municipality

The Garden Route District Municipality (Afrikaans: Tuinroete-distriksmunisipaliteit; Xhosa: uMasipala weSithili sase Garden Route), formerly known as the Eden District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its municipality code is DC4.

## Geography

The Garden Route District Municipality covers an area of 23,331 square kilometres (9,008 sq mi) in the southeastern part of the Western Cape, covering the regions known as the Garden Route and the Little Karoo. It stretches to the Breede River mouth and the Langeberg mountains on the west, where it abuts the Overberg District Municipality and (for a short distance) the Cape Winelands District Municipality. To the north the boundary with the Central Karoo District Municipality runs along the Swartberg mountains. In the east the municipality runs up to the Eastern Cape provincial boundary.
The district is divided into seven local municipalities, described in the following table.
| Name | Seat | Population (2011) | Area (km$^2$) | Density (inhabitants/km$^2$) |
| Kannaland | Ladismith | 24,767 | 4,758 | 5.2 |
| Hessequa | Riversdale | 52,642 | 5,733 | 9.2 |
| Mossel Bay | Mossel Bay | 89,430 | 2,011 | 44.5 |
| George | George | 193,672 | 5,191 | 37.3 |
| Oudtshoorn | Oudtshoorn | 95,933 | 3,537 | 27.1 |
| Bitou | Plettenberg Bay | 49,162 | 992 | 49.6 |
| Knysna | Knysna | 68,659 | 1,109 | 61.9 |
| Total | Total | 574,265 | 23,331 | 24.6 |

## Demographics

The following statistics are from the 2011 Census. Note that due to fuzzing applied to statistics, columns may not sum to exactly the indicated total.
| First language LanguagePopulation % Afrikaans397,46270.8% Xhosa102,74018.3% English42,2667.5% Sotho3,4120.6% Tswana2,6750.5% Zulu1,9600.3% Sign language1,8560.3% Ndebele1,0140.2% Tsonga7390.1% Northern Sotho6540.1% Venda5270.1% Swazi2960.1% Other5,6871.0% Total561,288 Not applicable12,975 Race RacePopulation % Coloured 311,178 54.2% Black African 141,830 24.7% White 110,314 19.2% Indian or Asian 2,526 0.4% Other 8,418 1.5% Total 574,265 | Gender GenderPopulation % Female 293,346 51.1% Male 280,919 48.9% Total 574,265 Age Age groupPopulation % 0–453,3449.3% 5–947,8978.3% 10–1447,2228.2% 15–1947,5528.3% 20–2448,2188.4% 25–2950,1388.7% 30–3442,0287.3% 35–3941,6177.2% 40–4440,1887.0% 45–4935,2316.1% 50–5429,9215.2% 55–5924,7264.3% 60–6421,3223.7% 65–6916,4552.9% 70–7412,5252.2% 75–797,8451.4% 80–844,5590.8% 85+2,1620.4% Total574,265 |

## Politics

The council of the Garden Route District Municipality consists of thirty-five councillors. Fourteen councillors are directly elected by party-list proportional representation, and twenty-one are appointed by the councils of the local municipalities in the district: six by George, four by Mossel Bay, three each by Oudtshoorn and Knysna, two each by Hessequa and Bitou, and one by Kannaland.
After the election of 3 August 2016 there are twenty-one councillors from the Democratic Alliance (DA), twelve from the African National Congress (ANC), and one each from the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (ICOSA) and the African Independent Congress (AIC).
The following table shows the detailed composition of the council.
| Party | Party | Directly elected | Appointed by local councils | Appointed by local councils | Appointed by local councils | Appointed by local councils | Appointed by local councils | Appointed by local councils | Appointed by local councils | Total |
| Party | Party | Directly elected | Kannaland | Hessequa | Mossel Bay | George | Oudtshoorn | Bitou | Knysna | Total |
| | DA | 8 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 21 |
| | ANC | 5 | | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| | Independent Civic Organisation | 1 | | | | | | | | 1 |
| | AIC | | | | | 1 | | | | 1 |
The following table shows the results of the election of the fourteen directly elected councillors.
| Party | Party | Votes | Vote % | Seats |
| | DA | 106,242 | 53.2% | 8 |
| | ANC | 61,755 | 30.9% | 5 |
| | Independent Civic Organisation | 10,791 | 5.4% | 1 |
| | VF+ | 3,965 | 2.0% | 0 |
| | EFF | 3,604 | 1.8% | 0 |
| | AIC | 3,380 | 1.7% | 0 |
| | Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners | 2,592 | 1.3% | 0 |
| | ACDP | 2,439 | 1.2% | 0 |
| | COPE | 1,804 | 0.9% | 0 |
| | South African Religious Civic Organisation | 1,018 | 0.5% | 0 |
| | South Africa Civics | 858 | 0.4% | 0 |
| | Knysna Unity Congress | 525 | 0.3% | 0 |
| | Democratic New Civic Organisation | 378 | 0.2% | 0 |
| | Christian Democrats | 314 | 0.2% | 0 |
| | George Independent Ratepayers Forum | 163 | 0.1% | 0 |
| Total | Total | 199,828 | | 14 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 199,828 | 98.1% |
| Spoilt votes | Spoilt votes | 3,819 | 1.9% |
| Total votes cast | Total votes cast | 203,647 | |
| Registered voters | Registered voters | 326,165 |
| Turnout percentage | Turnout percentage | 62.4% |