The City of Johannesburg will remain a member of the South African Local Government Association (Salga), despite Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba’s announcement that it would withdraw its funding and essentially its membership from the association in October.
While waiting for the Democratic Alliance’s national leadership to make a decision by the end of February, the City will remain a member of the association. Mashaba called the association an instrument for the ‘deployment of cadres of the majority party in our country’.
“We will remain a member, we have already paid our dues for the year that cost us just under R12 million,” Mashaba told media after his 100 days in office speech on 1 December.
“We want to remain a part of Salga, but we want Salga to reflect the wishes of our people reflected in the third of august elections. Conditions were put to Salga to reflect the outcome of the municipal elections.”
The news that Mashaba would no longer provide funding for the association and its national congress came shortly after it was announced that the African National Congress Johannesburg chairperson and previous City Mayor, Parks Tau, was elected Salga’s chairperson.
Tau has since also been appointed as the president of the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), the world body for local government.
The association responded by saying that the City has been one of the most consistent and meaningful players in its affairs since its establishment and remains confident it will continue to occupy its rightful place. It said it would prioritise engagement with the City in the hopes that it would remain within Salga’s affairs.
The Democratic Alliance representatives, along with its coalition partners, withdrew from the Salga Gauteng conference in September, allegedly due to underhand dealings by the ANC that have ‘attempted to hijack control of the association’.
