10-12-2014: City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Councillor Mpho Parks Tau’s Festive Season Message
As we bid the year 2014 good bye, we the City of Johannesburg citizens must do so with a sense of accomplishment - but remain grounded by the knowledge that much more still needs to be done.
This is after the City – with all our ongoing challenges of high unemployment, refurbishing our ageing infrastructure and redressing historical racial spatial segregation – was rated as the second most inspirational city in the world by Good Magazine of the United States. It placed us second only to Hong Kong in China.
This can only be attributed to, among other things, the effectiveness of intervention programmes that we have in place to address these challenges, such as the Corridors of Freedom, which is designed to redress historic spatial discrimination in the City. Jozi@Work, which promotes co-production between the City and its communities, is another programme that sets the City apart from the rest of our counterparts, not only in South Africa, but across the African continent.
We are also gearing up to activate a new Blue Economy concept in 2015 – a first in the country led by the City of Johannesburg, which aims to build capacity to generate multiple benefits for the local economy. This will be done through the transformation of technological breakthroughs into innovative and competitive business models that are also inclusive of citizens within the City.
The Good Magazine accolade came shortly after the City had just been announced as the most popular destination city in Africa for a second consecutive year by the 2014 MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index earlier last month.
The people of Johannesburg have played a significant role in placing the City among the best in the world. It is through you that Johannesburg has come to be known as a vibrant destination that we were able to attract more than 4-million visitors to the City again this year - after also having exceeded this number last year.
While many ignorantly talk about Johannesburg as if it is a crime capital of the world, it is worth sharing that our city does not even feature in the top 50 most violent cities in the world list recently compiled by the Mexico Citizens Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. This is an indication that our safety and crime-fighting initiatives in partnership with communities are bearing fruit.
All these ratings of Johannesburg are a reflection of our collective efforts as citizens in creating a city that is a hub of progress, engagement, and most of all, celebrated diversity.
May we hold hands as we continue to welcome more visitors into our City and prepare to host more international events in 2015. These include, among others, the 63rd World Congress of Comitѐ International d Έstѐtique et de Cosmѐtologie in February and the International Women’s Forum World Cornerstone Conference in May.
In celebration of the 2015 Transport Month, the City in partnership with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability will be hosting an Eco-Mobility Festival and World Congress which will see Sandton become a flagship of eco-mobility transformation. The streets of Johannesburg’s economic hub will be closed to motorised vehicles to make way for eco-mobility, which includes cycling and walking.
In December 2015, we will also be welcoming local government leaders from across the African continent when the City of Johannesburg hosts the 7th Africities Summit. The Summit will see these leaders deliberate over challenges currently faced by local governments to find creative collective solutions.
In the meantime, I encourage both Johannesburg citizens and visitors to take some time out during this festive season to visit our website on www.joburg.org.za to find places where you can explore the diverse cultural, leisure and many more lifestyle activities that make us a world class African city.
May you all have a safe and pleasant festive season, and a happy new year.
Cllr M.P Tau
