Experts weigh in on whether PMB to be Metro Municipality

The process of determining whether Pietermaritzburg, the second largest city in KwaZulu-Natal will be a Metro Municipality has not been finalised.

This is according to the Municipal Demarcation Board following an application for Pietermaritzburg, which falls under the Msunduzi Municipality and Richmond Municipality to be amalgamated.

To date, the Demarcation board had received thousands of applications for the re-determination of municipal wards. Currently 13 cases have been deferred and are subject to further research and public engagement.

The residents of KwaZulu-Natal will only know next year (2025), if they will have a second Metro Municipality. Several factors have to be taken into account when declaring a Metro municipality. This includes income-generation, population size, growth patterns and economic developments amongst others.

Municipal Demarcation Board CEO, Manye Moroka says the MDB is currently engaging with public stakeholders to make an informed decision

“So they made an application. Obviously there were some delays here and there, but ultimately it is the one that then ended up in the board for consideration. However, in matters of that magnitude, you require further consultation. You require to refine the whole process and so forth. So what is outstanding is for the MDB team to go out, and that team is called the Research Unit headed by Dr. Paul Radikonyani and their team. They will now go down on the ground to go and engage with all the stakeholders. And once we have a report, and when I say all stakeholders, nobody will be left out in that category. And we term it as evidence-based information.

That extraction will then lead to further consultation with the public to say, do you or don’t you need a Metro as proposed by the province back then? A proposal that is currently live. So that’s where the process is. So it can go either way. Once the research study has been done and completed, it will then be a proposal back to the board to say, we now concur with the applicant that there should be a Metro, or we don’t. And that’s the part where it is now. So in other words, it’s not yet finalised. it’s not yet a Metro.”

Pietermaritzburg metro status pending:

Currently, there are 4 468 wards in the country, eight metropolitan, 44 districts and 205 local municipalities. The MDB is also preoccupied with determining the re-determination of other municipal wards in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West.
Moroka says two processes are currently under way.

“Two processes that are very important today. The IEC has given us a deadline of 31 October 2025 to have completed the word delimitation process. Those are the wards now. And now we’re working in reverse to that time. In tandem to that is finalisation of the 13 deferred cases. So whether we like it or not, we should have completed the exercise because there may also be applications for word delimitation in the very municipal boundary in question. So we have to do it in tandem and both will be completed within that time. I’ve already indicated that the board said do it within 12 to 15 months from February 28. So that’s your deadline. So we will know next year basically. You will definitely know before the LGE. Remember that the past elections, the IGE 2021 was in November. The next one will be held within 90 days of the November 1. So obviously I don’t think it will be November. Kids are writing exams. So it might be around the first week of December, which is festive, or January. So we’re likely to have those by the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027.”

An inter-ministerial committee, which includes the departments of COGTA, Water and Sanitation, Electricity and Human Settlements is responsible for oversight.

Deputy Minister of COGTA, Dickson Masemola says the process will deal with the political implications of the demarcation.

The Municipal Demarcation Board final decision will be known in February 2025. This, while the demarcations are expected to be finalised before the 2026 local government elections.