The Municipal Demarcation Board assigns every municipality a unique code. These codes appear throughout National Treasury and Statistics South Africa publications, on official documents, and on every profile on this site. They look cryptic and are in fact simple.
Metropolitan municipalities: three letters
| Code | Municipality | Province |
|---|---|---|
| JHB | City of Johannesburg | Gauteng |
| CPT | Cape Town | Western Cape |
| ETH | eThekwini | KwaZulu-Natal |
| EKU | City of Ekurhuleni | Gauteng |
| TSH | City of Tshwane | Gauteng |
| NMA | Nelson Mandela Bay | Eastern Cape |
| BUF | Buffalo City | Eastern Cape |
| MAN | Mangaung | Free State |
District municipalities: DC and a number
District municipalities use DC followed by a number, such as DC10 or DC44. The number does not encode the province, so a district code has to be looked up.
Local municipalities: province prefix and digits
| Prefix | Province | Example |
|---|---|---|
| EC | Eastern Cape | EC101 |
| FS | Free State | FS181 |
| GT | Gauteng | GT421 |
| KZN | KwaZulu-Natal | KZN212 |
| LIM | Limpopo | LIM331 |
| MP | Mpumalanga | MP301 |
| NC | Northern Cape | NC061 |
| NW | North West | NW371 |
| WC | Western Cape | WC011 |
Why they matter more than names
Municipality names change, and several are similar or identical. Two municipalities are both called Emalahleni, one in Mpumalanga and one in the Eastern Cape, several hundred kilometres apart. Their names are the same. Their codes, MP312 and EC136, are not.
Names also change for political and historical reasons. Codes generally do not. If you are joining data between government sources, always match on the code and never on the name. This site does exactly that.
Common questions
Do codes change when boundaries change?
They can. When municipalities were amalgamated in 2016, several new entities received new codes while the old ones were retired. National Treasury keeps disestablished codes in its records so that historical financial data remains traceable.
Where can I find the official list?
The Municipal Demarcation Board publishes the codes with its boundary data, and National Treasury lists them in its Municipal Money data. Every profile on this site displays the code beside the municipality name.
Figures on this page come from National Treasury, Statistics South Africa and the Auditor-General, as set out in the sources and methodology. Read the methodology