The principal town and location of the municipal head office is Ceres on the eastern slope of the Skurweberg mountains, which as of 2011 has a population of 33,224.

[5] To the west of Ceres, on the other side of the mountains, is the Land van Waveren valley with the towns of Wolseley (pop.

[9] There are a number of informal settlements: Pine Valley, Chris Hani, Mooiblom, Zibonele, Polocross, Die Gaatjie and Kleinbegin.

The township of Nduli near Ceres had 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 Witzenberg Municipality included most of the Witzenberg TRC and a small part of the Matroosberg TRC.