SOPA 2024: ADDRESS OF PROMISES?

Written by: Tasha Siziba 

Gauteng Premeier Panyaza Lesufi, will deliver his State Of Province Address at 6 pm on Monday, at the Nasrec Expo Centre, south of Johannesburg.

Lesufi is set to deliver the final State of the Province Address (SOPA) for the sixth Gauteng administration, he was elected premier in October 2022 after serving as Education MEC for many years.

It hasn’t been all rosy for the country’s economic hub with high unemployment, high crime, poor service delivery and never-ending blackouts.

Premier @Lesufi will deliver the 2024 State of the Province Address (SOPA) at the Nasrec Expo Centre on the 19 February 2024 at 6PM.

This marks the final SOPA for the 6th administration. #GPSOPA2024#GrowingGautengTogether pic.twitter.com/0xBO2oWukc

— Gauteng Provincial Gov (@GautengProvince) February 12, 2024

South African Rainbow Alliance president, Collen Makhubele, says looking at the scale of the human suffering in Gauteng that has been unleashed in routing alone is unimaginable.

“The ANC has pushed routing and all its metro into a crisis, and they are all nearing economic collapse. You look at the City of Tshwane, you look at Ekurhuleni, you look at Joburg, and all other municipalities in Gauteng are a sad story riddled with corrupt corruption.”

She reiterated her claim that the premier has been unable to stop corruption.

“Citizens are seeking jobs from Panyaza, but the Gauteng government cannot use debt and social grants for recruitment. They want Panyaza to address job creation, economic competitiveness, and international respect, despite losing social control.”

Opposition parties accuse the premier of re-hiring 32,000 young people to gain more support for the ANC in the run-up to the general elections.

On that note ActionSA leader, Herman Mashaba says Gauteng residents have been deceived by wild promises, leading to high crime rates, infrastructure destruction, high unemployment, and low trading.

He says Action SA focuses on ethical leadership, addressing corruption, rebuilding infrastructure, and revitalizing inner cities to provide affordable accommodation and services for South Africans and students.

“We will delay the war against drug dealers and build rehab centers for youth affected by these drugs. And also we will extend operating hours of clinics in our province.”

The South African government’s decision to discontinue e-tolls nearly a year ago has left Gauteng motorists still paying for the defunct scheme.

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, claims the government delayed in signing off e-tolls, suggesting refunding R6.8 billion to motorists who paid for them.

“I want to repeat it here, e-tolls in Gauteng are history. We are finalizing the remaining tasks and we will be in a position to share them with you.”

Meanwhile, The Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO, Wayne Duvenage, says it’s been 18 months after the decision to scrap the e-tolls with no implementation of this decision.

He says the province continues to go backward under his leadership and that Monday’s SOPA will be an electioneering speech.

“Mr. Lusufi is very quick to blame everybody else, but he was also all talk and no action at the time when the scheme was announced to come to an end.  So as far as we’re concerned, the province continues to go backwards under his leadership. There’s nothing inspirational to look forward to, so we’re not expecting anything much. And if whatever he does, it’s going to be an electioneering speech.”

Mbali Hlophe, MEC for Social Development for Gauteng, announced that under Lesufi’s government, the Department of Social Development has expanded its food package program to address food security objectives.

“It has allowed us to ensure that we find a sustainable way. of dealing with and addressing food insecurity, not just by giving people handouts in the form of food parcels, but by giving them hand apps where now we are integrating seedlings as part of the food parcel so that people can provide food for themselves.”

The Economic Freedom Fighters is another political party in the province that has a different view on how the province has been governed in the last year. In a statement, the red d Barrett mentions that details what the party deems as failures by Lesufi

EFF GAUTENG STATEMENT ON THE STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS TO BE ADDRESSED BY PREMIER PANYAZA LESUFI. pic.twitter.com/GmF8SAq5Kr

— EFF Gauteng (@EFFGautengProv) February 19, 2024