The South African Local Government Association (Salga) on Friday elected Bheki Stofile, speaker of the Matjhabeng local municipality in the Free State, as the new Salga president.

The new leadership team will serve a term of five years.

The elections took place following Salga’s two-day national conference.

Executive mayor of the Buffalo City municipality in the Eastern Cape Xola Phakati, executive mayor of Govan Mbeki local municipality in Mpumalanga Flora Maboa-Boltman and City of Cape Town’s Xanthea Limberg were elected as deputy presidents.

Twelve members of Salga's National Executive Committee were also elected, following nominations made by Salga’s provincial conferences that were held over the past two months.