Johannesburg - Former Joburg mayor Parks Tau plans to “convince” his successor, DA mayor Herman Mashaba, to retain the city’s membership of the SA Local Government Association (Salga).
This comes after Mashaba this week revealed his administration would review its partnership with Salga.
“Salga has received an indication that the Joburg municipality wants to review, but we haven’t had confirmation.
“Salga engages with all its members,” said Tau. “Our chief executive, Xolile George, has been in touch with the City of Joburg regarding the decision.
“Salga’s role, going forward, is to improve the way in which municipalities function, and basically this includes enhancing the work of local municipalities through the provision of basic services such as primary healthcare, water and electricity.”
Tau was elected as the president of Salga, which works with the country’s 257 municipalities, this week.
On Joburg’s membership of Salga, Mashaba said the city was looking to review it next year as the association no longer fulfilled its role as a body working towards service delivery, but rather focused on cadre deployment. Last month, Gauteng Premier David Makhura warned that municipalities which don’t want to be part of Salga should not expect any government support.
Mashaba this week said his next 100 days in office would focus on fixing the city by introducing a new budget for the municipality.
This week, Mashaba marked his first 100 days in office, revealing the new budget would be tabled shortly after his State of the City address in 2017.
“As a new administration, we cannot make amendments to the budget until the end of February when the auditor-general permits adjustments to our budget, providing they are not substantial.”
Mashaba has attracted some controversy by cutting back on advertising expenditure, scrapping “vanity projects” of the previous administration, such as bicycle lanes and imported mango flour to make bread.
His administration, he said, was pro-poor and wanted to focus on service delivery instead of spending millions on self-promotion.
“We have inherited an Integrated Development Plan where hundreds of millions of rand are committed to vanity projects. Our residents need the support of their government, a government that delivers services, fights corruption, creates jobs and is trustworthy,” he said.
Saturday Star