COMMENTARY | Six basics premier Lesufi should focus on to get Gauteng back on track

It is easy to enter a position of leadership believing that — unlike your predecessors — you single-handily hold the power to turn the ship around. It is easy to believe that within a couple of months, you can fundamentally change an organisation and fix a situation.

But, as most people in leadership will tell you, organisations are hesitant to change and it is often getting the basic right that makes the biggest difference.

This was a valuable lesson when I became the mayor of Gauteng’s Midvaal municipality at the age of 26 — at the time the youngest mayor in the country. I understood that while grand infrastructure plans may capture the imagination, it is the basics of service delivery that will have the best impact on residents' lives.

During my term in office, the Midvaal municipality achieved its first clean audit from the auditor-general in 2013 and went from being the country's 16th best-performing municipality to the fifth best in 2021.

Gauteng state of the province (Sopa) address

I would encourage Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi to follow this advice when he takes the stage for his first state of the province address (Sopa) on Monday evening.

While Lesufi — who became premier less than six months ago — may want to be seen as a new and disruptive force in politics by announcing populist plans, it will be to be his benefit to focus on the underlying basics to address service delivery in Gauteng.

And he should not seek to use his Sopa as an attempt to separate himself from the actions of his predecessor, David Makhura, because Lesufi was in Makhura’s cabinet when Covid-19 PPE corruption occurred; he was there when Life Esidimeni occurred where 144 died, and he was there when whistle-blower Babita Deokaran was killed.

It will furthermore be impossible for Lesufi to radically change budgets and performance plans with national and provincial government elections roughly a year away.

He should therefore focus his attention on the basic building blocks of service delivery to ensure it has a snowball effect to improve the lives of those living in Gauteng who for decades have been left behind.

Gauteng in crisis

There is no question that the Gauteng province is falling behind its peers, with the Western Cape consistently surpassing it in terms of approved building plans and private investment. Gauteng is in crisis with the provincial unemployment rate shooting up from 29.5% in 2016 to 33.7% last year.

When I, alongside ActionSA activists, spent the past six weeks criss-crossing the province as part of ActionSA’s “South African Dream campaign”, I saw first-hand how Gauteng communities are being left behind with delayed and incomplete infrastructure projects, vandalised and poorly maintained schools, and roads which are nearly inaccessible due to the size of their potholes.

The provincial healthcare system is in shambles with multiple corruption investigations under way while ongoing floods and load-shedding wreak havoc on public infrastructure and service delivery.

This is at a time when Gauteng, which literally means “place of gold”, should be a shining beacon of hope for the rest of South Africa to follow. It is my firm belief that the situation in Gauteng can be turned around and that it can once again support South Africans to achieve their dreams.

Gauteng can become the leader in terms of health care, public transport, inner-city housing construction, safety and job creation, but for it to achieve those goals it needs a leader who focuses on getting the basic rights instead of someone making grand announcements of “smart cities” and “bullet trains”.

That is why I would suggest Lesufi focus on the following six basics to improve the lives of the more than 16 million people living in Gauteng:

Post Covid-19 economic recovery

Under the leadership of Makhura, the Gauteng government promises a number of initiatives to address the economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and reignite industrialisation in the province.

These include the expanded rollout of small-to-medium enterprises, the introduction of the provincial youth forum, the township economic development bill and the expansion of special economic zones in the province.

However, a year after these announcements, little to no progress has been made while other projects have come to a near standstill.

Premier Lesufi should therefore use his first Sopa to announce a plan on how to reignite the Gauteng economy, create jobs and reindustrialise the province.

These may include using the existing expanded public works programme to provide work opportunities to more people, especially young people, to help fix the potholes in our roads, clear public spaces and improve service delivery which will ultimately lead to increased private investment which will create jobs.

Measures to mitigate load-shedding affecting the Gauteng economy

Despite repeated promises by President Cyril Ramaphosa, it does not appear that there will be any end to load-shedding any time soon. And it is essential that the disaster of load-shedding be addressed as soon as possible as it is one of the province’s key obstacles to creating sustainable jobs.

Lesufi should not leave it up to Gauteng municipalities, which in some instances are collapsing such as the Emfuleni local municipality, and private enterprises to solve, but devise a provincial strategy to end load-shedding and provide a stable power supply to all residents.

This can be done by incentivising the development of alternative electricity sources, and helping to roll out solar power to residential properties.

Address corruption and service delivery failures

When Lesufi delivers his Sopa, over 14 Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigations remain incomplete, with the officials implicated in those investigations still working in the provincial government.

This is despite the province introducing a provincial ethics body in 2017, and launching a provincial anti-corruption plan in 2016.

Furthermore, the investigation into provincial disasters such as the Boksburg explosion remains incomplete despite promises by Lesufi himself that these investigations would be prioritised.

Lesufi should complete these outstanding investigations as soon as possible, ensure that officials are held accountable for their corrupt behaviour, and announce a plan to end corruption once and for all.

The provincial procurement process should be opened for oversight by showing all provincial tenders on a public platform and revealing the outcome of each tender awarded. Lesufi can help limit the extent of corruption and improve accountability.

Crime

The release of the recent crime statistics shows that crime is out of control in South Africa, leaving the most vulnerable to fend for themselves in crime-ridden communities.

From Eldorado Park to Menlo Park, Gauteng residents daily come face to face with car hijackings, home invasions, and gender-based violence on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, thieves continue to carry away our essential economic infrastructure such as railways, robots and electricity lines.

Lesufi should introduce a comprehensive safety and security plan to turn around the crime situation in the province, and improve safety in our communities.

By working together with community policing forums (CPFs), the Gauteng province can improve policing accountability and help solve policing problems sooner.

Solving the e-tolls questions

While Lesufi to much fanfare announced the closure of the controversial e-tolls system in October last year, six months later the project still remains in operation with no transparency about how funding will work or who will be responsible for maintenance.

I propose the province convert the existing e-tolls infrastructure into traffic cameras to help improve policing oversight on the freeways, as well as provide an additional income source to municipalities who can issue traffic fines using the traffic cameras fitted onto the gantries.

Reclaim abandoned public buildings and complete outstanding projects.

One of the most shocking discoveries I made while visiting different communities across the province was how the provincial government has seemingly allowed the government buildings to be hijacked and illegally occupied while numerous infrastructure projects have been left incomplete.

The provincial government-owned Centre for Abused Women & Children in Marshalltown — intended to be a safe haven for victims of gender-based violence and femicide — was hijacked years ago, leaving occupants forced to illegally pay rent and live under inhumane conditions.

Lesufi cannot in good conscience announce new gender-based violence programmes while his government has allowed centres such as these to be hijacked, and he should therefore prioritise their recovery instead of investing in new schemes.

Meanwhile, the R85m Mayibuye Primary School in Thembisa, completed in 2021, has been abandoned and the R11bn Montrose Mega City development in West Rand district municipality, launched in 2017, has been left incomplete. These are just some of the several incomplete and abandoned provincial infrastructure projects littered across Gauteng.

I would therefore encourage Lesufi to not announce new infrastructure projects before the province has completed the countless unfinished public infrastructure projects in the province.

If Lesufi introduces these six measures, he can create a snowball effect to improve overall service delivery in the Gauteng province and better the lives of the most vulnerable.

Gauteng has the opportunity to once again be the beacon of hope for the rest of South Africa, and ActionSA will keep premier Lesufi accountable to ensure he does not get swept up by populist rhetoric but deliver the basics our people desperately need.

-Baloyi is the ActionSA Gauteng chairperson