en Blue Crane Route Local Municipality

Blue Crane Route

Bloukraanroete
Blue Crane Route Bloukraanroete
Local municipality
	Seal
	Location in the Eastern Cape
	Coordinates: 32°43′S 25°35′E / 32.717°S 25.583°E
Country	South Africa
Province	Eastern Cape
District	Sarah Baartman
Seat	Somerset East
Wards	6
Government
• Type	Municipal council
• Mayor	Bonisile Manxoweni (ANC)
• Speaker	Bonisile Manxoweni (ANC)
• Chief Whip	Neliswa Nkonyeni (ANC)
Area
• Total	11,068 km2 (4,273 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	36,002
• Density	3.3/km2 (8.4/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	46.0%
• Coloured	33.0%
• Indian/Asian	0.3%
• White	19.8%
First languages (2011)
• Xhosa	51.3%
• Afrikaans	43.2%
• English	3.4%
• Other	2.1%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal code	EC102

Blue Crane Route Municipality (Xhosa: uMasipala wase Blue Crane Route; Afrikaans: Bloukraanroete Munisipaliteit) is a local municipality within the Sarah Baartman District Municipality, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The municipality is named after the South African national bird, the blue crane.^[4]

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:^[5]

Place	Code	Population	Most spoken language
Bongweni	20202	3,776	Xhosa
Cookhouse	20203	1,415	Xhosa
Khayanisho	20204	1,448	Xhosa
KwaNojoli	20205	8,132	Xhosa
Pearston	20206	2,596	Afrikaans
Petersburg	29103	39	Afrikaans
Somerset East	20207	8,456	Xhosa
Remainder of the municipality	20201	9,196	Xhosa

The municipal council consists of eleven members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Six councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in six wards, while the remaining five 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) won a majority of six seats on the council. The following table shows the results of the election^[6]


Party		Ward			List			Total seats
Party		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Total seats
	African National Congress	5,223	56.25	4	5,260	56.50	2	6
	Democratic Alliance	3,455	37.21	2	3,450	37.06	2	4
	Economic Freedom Fighters	582	6.27	0	575	6.18	1	1
	African Transformation Movement	6	0.06	0	25	0.27	0	0
	Independent candidates	20	0.22	0				0
Total		9,286	100.00	6	9,310	100.00	5	11

Valid votes		9,286	98.73		9,310	98.75
Invalid/blank votes		119	1.27		118	1.25
Total votes		9,405	100.00		9,428	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		17,867	52.64		17,867	52.77

^ Manxoweni serves as the Mayor, Speaker and Chairperson of the Finance Committee.

^ "Contact list: Executive Mayors". Government Communication & Information System. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
^ "Statistics by place". Statistics South Africa. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
^ South African Languages - Place names
^ Lookup Tables - Statistics South Africa^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ "Election Result Table for LGE2021 — Blue Crane Route". wikitable.frith.dev. Retrieved 18 December 2021.