Local government boundary demarcation: the case of the Western Cape metropolitan area substructures

ABSTRACT

South Africa's fledging democracy is two years old. One of the most bitter constitutional conflicts which has emerged so far, has been the demarcation dispute around the Western Cape Metropolitan Area substructures. This dispute was between the African National Congress – dominated Government of National Unity and the National Party – controlled Western Cape Provincial Government.

This paper is an analysis of this demarcation dispute. It concludes that the outcome of this dispute threw up certain ironies. Firstly, the National Party ended up implicitly agreeing with the demarcation option that it had for so long vehemently rejected, namely the amalgamation of Khayelitsha with Tygerberg. Secondly, the National Party referred the demarcation dispute in order to strengthen provincial powers. However, it ended up with less provincial powers than it had started off with.