Metropolitan municipality (South Africa)

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In South Africa, a metropolitan municipality or Category A municipality is a municipality which executes all the functions of local government for a city or conurbation. This is by contrast to areas which are primarily rural, where the local government is divided into district municipalities and local municipalities.

The Constitution, section 155.1.a, defines "Category A" municipalities. In the Municipal Structures Act it is laid out that this type of local government is to be used for conurbations, "centre[s] of economic activity", areas "for which integrated development planning is desirable", and areas with "strong interdependent social and economic linkages".

The metropolitan municipality is similar to the consolidated city-county in the USA, although a South African metropolitan municipality is created by notice of the provincial government, not by agreement between district and local municipalities.

List of metropolitan municipalities

Name	Code	Province	Seat	Area (km²)	Population (2011)	Pop. density (per km²)
Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality	BUF	Eastern Cape	East London	2,536	755,200	297.8
City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality	CPT	Western Cape	Cape Town	2,460	3,740,026	1,520.3
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality	JHB	Gauteng	Johannesburg	1,645	4,434,827	2,695.9
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality	TSH	Gauteng	Pretoria	6,345	2,921,488	460.4
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality	EKU	Gauteng	Germiston	1,924	3,178,470	1,652.0
eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality	ETH	KwaZulu-Natal	Durban	2,292	3,442,361	1,501.9
Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality	MAN	Free State	Bloemfontein	6,284	747,431	118.9
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality	NMA	Eastern Cape	Port Elizabeth	1,959	1,152,115	588.1

References

• Government Communication & Information Services (2005) Categories of municipalities
• Parliament of the Republic of South Africa (1996) Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Chapter 7: Local Government
• Parliament of the Republic of South Africa (1998) Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, Act 117 of 1998.
• South African Local Government Association