In South Africa, a metropolitan municipality or Category A municipality is a type of municipality that performs all the functions of local government for a city.
In simple terms, a metropolitan municipality is responsible for all municipal affairs.
Metropolitan municipalities are divided into wards and have exclusive municipal executive and legislative authority in their areas. This means that the mayoral executive council can function independently and have single metropolitan budgets, common property ratings, and service-tariff systems, as well as single employer bodies.
A metropolitan municipality has more than 500,000 permanent residents that coordinate service delivery like firefighting services, local public transport and refuse removal for the entire region.
Metropolitan municipalities are created in large urban centres or areas with high economic activity.
In South Africa, Metropolitan municipalities exist in the eight biggest cities of the country namely;
- Johannesburg
- Pretoria
- East Rand
- Cape Town
- Durban
- Gqeberha
- East London
- Bloemfontein
List of South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities
South Africa has eight metropolitan municipalities and they are listed below.
| Name of Metro | Code | Province | Seat | Area (km²) | Population (2022) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality | BUF | Eastern Cape | East London | 2,750 | 975,255 |
| City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality | JHB | Gauteng | Johannesburg | 4,803,262 | |
| City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality | CPT | Western Cape | Cape Town | 2,446 | 4,772,864 |
| City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality | EKU | Gauteng | Germiston | 4,066,691 | |
| City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality | TSH | Gauteng | Pretoria | 4,040,315 | |
| Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality | NMA | Eastern Cape | Gqeberha | 1,957 | 1,190,496 |
| eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality | ETH | KwaZulu-Natal | Durban | 2,556 | 4,239,901 |
| Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality | MAN | Free State | Bloemfontein | 811,431 |
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