Place Names

By Pali Lehohla

Within the last decade, the development of sophisticated geographical information systems has revolutionised the way in which statistics are collected and presented.

This revolution has been mirrored in significant developments in the way national geographical hierarchies are constructed.

In South Africa, this process has been even more dramatic because of the rapid move away from the spatial base that underlay apartheid planning and racial segregation.

The geographical hierarchy through which statistical data can be presented is a complex structure that is, in some instances, still in formation. The demarcation of the whole country into new municipal areas is one example of this.

Another is the existence of municipalities that straddle two provinces. There are eight of these in South Africa.

However, the core of a new geographical hierarchy, to which statistical data can be attached, is now in place. This structure consists of seven levels, and each element in each level has to be geo-coded to identify it in relation to the higher levels of the geographical hierarchy.

The seven levels of the geographical hierarchy are:

•South Africa;
•Province;
•District council or metropolitan area;
•Local municipality or district management area;
•Main place;
•Sub-place; and
•Enumeration area.
The first two levels, South Africa and its nine provinces, require little elaboration.

For the next two levels, Statistic SA acquired new municipality boundaries from the Municipal Demarcation Board in 2000.

The new structure consists of metropolitan areas and district councils at one level.

At the lower level, district councils are subdivided into local municipalities or district management areas.

In total, there are six metropolitan areas, 47 district councils, 231 local municipalities and 25 district management areas.

The six metropolitan areas, which feature high population density, intense movement of people, goods and services, extensive development, and multiple business districts and industrial areas, are City of Cape Town, eThekwini (Durban), Ekurhuleni (East Rand), City of Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Metropole (Port Elizabeth) and Tshwane (Pretoria).

In the demarcation process, a total of 47 district councils were established, which together cover all non-metropolitan areas.

Forty-two of the district councils are confined to a single province, while five cross provincial boundaries.

A place name is an easily recognisable, small-area geographical entity at local level, and corresponds, for example, with the name of the city, town, tribal area or administrative area.

There are 2 674 unique main place names (level five in the geographical area hierarchy structure).

However, because some main place names cross the boundaries of adjacent municipalities, Stats SA geo-coded 3 031 main place names.

A five-digit code was generated for each main place as follows: the first digit denotes province, the second and third digits denote municipality, and the last two digits identify a unique main place in a municipality.

The sub-place (level 6) is at a lower level than a main place in the place-name hierarchy. The sub-place name corresponds to the name of the suburb, ward, village, farm or informal settlement.

There are 15 966 unique sub-place names. However, because some sub-place names crossed the borders of adjacent main places, Stats SA has geo-coded a total of 21 219 sub-place names, each with an eight-digit code derived in the same way as the codes for main places plus with three digits at the end identifying a unique sub-place.

The lowest level in the geographical hierarchy is the enumerator area (EA).

An EA is the smallest geographical unit (piece of land) into which the country is divided for enumeration purposes. EAs typically contain between 100 and 250 households.

The EA code is a unique ID number, consisting of eight digits, used for record-keeping and tracking purposes.

Stats SA has demarcated and geo-coded a total of 80 787 EAs. Since the EA is the smallest geographical unit, it is used as a building block to form the different geographical hierarchies.

Separate from this seven-level geographical hierarchy is the magisterial district, an administrative area created to serve the justice system through a network of magisterial offices. There are 354 magisterial districts.

This massive system of relational geographical coding becomes even more comprehensive when other means of stratifying areas are introduced.

For example, stratification of place names into urban or rural - according to agreed definitions and classifications - refines the geographical system further.

Establishing a workable and acceptable definition for urban and rural is itself a complicated exercise, and a discussion of this must be reserved for a future edition of Inside Statistics.

Pali Lehohla is South Africa's statistician-general and head of Statistics SA. For more information on Stats SA and its statistical outputs, visit www.statssa.gov