Overberg District Municipality
Overberg District Municipality
The Overberg District Municipality governs the Overberg Region of the Western Cape, South Africa. Its head office is situated in the town of Bredasdorp. The boundaries of the Overberg are the Hottentots-Holland mountains in the West, the Riviersonderend Mountains in the North, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the South and the Breede River in the East. The district municipal area covers 12,241 km2 and currently has an estimated population of 300,285 people in 86,716 households.
The Overberg District Municipality includes four local municipalities: Cape Agulhas Municipality, the Overstrand, Swellendam and Theewaterskloof local municipalities.
The major towns in the district are Hermanus, Caledon, Bredasdorp, Grabouw and Swellendam and the region includes Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent. The landscape is dominated by gently to moderately undulating hills, bordered by mountains and the ocean.
The Overberg is the breadbasket of the Cape and largely produces wheat. The wheat fields are a major breeding ground for South Africa’s national bird, the blue crane. Another important food farmed in the Overberg is fruit, with Grabouw being the second largest supplier of fruit in South Africa.
The Overberg District municipality falls entirely within the fynbos biome in the Cape Floristic Region, a recognised global biodiversity hotspot with high levels of endemism and floral and faunal diversity. An abundance of wetlands can be found throughout the municipality, including several Ramsar sites of international importance.
Two local municipalities in the Overberg District, namely Overstrand and Cape Agulhas, participate in the INTERACT-Bio project and are featured on our website here.