Sedibeng District Municipality

The Sedibeng District Municipality is one of the districts of the Gauteng province of South Africa. The administrative seat of the district is Vereeniging. As of 2011, the most widely spoken language among its 794,605 inhabitants was Sesotho.

WWW sedibeng.gov.za

Socioeconomic situation

The total population of Sedibeng accounts for only 9% of the total Gauteng population of 8.84 million. This means that in 2001 Sedibengs's population was approximately 794 600. The growth rate for Gauteng was 3.75% p.a and 2% p.a for Sedibeng during 2003.
In terms of the economy the district is dominated by manufacturing, which contributed roughly 32% to the local economy during 2001. Manufacturing in the district is dominated by the fabricated metal and the chemical sectors and Sasol. The local economy has been stagnating for a number of years, with a net loss in formal job opportunities. Economic sectors which do present opportunities for further local development and economic growth include agriculture and tourism.

Environmental

Some of Sedibeng's natural resources are:

The Vaal River. At times however, the river is polluted by untreated sewage from this municipality.
Vaal Dam, a tourist attraction and source of water even beyond the boundaries of Sedibeng
Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, a protected area in the Suikerbosrand Range
Aquifers, which are an important source of water in rural areas

Corruption

In 2020 the Department of Cooperative Governance decided to act against council members who in 2018 approved a large raise in salary for their municipal manager Stanley Khanyile. In 2020 Khanyile was shot and killed in Meyersdal, Alberton, before he could appear on charges of fraud, theft and money laundering stemming from his term as the head of a department in the Eastern Cape.
In March 2024, facing a financial crisis, the council increased its capital budget by R700,000 to purchase a luxury car for the mayor, Lerato Maloka.

Local municipalities

Sedibeng District Municipality consists of the three local municipalities, namely Lesedi, Midvaal and Emfuleni. The total number of households in Sedibeng is estimated at 224 307.

Local municipality	Seat	Area	Population	Pop. %	Dominant language
Emfuleni	Vanderbijlpark	1 276	658 425	82.86%	Sotho
Lesedi	Heidelberg	1 042	71 531	9.00%	Zulu
Midvaal	Meyerton	2 312	64 641	8.13%	Afrikaans

Demographics

The following statistics are from the 2001 census.

Language	Population	%
Sotho	386 696	48.67%
Zulu	132 903	16.73%
Afrikaans	119 109	14.99%
Xhosa	69 049	8.69%
English	30 283	3.81%
Tswana	21 635	2.72%
Northern Sotho	12 696	1.60%
Tsonga	7 749	0.98%
Swati	4 358	0.55%
Ndebele	3 837	0.48%
Other	3 684	0.46%
Venda	2 598	0.33%

Gender

P = B + A * 22.4%

Neighbours

Sedibeng is surrounded by:

Johannesburg to the north
Ekurhuleni to the north
Nkangala in Mpumalanga to the north-east
Gert Sibande in Mpumalanga to the east
Fezile Dabi to the south
Dr Kenneth Kaunda in North West to the west
West Rand to the north-west