SALGA President Parks Tau urge State to ensure that all spheres of government supports local government, as the sphere closest to the people

Posted: 24 February 2017

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SALGA President Parks Tau speaking behalf of the fraternity of local government, says local government is cognisant of the increased expectation by both local communities and the global development community on the role of the local arm of state in making a meaningful impact on development.


President Parks Tau was addressing parliament during a Joint Sitting Debate on President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).

SALGA President says the past two years have been crucial in framing the future of our planet as the United Nations and the broader global development community have reached consensus on a number of international accords that shape what governments, multilateral agencies, business, NGO’s, civil society and other stakeholders should and could do in shaping the future of our earth and indeed humanity. This is espoused in amongst others, but not limited to;

• The Sustainable Development Goals;
• The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction;
• The Paris Accord on Climate Change;
• The Addis Ababa Action Agenda’ and
• The New Urban Agenda

“As local government, under the auspices of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, an initiative to bring together the entire local government family globally; we have taken the view that these accords should be viewed and implemented as part of an integrated global development agenda,” he said.

President Parks Tau further said in order to achieve a state that is capable of playing a developmental and transformative role, the state must ensure that all spheres of government supports local government, as the sphere closest to the people and the implementation level of government, to play a fundamental role in building a capable state and is, for that reason, the key pillar in a capable state that South Africa wish to construct.

“SALGA’s national executive committee has urged us to identify means of accessing innovative financing solutions for the local sphere. This will include use of pooled financing mechanisms that we have already developed for those municipalities that cannot access the debt capital market,” he told parliament.