About us

The Overberg District Municipality is a District Municipality that governs the Overberg region in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is divided into four local municipalities and includes the major towns of Grabouw, Caledon, Hermanus, Bredasdorp and Swellendam. The municipal area covers 12,241 km2 and currently has an estimated population of 273,395 people in 83,072 households. The population size is expected to increase to 291,150 by 2020. At the end of 2014, the Overberg District population of 269,649 represented 4.5% of the total population of the Western Cape. The Overberg lies to the South-east of Cape Town. It stretches from the Hottentots-Holland Mountains in the west to the Breede River mouth in the east, and as far as the Riviersonderend Mountains in the north. It includes Cape Agulhas, the southern-most point in Africa, and has coastlines on both the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The largest town is Grabouw in the Elgin Valley adjacent to the Hottentots-Holland on the north-western edge of the district. The municipal headquarters are located at Bredasdorp in the southern part of the district. Other major towns are Swellendam on the Breede River in the north-east, Caledon in the western interior, and Hermanus on the Atlantic coast.

Our Mission
“To render sustainable, client directed services and to be the preferred Provider of Shared Services within the Overberg”

The Bredasdorp Thusong centre was officially opened on 14 March 2014. The centre provides easy access to equitable and effective government information and provides a variety of social services to the Cape Agulhas community. All the office spaces at the Thusong centre are occupied by service providers representing the National, Provincial and Local Governments as well as the NGO sector.

The following service providers are based at the Thusong centre:

• Cape Agulhas Municipality – Human Development Department (028) 425 5560

• Cape Agulhas Municipality – Municipal Pay point (028) 425 5560

• SASSA – South African Social Security Agency (028) 425 5560

• DHA – Department of Home Affairs (028) 425 1165

• GCIS – Government Communication and Information Systems, portiaml@gcis.gov.za,

• Cape Access – Provides Information and free Internet services to the community (028) 424 1231

• PCDW – Provincial Community Development Workers (028) 425 5560

Section 53 of the Disaster Management Act (Act 57 of 2002) stipulates that: “Each municipality must, within the applicable municipal disaster management framework prepare a disaster management plan for its area according to the circumstances prevailing in the area” Disaster Management is a continuous integrated and multi-sectored and disciplinary process of planning and implementation of measures aimed at disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and rehabilitation.

Cape Agulhas Municipality is in process of developing a revised Disaster Management Plan which serves as a situational analysis of operating arrangements within the area, and which will provide officials and other role players in Disaster Management as well as communities to effectively prevent disasters from occurring and to minimize the impact of hazards which cannot be avoided.

The Overberg District Municipality are primarily responsible for the coordination and management of local disasters that occur in the Cape Agulhas area and will liaise with the Local Municipality in identifying and responding to disaster risks in the Municipality and the drawing up of the contingency and prevention plans to address risks. Currently all fires in our Municipal area are dealt with by the Overberg District Municipality. All other disaster related functions are the responsibility of the Local Municipality.