New municipal boundaries to be adjusted

About 500 municipal boundaries will be adjusted before the 2014 national and provincial government elections.

The project by the Municipal Demarcation Board will result in:

• The possible new categorisation of a municipality as a metro;
• The possible formation of new municipalities or amalgamation of existing ones, and
•  The re-determination of municipal boundaries.

Briefing the media in Pretoria, the chairman of the Municipal Demarcation Board, Landiwe Mahlangu, said the process should be completed by May 2014.

Municipal boundaries had to be adjusted regularly to align them with natural landmarks and features, "to prevent people from not knowing which municipality they belong to and where to vote".

Mahlangu said amalgamation of municipalities was good for service delivery because municipalities could share skills.

The board would consider requests from members of the public who feel that certain boundaries have to change or specific municipalities should be merged, he said.

"Those requests should not be made later than December 15."

Mahlangu said he expected the process not to be without "controversy" because politicians liked maintaining the status quo.

"There is also impatience [when towns have to be integrated] because people always want to get back to the past. They feel that they were better off before integration."