Ray Nkonyeni Municipality is a newly established local municipality. Former Hibiscus Coast Local Municipality and former Ezinqoleni Local Municipality were disestablished to form the new municipality. The municipality is one of the four local municipalities under Ugu District Municipality. Ray Nkonyeni Municipality is ranked number five out of the forty three local municipalities in terms of population in the province of KwaZulu Natal (KZN). Amongst all the newly merged municipalities in the province, Ray Nkonyeni Municipality is the only municipality that received a clean audit for the current financial year. The municipality consists of a diverse population. There are thirty six wards in total, seventy one councillors and seven departments. Ray Nkonyeni Municipality is headed by Her Worship, the mayor Cllr. NCP Mqwebu while the administration side is headed by Mr SM Mbili.
Ray Nkonyeni Municipality is a strong tourist attraction destination, boasting of well-developed products. Added to that, is the climate which is humid and subtropical all year-round, thus a leading tourist destination in KZN. Margate and Port Shepstone are two main centres with public infrastructure, beautiful coastline with blue flag beaches and tourism, the latter mainly playing administrative role while the former is more of tourism attraction point with most tourism products developed in and around this town.
The municipality boasts of breath taking gorges and valleys, beautiful country slopes covered in rich soils. The Indian Ocean borders the Eastern side of the municipality and covers approximately 72 km of the coastal belt. It is a marvel to watch the meandering many lazy rivers within the municipality as they slowly flow towards the mighty Indian Ocean. Up the valleys are natural ponds and dams that are homes to many different fish species and are huge tourist attractions. The municipality’s environmental sensitive protected areas is home to a number of endangered species and indigenous forests, hence they are highly protected. There are many small towns doted along the coastal belt, while the hinterland has nine traditional authoritative lands.

Ray Nkonyeni Municipality further boasts of a very active air infrastructure with flights flying to a number of destinations within the country.