Joburg Mayor to host US ambassador Andrew Young

28 March 2016

 

Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau and Members of the City’s Mayoral Committee will host United States ambassador Andrew Young, his wife Carolyn and a high-powered delegation of American businesspeople at a luncheon at Apartheid Museum, Gold Reef City, on Tuesday March 29.

 

This is the third leg of Ambassador Young’s tour to South Africa. He has already been to Cape Town and eThekwini. Gauteng Premier David Makhura will also be at the luncheon.

 

The Mayor’s entourage includes MMCs Geoffrey Makhubo (Finance), Ruby Mathang (Economic Development), Christine Walters (Transport), Dan Bovu (Housing), Matshidiso Mfikoe (Environment and Infrastructure Services), Roslynn Greeff (Development Planning and Urban Management), Sello Lemao (Public Safety),  Chris Vondo (Community Development), Nonceba Molwele (Health and Social Development) and Mally Mokoena (Shared Corporate Services), as well as City Manager Trevor Fowler and other top City and Gauteng provincial government officials.

 

Young’s 30-strong entourage includes Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia; the city’s Director of International Affairs, Claire Angelle; business executives Sonji Jacobs, Scott Taylor and Brian McCGowan; real estate investor Michael Green; as well as business leaders from various industries and sectors.

 

The City of Johannesburg’s Executive Director of Economic Development, Ravi Naidoo, is scheduled to make a presentation on business opportunities in Johannesburg, while Joburg Tourism will showcase the city as a tourism destination of choice. The programme also includes a tour of Soweto.

 

Young, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, and his delegation are on an excursion to foster trade and investment ties between the US and South Africa. The 84-year-old veteran diplomat and former mayor of Atlanta, considers this his final trip to South Africa, his first being almost 40 years ago at the invitation of the late mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer.

 

During that visit Young, an activist, church minister, educationist and diplomat, met Soweto student leaders, newspaper editors and businesspeople. At the time Young was campaigning rigorously for political change in the then apartheid South Africa. He will use this week’s visit to meet and reconnect with old friends and businesspeople.