[OSGeo Africa] South Africa Magisterial Districts

Wed Nov 1 04:49:08 PDT 2017

Hi Hanlie,

all magisterial district boundaries for South Africa have been published in the Government Gazette since the late 1800's. These were included in the past on the national 1:250,000 topographical map series as thick purple lines. Obviously these printed boundaries became outdated as soon as any changes to magisterial district boundaries was gazetted, after print and before the next printed map updates appeared. An effort was also made by the Surveyor General (SG) to update these boundaries on the SG noting/compilation sheets, but sadly with no map legend included to clearly differentiate between different line styles on the compilation sheets.

Since the inception of GIS technology, the South African magisterial district boundaries have never been properly/accurately captured. As was mentioned, there is indeed a 2011 version of a GIS data set for magisterial district boundaries available. This data set however is full of factual and topological errors. For some of the provinces the SG digital cadastral data sets indeed includes a magisterial districts data set, but also these are full of factual and topological errors.

The reason we know this is that we have been busy, on a full-time basis for an extended period of time, under the banner of www.domicilium-trace.co.za , with capturing the magisterial district boundaries from the point-to-point descriptions gazetted since the late 1800's, based as far as possible on the SG's 2016 version of its digital cadastral data sets. A very tedious task indeed which we will complete in the near future. The results we are still uncertain of when and how it will be made available.

Take note that some of these gazetted Government Notices containing the point-to-point descriptions of magisterial district boundaries are not available, since no dated record thereof have been captured. In these cases all available resources such as historical paper maps, compilation sheets and SG magisterial district data sets are evaluated in order to reach the best recognised and informed results.

So the data set being compiled will still not be factually 100% correct, because of some non-existent (point-to-point description) records, but at least for all the data discrepancies that might be pointed out in future, we will be able to motivate how/why we made that particular decision. The resulting data set will however be without topological errors. 

The above process focuses on all "historical" magisterial district boundaries nationwide, since (according to law) this still forms the basis of sheriff service areas, which is where our actual interest lies.

However, since 2014 a process of rationalisation of magisterial district boundaries are being conducted by the Department of Justice. This is done in order to make access/distance to Dept. of Justice centres (courts) as easy as possible to the public. This has already been completed (and gazetted) for the four northern provinces (Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng & Northwest) and the data is available as shape files from either the Demarcation Board and/or the Department of Justice. As far as our information is concerned, KZN is currently in this rationalisation process, with other provinces to follow.

Hope this at least sheds some light on the issue.

Best regards

Ryk

RYK TALJAARD
Domicilium Trace
Mobile: 082 895 2906  Fax2Email: 086 621 1336
P.O. Box 7352  Noorder-Paarl  7623  SOUTH AFRICA
Web:  www.domicilium-trace.co.za  Email: ryk at domicilium-trace.co.za

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Sent: 31 October 2017 09:00 PM
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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: South Africa Magesterial Districts (Hanlie Pretorius)
   2. Re: South Africa Magesterial Districts (Sibonelo Dlamini)
   3. Re: South Africa Magesterial Districts (Hanlie Pretorius)

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 09:18:47 +0200
From: Hanlie Pretorius <hanlie.pretorius at gmail.com>
To: africa at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [OSGeo Africa] South Africa Magesterial Districts
Message-ID:
	<CAFpCUPp4TmPm-YcA8srUMvAbj7P08fmzHHH8L=tBL_vpFt=5Fg at mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply.

I don't know if they coincide with the police station boundaries.

Sounds like the Department of Justice has to make the call and I can't
get any information out of them.

Regards
Hanlie

> Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 08:54:21 +0200
> From: Chris Berens <chris at mapland.co.za>
> To: Africa local chapter discussions <africa at lists.osgeo.org>
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo Africa] South Africa Magesterial Districts
> Hi Hanlie,
>
> Who uses them?  I noticed that StatsSA didn't release them alongside other
> admins in the 2011 Census pack.  I have the set issued with Census 2001.
> But I would think that the courts would use a more updated caseload measure
> such as the ward boundaries as building blocks.
>
> Do the MDs tie into SAPS Station boundaries? These were available on SAPS
> website until quite recently. Shout if you need them.
>
> Best wishes,
> Chris
>

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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 09:26:02 +0200
From: Sibonelo Dlamini <sibonelo021 at gmail.com>
To: Africa local chapter discussions <africa at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [OSGeo Africa] South Africa Magesterial Districts
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	<CAD29-9Do5a6WtF4gx6=wXuQXKwJX+KrWKpSGfxJHe0RMeCzLJQ at mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Hanlie

The data custodian of South Africa Magesterial Districts is Chief Surveyor
General office that is under the Department of Rural Development and Land
Reform. That specific shapefile falls under Cadastral . You can make a
request with them at the Office of Chief Surveyor General Tel:0123268050.

Regards
Sibonelo Dlamini
0216584300

On 31 Oct 2017 08:13, "Hanlie Pretorius" <hanlie.pretorius at gmail.com> wrote:

> Forgot to say where I have looked:
>
> * Demarcation Board
> * Department of Justice
> * Search engines
>
> 2017-10-31 8:11 GMT+02:00, Hanlie Pretorius <hanlie.pretorius at gmail.com>:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Does anybody know where to find the latest magisterial districts?
> >
> > I'm specifically interested in EC and WC, but the whole country would
> > not go unappreciated.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Hanlie
> >
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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 15:07:43 +0200
From: Hanlie Pretorius <hanlie.pretorius at gmail.com>
To: Africa local chapter discussions <africa at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [OSGeo Africa] South Africa Magesterial Districts
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Thanks for all the replies.

Victor Knoop from the Justice Department is helping me with this.

Regards
Hanlie

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