Drakenstein Municipality is a local municipality located within the Cape Winelands District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. , it had a population of 251,262. Its municipality code is WC023. Geography The municipality covers a total area of in the valley of the Berg River to the west of the Boland mountain ranges. It stretches about from Saron in the north to beyond Paarl in the south. It abuts the Witzenberg Municipality and Breede Valley Municipality to the east, the Stellenbosch Municipality to the south, the City of Cape Town and the Swartland Municipality to the west, and the Bergrivier Municipality to the north. According to the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 251,262 people in 59,774 households. Of this population, 62.5% describe themselves as "Coloured", 22.7% as "Black African", and 13.5% as "White". The first language of 75.0% of the population is Afrikaans, while 16.7% speak Xhosa and 5.1% speak English. The principal town and location of the municipal headquarters is Paarl, situated in the south of the municipality, which as of 2011 has a population of 112,045 people. Paarl is the southernmost part of a continuous built-up area along the Berg River which also includes Mbekweni (pop. 30,875) and Wellington (pop. 55,543). In the northern part of the municipality are the smaller towns of Gouda (pop. 3,441) and Saron (pop. 7,843). History At the end of the apartheid era, in the area that is today the Drakenstein Municipality, the towns of Paarl, Wellington, and Gouda were governed by municipal councils elected by their white residents. The coloured residents of Paarl and Wellington were governed by management committees subordinate to the white councils, while the former mission station of Saron was governed by a management board. Mbekweni was governed by a town council established under the Black Local Authorities Act, 1982. The northern area around Gouda and Saron, as well as an area around Du Toit's Kloof Pass, formed part of the Breërivier Regional Services Council (RSC); the rest formed part of the Western Cape RSC. After the national elections of 1994 a process of local government transformation began, in which negotiations were held between the existing local authorities, political parties, and local community organisations. As a result of these negotiations, the existing local authorities were dissolved and transitional local councils (TLCs) were created for each town and village. In October 1994 the Gouda