2011-05-27: City of Johannesburg Mayor Tau announces stakeholder summit to discuss future of city​

Johannesburg will hold a city-wide stakeholder summit before the end of the year to map out the strategic direction of the country’s largest metro.

Speaking in the Johannesburg Council shortly after his election, the new Executive Mayor, Clr Mpho Parks Tau, said while the City is building on the legacy of its successes in the past decade “it is equally true that a changing environment requires a fresh look at the interventions we are implementing.”

In 2006 Johannesburg adopted a Growth and Development Strategy (GDS), at a stakeholder summit that emphasised six important principles:

The City must find solutions to enable the pro-active absorption of the poor, both from inside South Africa and beyond, as it has become a magnet for the poor seeking a better life;
It must ensure balanced and shared growth and break down the divide between the "first" and "second" economies;
It must facilitate social mobility and equality and meet its obligations to serve the poor better;
Since the City has been transformed in institutional terms over the past 10 years, it is now time to accelerate its transformation in spatial terms;
It must ensure it becomes a more sustainable city by anticipating and managing the effects of environmental change; and
The City recognises that it cannot deal with the challenges it faces alone and it needs to find new ways of working across the traditional public-private divide and across boundaries that separate it from its neighbours.
“These issues remain very relevant to this day,” said Mayor Tau. “But I believe the time has come for us to have a fresh look at the GDS to ensure that its objectives and guidelines still meet the needs of a dynamic urban environment.”

It will be an inclusive process involving all communities and stakeholders to enable Johannesburg to redefine its priorities across the entire spectrum of city activities and programmes.

The process will culminate in a city-wide Stakeholder Summit later this year where the outlines of a revised GDS will be discussed and adopted, said Mayor Tau.

Ends

Issued by: City of Johannesburg: Communications and Marketing

Enquiries: Gabu Tugwana; 011 407 7162; gabut@joburg.org.za

Nthatisi Modingoane
Deputy Director: Communications
CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Tel: (011) 407 7354
Fax: 403 3494
Cell: 082 467 9228
E-mail: nthatisem@joburg.org.za