The municipality covers an area of 831 square kilometres (321 sq mi) around the towns of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.

To the west and southwest it extends as far as the urban edge of the Cape Town metropolitan area, while to the east and southeast it is bounded by mountain ranges.

"[6] At the end of the apartheid era, the area that is today the Stellenbosch Municipality formed part of the Western Cape Regional Services Council (RSC).

The towns of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek were governed by municipal councils elected by their white residents.

The coloured residents of Idas Valley and Cloetesville (Stellenbosch) and Groendal (Franschhoek) were governed by management committees subordinate to the white councils; those resident in Johannesdal, Kylemore and Klapmuts South by management committees subordinate to the RSC.

Kayamandi 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.

Transitional representative councils (TRCs) were also elected to represent rural areas outside the TLCs on the District Council; the area that was to become Stellenbosch Municipality included the Stellenbosch TRC and part of the Paarl TRC.

In 2006 a rural area to the southeast of Brackenfell was removed from the City of Cape Town and added to Stellenbosch Municipality.

This represents an annual growth rate of 2.7% compared to the result of the previous census in 2001 which found a population of 118,709 people.

In the 2021 local government elections, the Democratic Alliance (DA) received a majority of twenty-eight seats on the council.

In February 2008 councillor Myra Linders left the DA and stood as an independent candidate in the resulting by-election, and won.

Her shift in allegiance allowed an ANC-led coalition, with the swing votes of the two councillors from the Kayamandi Community Alliance (KCA) to take control of the council in April 2008.

[10] In the 2016 local government elections, the DA increased their majority in the council to thirty seats.

Van Deventer announced her retirement from politics in October 2024,[15] and she was succeeded by deputy mayor Jeremy Fasser.