Randfontein, Westonaria municipalities to become one

24 April 2014 - 15:18 By KINGDOM MABUZA
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The Randfontein and Westonaria municipalities will cease to exist as two separate entities.

The two municipalities  on the west  of Johannesburg will be fused into one bigger entity which will drastically reduced the number of councillors.

The municipalities have been give a deadline of 2016 to finalise the merger which would also result in the streamlining of the administration.

The West Rand district municipal which has been tasked with coordinating the amalgamation of the two municipalities has already started with the political process of consulting communities.

West Rand district municipal spokesman Refentse Mangope yesterday said the political committee includes mayors from both the affected municipalities, labour unions and community organisations.

Mangope said the demarcation board arrived at the decision that the municipalities have to be combined after it has established that they shared the same areas.

“It was not practical to keep both municipalities separate, they are a mere 3km apart and they share many areas,” he said.

Mangope said after the integration there would be only one mayor, city manager and only ten members of the mayoral committee.

At the moment there are 43 councillors at Randfontein municipality led by the mayor Sylvia Thebenari and 19 councillors at Westonaria led by their mayor Nonkoliso Tundzi.

Mangope said the number of  wards would be determined at a later stage by a technical committee.

“But I can confirm that the number of councillors would be reduced. The name of the new municipality will be as a result of consultation of residents,” he said.

Mangope said beyond 2016 there were plans to integrate all municipalities in the west rand to form a bigger metro council.

There are currently three metro councils in Gauteng, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and City of Joburg.

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