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By proclamation of 18 November 1847 a municipal board for Port Elizabeth was established, consisting of eight commissioners (Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette No 2190 of 18 November 1847). By Act No 3 of 1860 Port Elizabeth became a municipality under the control of a mayor and town council. This act was re-enacted with amendments by Act No 14 of 1868. By Ordinance No 13 of 1913 the status of the municipality was elevated to that of a city.

In 2001, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality was formed as an administrative area covering Port Elizabeth, the neighbouring towns of Uitenhage and Despatch and the surrounding agricultural areas.

In 2019, the Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee (ECGNC) announced that the city of Port Elizabeth would likely have its name changed to Gqeberha, a Xhosa word used to refer to the Baakens River, which flows through the city. The proposal garnered significant local opposition. Despite this, on 23 February 2021, the city was officially renamed Gqeberha.

The purpose of the Department of Community Development was to promote the housing and settlement of all the different population groups in the country and the development of sound communities, and to remove, by means of slum clearance and urban renewal, poor conditions impeding proper community development.

The functions of the Department included: professional and technical planning of and control over housing programmes for the National Housing Commission and the Community Development Board; settlement and development of communities and provision of alternative facilities; activation of and assistance to local authorities to provide housing in terms of the Slums Act, 1934, and the Housing Act, 1966, and to develop areas for specific population groups with or without financial assistance from the Department, buying, selling and letting properties within the framework of the activities of the Department; renewal and replanning of depressed urban areas; provision and maintenance of official quarters for certain public servants; administration of the housing loan plan for public servants, of the Slums Clearance Act, and the Rents Act, of government villages, and of permits in terms of the Group Areas Act, 1966, in respect of proclaimed group areas.

There were eight regional offices in South Africa - in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.

In 1855 a municipal sub-committee recommended the erection of a hospital in Port Elizabeth and thus a Provincial Committee for the Management of the Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital came into being to guide its establishment in November 1855. While the building of the hospital was being undertaken, a temporary hospital was opened on 10 September 1856.

In 1856, Act No 5 for Regulating the Provincial Hospital at Port Elizabeth (CCP 6/2/1/1) was passed, which vested all control of the institution in a Board of Managers.

The completed hospital building was occupied in 1859 and the temporary hospital closed. By 1900 the need for a new hospital was realized and the foundation stone of this hospital was laid in 1912.

In terms of Ordinance No 5 of 1912 (Province of the Cape of Good Hope Official Gazette No 218, 27 January 1912), Hospital Districts were created in Divisional Council areas. Hospital Boards, named after the division or town in which the main hospital was situated, were constituted to control and manage all institutions under and created by them.

The division of Port Elizabeth was subdivided into six districts for Divisional Council purposes by means of a Proclamation dated 7 July 1856, published in the Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette No 2733, and in terms of the provisions of Act No 5 of 1855.

The Divisional Council of Dias was established on 1 January 1978 following the amalgamation of the former Divisional Councils of Port Elizabeth, Alexandria and Bathurst (W Albertyn: Official South African Municipal Yearbook, 1979, p 135).