South Africa

SALGA – Championing the cause of municipalities in South Africa and beyond.

The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) is the sole and officially recognized representative body of municipalities in South Africa. Primarily, SALGAs mandate is derived from the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Organized Local Government Act and its own constitution.

In essence, SALGAs role is to assist in the comprehensive transformation of the municipal landscape from the pre-1994 regime to the democratic dispensation that was ushered in on the basis of universal adult suffrage. Since its inception, SALGAs Leadership has focused its collective attention on deepening our general under standing of the role of organized local government; attending to critical and strategic issues facing municipalities; ensuring alignment and coherence between SALGAs programmes and activities; and that all facets of SALGAs work benefit member municipalities. Today, under the astute political guidance of SALGAs National Executive Committee, SALGA can pride itself on having a well established organized local government system in our country that has consistently and successfully championed the cause of its membership with the express aim of complementing Government’s effor ts to create a people-centred state bound to the pursuit of freedom from want, hunger, deprivation, ignorance, suppression and fear. SALGAs membership ranges from deep rural municipalities grappling with service delivery backlogs and institutional challenges to sophisticated cities with significant institutional capacity.