Swellendam
Swellendam is the 3rd older town of South Africa after the Cape and Stellenbosch.
History
The city was founded in 1746, with the foot of the solid mass of Langeberg, in the province of the Cape-Westerner, to 220 km in the east of the city of the Cape.
Its name is the contraction of the patronyms of the governor of the Cape, Henrik Swellengrebel and of his wife Ten Damne.
Administration and policy
The municipality of Swellendam (Swellendam/Barrydale) account 30.000 inhabitants.
The city is divided politically between the opposition of the democratic Alliance (DA) and ANC. But following the rallying of the elected officials of the New national Party with ANC in 2002, the municipal majority rocked on the side of the party of the president Thabo Mbeki.
With the municipal elections of March 1st 2006, the ANC gains 4 seats against 3 seats with the DA, two seats with the independent Démocrates and a seat with the Parti Christian democrat African. But isolated, the candidate of the ANC at the post of mayor is beaten by that of the DA, is combined in the organization of the executive council with the elected officials of the ACDP and the ID.
Architectural heritage
Although devastated by a fire in 1865 and upset by the refittings of the years 1970, the city preserves an important and interesting architectural heritage like Dutch Reformed Church (1913) of Dutch style, baroque, Gothic and Byzantine, the complex of Drostdy (1747) and the old Zanddrift farm.