Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality


The Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality which governs Bloemfontein and surrounding towns in the Free State province of South Africa. Mangaung is a Sesotho word meaning "place of cheetahs", as it was not uncommon for the Basotho to name warrior regiments after ferocious animals.
In the municipal elections held on 1 November 2021, the African National Congress won 51 out of 100 seats on the Metro Council, while the Democratic Alliance won 26 seats and the Economic Freedom Fighters won 12 seats.

History

Mangaung was established in 2000 as a local municipality within the Motheo District Municipality. At the municipal elections of 18 May 2011, Mangaung was converted into a metropolitan municipality. At the municipal elections of 3 August 2016, the Naledi [Local Municipality, Free State|Naledi Local Municipality] was incorporated into Mangaung. This 2016 merge increased Mangaung's land area from to, making it the largest of the eight metropolitan municipalities in South Africa.

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:
PlaceCodeArea PopulationMost spoken language
Barolong Baga Moroka911.668,556Sotho
Bloemfontein287.46111,697Afrikaans
Botshabelo228.79175,822Sotho
Mangaung46.23217,076Sotho
Morago221.373,941Tswana
Opkoms2.8415,397Afrikaans
Peter Swart1.9710,002Sotho
Rodenbeck2.057,837Sotho
Sonskyn0.803,630Sotho
Thaba 'Nchu216.2367,269Sotho
Remainder of the municipality4,364.1124,220Sotho

Politics

The municipal council consists of one hundred members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Fifty councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in fifty wards, while the remaining fifty are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the 2021 South African municipal elections of 1 November 2021 the African National Congress won a majority of fifty-one seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the election.

Maladministration

Since April 2022, the municipality is under administration, one of 32 in the country, and three in the Free State where the provincial executive has intervened due to maladministration.

Mayors of Mangaung

The following people have served as the Executive Mayor of the municipality since its founding in 2000: