Parks Tau

Mpho Franklyn Parks Tau (born 1970) was the mayor of the city of Johannesburg, South Africa from 2011-2016. He is a member of the African National Congress, and was the second democratically elected mayor, after Amos Masondo, of the Unified City of Johannesburg. He lost the mayoralty to the DA's Herman Mashaba in a historic defeat on the 22 of August 2016. He is currently the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional affairs since 29 May 2019.

The inclusion of dedicated cycling lanes in the Rea Vaya system is a further development to minimise the city’s carbon emissions and encourage healthier lifestyles for the city’s 5 million residents.

Early in 2015, Mayor Tau hosted the first Blue Economy discussions in the city in collaboration with the Zero Emissions Research and Initiative (ZERI), resulting in at least two initiatives to improve the city’s standing as a blue economy leader:

During his time as Mayor, Tau moved swiftly to attend the climate change issues facing Johannesburg and hosted the C40 Mayors Summit in February 2014, promising to cutting the city's carbon emissions by 1.6 million tons by 2020. Adding tangible outcomes to this commitment, the city has started offering incentives to residents to upgrade their own buildings, making them more energy efficient and for utilising more natural resources.

Launched in September 2014, the Jozi@Work initiative is designed to create an opportunity for communities to partner with the city in the delivery of municipal services in their own neighbourhoods. The project helps both create direct employment as well improves access for small business to become service providers to the city. To date, Jozi@Work has enabled and supported over 52000 livelihoods in the city.

In an unprecedented move for a major city in South Africa, Mayor Tau kept his election campaign promise and in 2014 appointed the first independent ombudsman for the City of Johannesburg. This move, together with an anti-corruption hotline, marks a turning point in the city's administration. The ombudsman will independently investigate complaints of corruption in the city and ensure clean governance for all city contracts.

He took part in the 2013 edition of the Mayoral Charity Golf Day which raised over R1 million for various non-governmental organizations that assist in improving the lives of those suffering with HIV/AIDS.

Chairperson of the South African Cities Network, 2012 – To date

City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor, 2011 – 2016

Chairperson of the South African Local Government Association in Gauteng, 2011 – To date

On 10 December 2011 and 1 December 2012, Tau hosted a birthday party called the Every Child Birthday Party, which is a party hosted for children who may suffer from a range of vulnerabilities, including disabilities and being orphaned.

Urban Development Committee of the Southern Local Metropolitan Council, 1997–2000

After apartheid came to an end in 1994 and South Africa's liberation party, the Africa National Congress (ANC), took power, Tau continued to take on roles enabling him to help build a united and equitable South Africa. He was 24 years old when he was elected regional secretary of the ANC in Johannesburg and in 1996, he went on to serve on the Southern Metropolitan Local Council's Urban Development Committee. In 2000, following the first democratic elections to take place at city level, Tau was appointed as a Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) of Johannesburg, overseeing the portfolios of Developmental Planning, Transportation, and Environment from 2000 to 2003, as well as the Finance and Economic Development portfolio between 2003 and 2011.

Born in Orlando West, a neighborhood of Soweto, on 6 June 1970, Tau and his siblings grew up the heart of the struggle against apartheid. Soweto is a densely populated urban area of predominantly black South Africans located on the southern perimeter of what was once Johannesburg's city boundary. Officially a part of the city since 1999, Soweto was the site of many altercations between police and anti-apartheid demonstrators, including the Soweto Uprising, which began on June 16, 1976, after apartheid police fired on demonstrating black students. Tau entered his teenage years at the height of the apartheid unrest and liberation struggle. At the age of fourteen, he joined the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), and became engaged in student activism for the first time. In the 1980s, he was detained several times during national states of emergency—periods of strict restrictions on anti-apartheid activities—which were declared by the apartheid government of the time that was determined to regain control over the population. Tau was later elected president of the Student Representative Council at Pace Commercial College. There he met college vice president Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali, who encouraged him and other PACE students to voice their political beliefs. In 1989, at the age of 19, Tau was elected president of the Soweto Youth Congress, and later he became a leading member of its subsequent incarnation, the African National Congress Youth League.