Jozini Local Municipality

Jozini Municipality (Zulu: UMasipala wase Jozini) is a local municipality within the Umkhanyakude District Municipality, in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Significant portions of the municipality have been neglected in terms of economic development. There is a great disparity between the level of service and infrastructure provision between settlement nodes, such as the towns of Mkuze and Jozini, and the surrounding rural areas. Most of the rural area is associated with a lack of development, poverty and poor service provision.^[3]

Jozini
Local municipality
Seal
Location in KwaZulu-Natal
Country	South Africa
Province	KwaZulu-Natal
District	uMkhanyakude
Seat	Jozini
Wards	23
Government [1]
• Type	Municipal council
• Mayor	Mfananaye Mathe (IFP)
Area
• Total	3,442 km2 (1,329 sq mi)
Population  (2011)[2]
• Total	186,502
• Density	54/km2 (140/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	99.2%
• Coloured	0.1%
• Indian/Asian	0.2%
• White	0.3%
First languages (2011) [2]
• Zulu	95.1%
• English	1.2%
• Southern Ndebele	1.1%
• Other	2.6%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal code	KZN272

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:^[4]

Place	Code	Area (km2)	Population
Ingwavuma	53301	1.72	1,089
Jozini	53312	0.45	543
Manukuza/Jobe	53303	280.65	18,277
Mathenjwa	53304	435.13	26,332
Mkuze	53305	1.04	1,834
Mngomezulu	53306	277.82	18,676
Myeni/Ngwenya	53307	138.34	10,146
Myeni/Ntsinde	53308	172.91	16,524
Ndumu Game Reserve	53309	110.43	72
Nyawo	53310	909.85	68,148
Sqakatha	53311	238.22	19,818
Remainder of the municipality	53302	523.02	2,628

Politics

Main article: Jozini Local Municipality elections

The municipal council consists of forty-five members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Twenty-three councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in twenty-three wards, while the remaining twenty-two 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 Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) won a majority of twenty-four seats.

The following table shows the results of the 2021 election.^[5]

Party		Ward			List			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Inkatha Freedom Party	31,073	50.56	19	32,556	53.64	5	24
	African National Congress	20,739	33.74	2	22,253	36.66	14	16
	Economic Freedom Fighters	2,617	4.26	0	2,884	4.75	2	2
	Independent candidates	5,485	8.92	2				2
	Academic Congress Union				981	1.62	1	1
	Democratic Alliance	340	0.55	0	348	0.57	0	0
	National Freedom Party	290	0.47	0	356	0.59	0	0
	United Christian Democratic Party	264	0.43	0	244	0.40	0	0
	Independent Alliance	56	0.09	0	421	0.69	0	0
	African Transformation Movement	190	0.31	0	224	0.37	0	0
	Abantu Batho Congress	123	0.20	0	138	0.23	0	0
	United Democratic Movement	103	0.17	0	105	0.17	0	0
	African Christian Democratic Party	64	0.10	0	94	0.15	0	0
	National People's Front	78	0.13	0	48	0.08	0	0
	Black First Land First	31	0.05	0	21	0.03	0	0
	Democratic Union Plus	9	0.01	0	20	0.03	0	0
Total		61,462	100.00	23	60,693	100.00	22	45
Valid votes		61,462	98.74		60,693	97.83
Invalid/blank votes		784	1.26		1,344	2.17
Total votes		62,246	100.00		62,037	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		103,712	60.02		103,712	59.82