Cape Town City Council

Cape Town City Council
3rd Unicity Council
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
Speaker	Jacobus "Dirk" Smit, Democratic Alliance since 15 March 2006
Structure
Members	221
Political groups	DA (135)   ANC (73)   ACDP (3)   COPE (3)   AMP (1), AJ (1), CMC (1), NPSA (1), PAC (1), UDM (1), VF+ (1)
Elections
Voting system	MMP
Last election	18 May 2011
Meeting place
Council Chamber, Cape Town Civic Centre, 12 Hertzog Boulevard, Cape Town
Website
http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/CouncilOnline/

The City Council is the legislative body of the City of Cape Town. It is composed of 221 councillors elected by a system of mixed member proportional representation. 111 councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting, one from each of the 111 electoral wards of the City, while the other 110 are elected from party lists to create overall proportionality. The mayor of the City is elected by the City Council.

The Cape Town City Council is unusual among municipal legislatures, both in and out of South Africa, in its numerical size, which is larger than the national legislatures of many countries.

Subcouncils

The Council is further broken down into 23 subcouncils, which serve as localized councils for clusters of electoral wards.

Relationship between Council and Subcouncils

Members of the City Council, both ward-elected and proportionally-elected, usually compose the membership of the subcouncils. The subcouncils are delegated the authority to make recommendations on any matter concerning their respective areas to the Council, and can, under certain provisions and circumstances, be instructed to carry out functions of the City Council in the respective area. Subcouncils are consist of geographically clustered wards with proportional councillors assigned to them and led by a subcouncil chairman who is elected by a majority vote of each subcouncil.

After the March 2006 local government elections the DA took 13 subcouncils, followed by 7 for the ANC, 2 for the ACDP and 1 for the ID.

After the floor crossing in September 2007, the subcouncils were reconstituted with 15 going to the DA, 4 to the ID, 2 to the ACDP while the ANC retained only 2 after losing 5 subcouncils.

Election result

The following table shows the results of the election of 18 May 2011 in the City of Cape Town:

e • d Summary of the 18 May 2011 Cape Town City Council election results^[1]

Party		Ward		PR		Total
		Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
	Democratic Alliance	675,020	60.7%	682,929	61.1%	1,357,949	60.9%
	African National Congress	360,827	32.4%	370,420	33.2%	731,247	32.8%
	African Christian Democratic Party	15,227	1.4%	11,873	1.1%	27,100	1.2%
	Congress of the People	12,059	1.1%	12,596	1.1%	24,655	1.1%
	National Party	5,718	0.5%	6,038	0.5%	11,756	0.5%
	United Democratic Movement	4,402	0.4%	4,290	0.4%	8,692	0.4%
	Al Jama-ah	4,310	0.4%	3,928	0.4%	8,238	0.4%
	Africa Muslim Party	4,430	0.4%	3,157	0.3%	7,587	0.3%
	Cape Muslim Congress	3,658	0.3%	2,740	0.2%	6,398	0.3%
	Independent	5,893	0.5%	N/A		5,893	0.3%
	Pan Africanist Congress	2,606	0.2%	1,993	0.2%	4,599	0.2%
	Freedom Front Plus	2,121	0.2%	1,864	0.2%	3,985	0.2%
	24 smaller parties (<0.15% each)	16,026	1.4%	15,019	1.3%	31,045	1.4%
Total		1,112,297		1,116,847		2,229,144
Spoilt votes		11,518		8,998		20,516

The Democratic Alliance won 78 of the individual ward elections, and the ANC won 33. As a result, the final seat allocation was as follows:

e • d Seats in the Cape Town City Council after the election of 18 May 2011^[2]

Party		Ward	PR top-up	Total	Percentage
	Democratic Alliance	78	57	135	61.1%
	African National Congress	33	40	73	33.0%
	African Christian Democratic Party	0	3	3	1.4%
	Congress of the People	0	3	3	1.4%
	Africa Muslim Party	0	1	1	0.5%
	Al Jama-ah	0	1	1	0.5%
	Cape Muslim Congress	0	1	1	0.5%
	National Party	0	1	1	0.5%
	Pan Africanist Congress	0	1	1	0.5%
	United Democratic Movement	0	1	1	0.5%
	Freedom Front Plus	0	1	1	0.5%
Total		111	110	221	100.0%

See also

• Members of the Cape Town City Council

References

1. ^ "Results Summary - All Ballots: City of Cape Town". Independent Electoral Commission. 27 May 2011. http://www.elections.org.za/content/LGEPublicReports/197/Detailed%20Results/WP/CPT.pdf. Retrieved 6 June 2011. 
2. ^ "Seat Calculation Detail: City of Cape Town". Independent Electoral Commission. 21 May 2011. http://www.elections.org.za/content/LGEPublicReports/197/Seat%20Calculation%20Detail/WP/CPT.pdf. Retrieved 21 May 2011.