JB Marks Local Municipality

JB Marks Municipality (Tswana: Mmasepala wa JB Marks; Afrikaans: JB Marks Munisipaliteit) is a local municipality within the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, in the North West province of South Africa. It was established after the August 2016 local elections by merging the Tlokwe and Ventersdorp municipalities.^[5]

JB Marks Local Municipality
Local municipality
Map of the North West with JB Marks highlighted
Country	South Africa
Province	North West
District	Dr Kenneth Kaunda
Seat	Potchefstroom
Government [1]
• Type	Municipal council
• Executive Mayor	Gaba Thithiba Ka Qhele [2] (ANC)
Area [3]
• Total	6,398 km2 (2,470 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[4]
• Total	212,670
• Density	33/km2 (86/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2022) [4]
• Black African	83.8%
• Coloured	5.1%
• Indian/Asian	0.1%
• White African	10.7%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal code	NW405

The municipality was renamed after JB Marks in 2017, following the creation of the new municipality the year before. Other name proposals included Josie Mpama.^[6] Marks was born in Ventersdorp while Mpama was born in Potchefstroom.

Politics

Main article: JB Marks Local Municipality elections

The municipal council consists of seventy-seven members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Thirty-four councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in thirty-four wards, while the remaining thirty-three are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 1 November 2021 the African National Congress (ANC) lost their majority on the municipal council.

The following table shows the results of the election.^[7]

Party		Ward			List			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	African National Congress	24,702	48.29	24	24,209	47.72	9	33
	Democratic Alliance	12,950	25.31	9	12,887	25.40	8	17
	Freedom Front Plus	6,910	13.51	1	6,890	13.58	8	9
	Economic Freedom Fighters	4,555	8.90	0	4,645	9.16	6	6
	Patriotic Alliance	1,068	2.09	0	1,321	2.60	2	2
	Independent candidates	450	0.88	0				0
	4 other parties	521	1.02	0	781	1.54	0	0
Total		51,156	100.00	34	50,733	100.00	33	67
Valid votes		51,156	98.06		50,733	97.81
Invalid/blank votes		1,013	1.94		1,136	2.19
Total votes		52,169	100.00		51,869	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		113,218	46.08		113,218	45.81

Languages

The 2011 census indicated the following prevalence of languages for the combined municipalities of Tlokwe and Ventersdorp:

• 67.1% Setswana;
• 17.4% Afrikaans;
• 4.2% English;
• 1.4% IsiZulu;
• 1.3% Sesotho;
• 1.0% IsiXhosa;
• 0.8% IsiNdebele ^[8]