Joburg Executive Mayor, Amos Masondo, with UCLGA Secretary General, Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi and President, Smangaliso Mkhatshwa at the workshop

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Municipal leaders mull bright African future After three days of discussions, municipal leaders have agreed on a 20-year strategy to develop towns and cities across Africa. August 18, 2006 By Lucky Sindane Municipal leaders from across Africa this week gathered at the Protea Hotel in Benoni to map out a 20-year plan for the development of African towns and cities. Meeting under the auspices of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), mayors, managers, academics, leaders of organised local government, representatives of the private sector and the NGOs exchanged ideas on ways of speeding up development of African cities over the next two decades. Municipal leaders from across Africa outside the Protea Hotel in Benoni Amos Masondo, Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, attended the gathering. The 20-year planning workshop took place from 16 to 18 August 2006 The UCLGA is an association of municipalities and local government associations in Africa. It was founded in 2005 as a representative body of African local government, to build capacity within African municipalities and to mobilise resources and facilitate development based on relevant priorities in local communities. "After many years of slow development partly to strife, conflict and wars, Africans throughout the continent have decided that it is communities on the ground that can ensure sustainable development," explained the president of the UCLGA, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa. "We as local leaders, in line with the spirit of NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals, are holding this workshop to develop a 20-year strategy on financial self-sufficiency for municipalities in the continent." This follows a resolution taken by the executive committee of the UCLGA to develop a plan to make the organisation and its member municipalities as self-sustaining as possible over the next 20 years. The 20-year plan will address the following themes: building self-sustaining local government organisations, local economic development, tourism, providing basic services in a context of revenue generation and municipal investment. "The objective is to make municipalities fundable from a development point of view and capable of attracting investment capital so that they can develop their economies for job creation, poverty eradication and wealth creation," said Mkhatshwa. "Strategies in all the themes were developed on the basis of best practices and lessons learnt around the continent and elsewhere in the world," he concluded. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za