Ekurhuleni executive mayor Mondli Gungubele, who is also known as “Mr Aerotropolis”, made quite an impression at the 2013 ACE, at Emperors Palace recently.
“He is the coolest mayor in Africa,” said Michael Hancock, mayor of the city of Denver, in America.
Gungubele was not shy about selling Ekurhuleni’s value position to the world.
“Ekurhuleni prides itself on its areas of excellence,” he said.
“The OR Tambo International Airport is Ekurhuleni’s significant driver of economic activities.
“The city is home to head offices such as Toyota, Unilever, Green Cross, Clover, South African Airways, Murry and Roberts, Comair, Denel and others.”
The three-day conference, that kicked off on Wednesday, had a striking list of speakers.
Prof John Kasarda, from the Centre of Air Commerce at the University of North Carolina, and Ali Tounsi, secretary general of the Airports Council International (ACI) in Africa, were just some of the big names who spoke at the conference.
“Airports continue to expand within and well beyond their boundaries,” said Kasarda.
“An aerotropolis is simply a central region where the global meets the local.”
Day one kicked off with a heritage tour, to make the delegates familiar with South Africa.
“With April being Chris Hani Month, the international visitors were given the opportunity to stop at the grave site of the late struggle stalwart, as well as at his home, where he was murdered 20 years ago,” said Sam Modiba, Ekurhuleni Metro spokesperson.
“The tour ended with a viewing of the Chris Hani photographic exhibition, at the OR Tambo Cultural Precinct, in Wattville.”
Various delegates from all over the world gathered at Emperors Palace to listen to talks about airport cities and aerotropolis concepts.
The ACE event is globally renowned for attracting key decision-makers from the banking, financial, investment and real estate sectors, as well as the economic development council and other local governments from all over the world.
“The department of transport embraces the airport cities and aerotropolis concepts as a way to use the aviation infrastructure to meet other social and economic goals of the country,” said deputy minister of transport Sindisiwe Chikunga on Thursday.
“We must commend the city of Ekurhuleni for leading the country as Africa’s first aerotropolis.”
