Dear all:
First of all, I would like to express my admiration and gratitude for this wonderful initiative. This spatial data repository is a valuable resource to people interested in analyzing data in its geographical context. Thank you!
I tried to use GADM files in order to map South African municipal data (census and public finances) and I realized that GADM is using an outdated shapefile and, besides, the level 2 boundaries refer to places and not to municipalities.
Places are administrative subdivision inside ZA municipalities. It would be no problem if the municipal names and/or codes were included into the shapefile, but they are not.
Looking for data in governmental sources I was able to find a updated version of ZA municipalities, divided into one shapefile by province. The agency in charge is the Municipal Demarcation Board and the files can be found at: http://www.demarcation.org.za/pages/default_new.html
It would be very important if you could contact the Municipal Demarcation Board in order to update your South African administrative areas using official data that is publicly available on the Internet. On the other hand, I would suggest the inclusion of ward boundaries, since they are employed to analyze electoral and other party politics phenomena.
Best regards,
Rodrigo Rodrigues-Silveira