Speaker, the newly determined municipal boundaries, as determined by the Municipal Demarcation Board and announced on 15 October 2013, will be implemented with effect from the 2016 municipal elections.
There are many advantages to these determinations. Amongst them are the ability to focus on the broader developmental issues, which provides an opportunity for the newly formed metros to leverage resources and attract investments; the capacity to leverage all socioeconomic issues by operating a single tier of local government with reduced bureaucracy; the ability to better address the issue of grant dependence; better allocation of powers and functions; and the creation of improved efficiencies in service delivery, so advancing the principles of developmental local government.
Currently, there are 278 municipalities categorised as local, district and metropolitan. The recent determinations by the Municipal Demarcation Board will result in a reduction to 267 municipalities. There will be 11 fewer local municipalities and one less district municipality. It should be noted that only two provinces, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, are affected by the reduction in the number of their municipalities. There are currently 61 municipalities in the KwaZulu-Natal province. This will be reduced to 54. Gauteng now has 12 municipalities. The redeterminations will result in the elimination of four municipalities and the establishment of one new metropolitan municipality. I thank you.