The Cape Winelands District Municipality, formerly the Boland District Municipality, is a district municipality located in the Boland region of the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2011, it had a population of 787,490. The largest towns in the municipality are Paarl, Worcester, Stellenbosch and Wellington. Geography The boundaries of this municipality, which covers an area of , coincide roughly with the boundaries of the geographical area that has been known since the early days of the Cape Colony as "The Boland". In Afrikaans Boland means "up land" or "the higher land" or "the land above" (i.e. in contrast to the low coastal areas of the original Dutch settlement at the Cape). However, the term "Boland", as originally used, was a loose concept, with no defined borders (cf. the informal but not meaningless terms "The Sahara" or "The Rocky Mountains"). The Boland is generally mountainous, with range after range of beautiful and isolated sandstone peaks reaching towards 2000m but also has broad, fertile valleys that are home to some of the country's finest vineyards. The region has a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers are hot and cool, damp winters, with snow on the peaks during August and September. The diverse geography includes peaks, ranges, escarpments, valleys, cliffs, rivers, pools, waterfalls, screes, canyons, springs, forests, caves and other natural features. The Cape Winelands District Municipality is divided into five local municipalities, which are described in the following table. Adjacent municipalities Namakwa District Municipality, Northern Cape (north) Central Karoo District Municipality (east) Garden Route District Municipality (east) Overberg District Municipality (south) City of Cape Town (southwest) West Coast District Municipality (west) History At the end of the apartheid era the area that is today the Cape Winelands District Municipality formed part of two Regional Services Councils (RSCs). The western parttoday's Drakenstein and Stellenbosch local municipalitieswas joined with the Cape Town metropolitan area in the Western Cape RSC. The eastern parttoday's Witzenberg, Breede Valley and Langeberg local municipalitiesformed the Breërivier RSC. The towns within the area were governed by various local authorities divided along racial lines. 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. In late 1994 and early 1995 the racially-divided local authorities were replaced by transitional local councils (TLCs) for each town and village. In February 1995