Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi made his maiden speech of the State of the Province Address at the Johannesburg City Hall on February 20.
This marked his 100 days in the office and he took the opportunity to highlight the achievements of the provincial government (GPG) and the way forward.
In October 2022, Premier Lesufi announced five elevated priorities in the Growing Gauteng Together (GT2030) action plan:
• Economic recovery and reconstruction
• Fighting crime, corruption, vandalism and lawlessness
• Changing living conditions in 26 townships, 700 informal settlements and six hostels
• Strengthening the capacity of the state to deliver services to our people
• Health and wellness
In his SOPA speech, he detailed the action plan for executing these priorities.
Economic recovery and reconstruction
Establishing a State Bank
• Legal due diligence completed.
• Treasury to undertake a feasibility study that will inform the model to be adopted.
Scrapping of Gauteng e-toll
• E-tolls have been scrapped.
• Negotiations with national and provincial governments are underway to finalise all matters relating to e-tolls.
Strengthening the capacity of the state
• All MECs and HODs have signed performance and delivery agreements on the implementation plans of GGT2030.
• All new MECs and HODs will undergo lifestyle audits. In addition, all GPG public servants will be subjected to the same process.
• The lifestyle audits will include the director general, heads of departments, chief executive officers of GPG entities and supply chain management and finance.
Changing the living conditions in TISH areas
• Digitisation: supported 114 previously disadvantaged ICT entrepreneurs. The ICT skills development programmes benefited 11 377 people. All six government hostels have been connected with free Wi-Fi. Broken windows, roofs, toilets and doors have also been repaired.
• Implementation of the Gauteng City-Region Strategy on homelessness. Three thousand homeless people have been relocated and have received meals, medical support, clothing and shelter.
• Maximise food security: over R300m set aside for social support. This includes school uniforms, dignity packs and food parcels for households.
• Engaged Izinduna to discuss bulk infrastructure over-crowding, refurbishments and general improvement of the living conditions of hostels.
• Matric pass rate achieved is 84,4%. Accelerate the rollout of the Schools of Specialisation (SoS) to nurture the development of top talent of learners across various disciplines. Gauteng has 21 SoS and has set a target of 35.
Fighting crime and corruption
• Budget to fight crime and corruption will be raised from R750m to R8b over the next three years.
• Over 6 000 crime prevention wardens were recruited to strengthen ward-based policing.
• High-performance vehicles to be acquired.
• There will be 180 high-calibre drones and four helicopters added to the crime-fighting arsenal.
• High-quality face recognition CCTV cameras to be deployed in crime hot spots.
Health and wellness
• Launched the #KreyaThuso GP anti-substance abuse helpline (0800 22 88 27) to tackle the problem of substance abuse among township youth.
• Launched AsubeHealthyGP to take health services to communities and improve services in townships.
• Know your Health Service Campaign to improve the patient experience of care in public health facilities.
• Introduced Wellness Wednesdays to encourage the habit of living and leading healthy lifestyles through physical activity and other behaviour modification among communities.
• Incorporated wellness in health education and school health campaigns.
Youth opportunities
• In addressing the youth challenge the GPG will establish the Gauteng Youth Advisory Panel.
• Youth provided with workplace experience. The Presidential Youth Employment Stimulus programme will deliver 40 000 educational and general school assistants, 6 000 crime prevention wardens, 6 000 job opportunities under the Bontle ke Botho programme and 2 500 for cleaning vacant land and facilities programme.
• Integrating youth development into the mainstream of policies and programmes through the introduction of the Youth Advisory Plan and the approval of the Youth Development Strategy.
