[2] The municipality covers an area of 2,011 square kilometres (776 sq mi) on the coastal plain between the Outeniqua Mountains and the sea.

[4] The principal town is Mossel Bay on the Cape St Blaize peninsula, which as of 2011 has a population of 59,031.

At the end of the apartheid era, the area that is today the Mossel Bay Municipality formed part of the South Cape Regional Services Council (RSC).

The towns of Mossel Bay, Hartenbos, Great Brak River and Herbertsdale were governed by municipal councils elected by their white residents.

The coloured residents of D'Almeida (Mossel Bay) and Great Brak River were governed by management committees subordinate to the white councils.

Kwanonqaba was governed by a town council established under the Black Local Authorities Act, 1982.

While the negotiations to end apartheid were taking place a process was established for local authorities to agree on voluntary mergers.

The transitional councils were initially made up of members nominated by the various parties to the negotiations, until May 1996 when elections were held.

Marie Ferreira of the Democratic Alliance (DA) became executive mayor after the March 2006 local government elections when the DA formed a coalition with Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (ICOSA) since no single party had obtained an outright majority.

The DA held 10 seats in the (then) 23-seat council followed by 8 for the African National Congress (ANC) and 3 for ICOSA.

[7] In 2018 two minicipal workers were arrested after swindling the municipality out of R138,000 by changing the amounts charged for grave sites.