Makhura's Sopa in six defining quotes

Gauteng premier David Makhura delivered his State of the Province address on Monday.

The last Sopa of the fifth provincial administration was attended by dignitaries including former president Kgalema Motlante and former premier Mbazima Shilowa.

Makhura said he was confident that the province has done well in terms of service delivery, jobs creation and uplifting the economy, regardless of the population growing rapidly from 7.8m in 1996 to 14.7m currently.

Here is an overview of his address in six quotes.

Economy

"Our economy has grown five-fold from R290bn in 1996 to R1.5tr in 2017. Gauteng is not only the economic or industrial hub of South Africa, but we are also the seventh largest economy on our continent."

Employment

"The number of people employed in the Gauteng economy has doubled from 2.6m in 1996 to 5.1m in 2018."

Public education and health

"The size of our public education and public health systems have also doubled. In 1994 there were only 1.2m learners in public education and today there are 2.3m learners. The Gauteng public health care system serves 20m health care users per annum today, whilst in 1994 it was only 7m patients."

Infrastructure

"The built environment of Gauteng has changed profoundly as a result of huge investments in social and economic infrastructure. We built new schools, new houses, new libraries, new hospitals and clinics, new social amenities, new police stations, new roads and many other public transport infrastructure that didn't exist in 1994."

Access to basic services

"Access to basic services has increased from an average of 60% to an average of 85% in 2018. The 2018 quality of life survey records that access to formal housing is at 81%, piped water at 91%, electricity at 92% , sanitation at 91% and refuse removal at 83%."

Home ownership

"The quality of life survey in our province also recalls that home ownership among the poor in our province is very high. The government housing program has delivered more than 1.2m houses in our province, thus providing decent shelter to more than 4m people."