Parks Tau elected president of local government world body
Former Johannesburg mayor and current president of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) Parks Tau has been elected president of the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) organisation, the umbrella body for local government around the world, Salga said on Saturday.
The election took place at the 5th UCLG congress world summit of local and regional leaders in Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá, Salga said in a statement.
“For local government, this world body is the equivalent of the United Nations, comprising of over a 1000 leading cities and virtually all of the local government associations in the world. Together its members represent over half of the world’s total population,” it said.
Winning the presidency, for a three-year term of office, was a milestone for the African continent and South Africa.
The presidency would provide a platform for South Africa, the African continent, and the entire local government fraternity to drive the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the Paris Accord on Climate Change, the New Urban Agenda (Habitat III), together with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction.
Tau’s plan was clear – to shape a more sustainable, inclusive, and just future, Salga said. Importantly, Tau would be at the helm, creating sustainable partnerships with business, civil society, innovation institutions, and international multi-lateral organisations to access global partners for development.
“We are ready. We have demonstrated our cohesion and that we can work together as a continent. It is not somebody doing us a favour. We are active and leading members of the world body UCLG,” Tau said in the statement.
– African News Agency (ANA)