Joburg Mayor advocates social cohesion a

Joburg Mayor advocates social cohesion at Vatican City

22 July 2015

Social cohesion is key to assisting cities across the world deal with challenges of modern slavery and climate change, City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Parks Tau said on Tuesday, July 21, 2015, at a two-day meeting of mayors from across the world at the Vatican City.

Mayor Tau joined other mayors who met with Pope Francis at the meeting designed to call local government authorities of global cities to action by joining the religious leaders in their request to the United Nations (UN) to consider modern slavery and human trafficking a crime against humanity.

The call also looks to put moral pressure on the UN to make sure that the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will be approved by the UN in September 2015 and in the Paris COP-21 Summit December give enough weight to these two concerns.

During his presentation at the meeting convened by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Mayor Tau quoted a report of the UN Habitat, which predicts that by 2050, 75% of humanity will be living in cities – indicating that urbanisation was the future as more people moved into cities.

He said: “The highest growth rates of population are currently recorded in cities, especially those in the south. Johannesburg is already urbanising at a rate of approximately 4% - with our population having grown from 3.7 million to 4.4 million in almost 10 years.”

Mayor Tau pointed out that “the African continent - having suffered from years of colonisation - has not seen relative peace and stability in some countries”.
“This has led to forced migration of people from rural to urban areas, and from unstable countries to those with relative stability,” he said.

Mayor Tau said migration was “typically seen as a failure of adaptation”, and not a form of it being as a result of the high levels of vulnerability of migrants, recipient countries and cities.

“In recent months, South Africa witnessed social unrest against migrants which unfortunately portrayed the country in a bad light. The South African government’s response has been to promote social cohesion through ongoing anti-xenophobia campaigns,” Mayor Tau added.

He said: “With the increase in the influx of migrants and concern for human trafficking, the government has furthermore introduced modernised immigration regulations.”

“At a city level, we are implementing a number of programmes that promote social cohesion in a bid to address potential exploitation of migrants and mitigate the impact of climate change,” Mayor Tau said.

Some of the City of Johannesburg’s programmes being implemented that Mayor Tau shared with his international counterparts included the following:

Corridors of Freedom, which is founded on the concept of ‘re-stitching the city into an inclusive and accessible city for all. It is about amending the spatial frame to reverse the impact of apartheid’s policy of exclusion.
Ongoing investment in sustainable and resilient low-carbon infrastructure, resource-efficient technologies and retrofitting to reduce demand on natural resources.
To reduce the vulnerability of migrants and citizens, the city is implementing an Integrated Food Security Strategy which focuses on nutrition, domestic food production, income generation and job creation.
There is migrant desk which provides frontline services to anyone arriving in the city for the first time to provide them with essential information of how to make South Africa and Johannesburg their home whether on a temporary or permanent basis.
We run campaigns on social inclusion such as the ongoing Anti-Xenophobia Campaign where we are spreading a message of welcome to migrants.
Johannesburg is a Steering Committee member of the C40 and has consolidated its climate response to the global challenge of climate change.
Johannesburg is also a Steering Committee member of the Global Network Safer Cities Campaign of UN Habitat. The city works with international partners to deliver urban safety using good governance, appropriate urban planning and management, and reduction of acute vulnerabilities to diminish the incidence and impact of violence.
Working with International Partners within Metropolis – with Mayor Tau as Co-President, the city is leading a campaign on social inclusion through direct practice and bringing together coalitions of partners through research and advocacy.
As an aspirant world class city, in promoting access and mobility, in October 2015, Johannesburg will be hosting the EcoMobility Festival throughout October, which is set to promote mobility access and social cohesion.
Later in the year from 29 November to 3 December, the city will be hosting the 7th edition of Africities to deliberate on the future of African cities and the mayors are invited to these events.

Corridors of Freedom, which is founded on the concept of ‘re-stitching the city into an inclusive and accessible city for all. It is about amending the spatial frame to reverse the impact of apartheid’s policy of exclusion.

Ongoing investment in sustainable and resilient low-carbon infrastructure, resource-efficient technologies and retrofitting to reduce demand on natural resources.

To reduce the vulnerability of migrants and citizens, the city is implementing an Integrated Food Security Strategy which focuses on nutrition, domestic food production, income generation and job creation.

There is migrant desk which provides frontline services to anyone arriving in the city for the first time to provide them with essential information of how to make South Africa and Johannesburg their home whether on a temporary or permanent basis.

We run campaigns on social inclusion such as the ongoing Anti-Xenophobia Campaign where we are spreading a message of welcome to migrants.

Johannesburg is a Steering Committee member of the C40 and has consolidated its climate response to the global challenge of climate change.

Working with International Partners within Metropolis – with Mayor Tau as Co-President, the city is leading a campaign on social inclusion through direct practice and bringing together coalitions of partners through research and advocacy.

As an aspirant world class city, in promoting access and mobility, in October 2015, Johannesburg will be hosting the EcoMobility Festival throughout October, which is set to promote mobility access and social cohesion.

Later in the year from 29 November to 3 December, the city will be hosting the 7th edition of Africities to deliberate on the future of African cities and the mayors are invited to these events.