Saturday Star

Mashaba not fully sold on partnershi­p with Tau

- NONI MOKATI

FORMER Joburg mayor Parks Tau plans to “convince” his successor, DA mayor Herman Mashaba, to retain the city’s membership of the SA Local Gove r n ment As s o c i a t i o n (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 presi- dent 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.

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