Faced with a reputation of poor delivery, Gauteng premier David Makhura will on Monday highlight measures his government will put in place to reignite the economy of the province and create jobs.
The coronavirus pandemic battered the SA economy, which declined 6.4% in 2020 and led to a loss of about 1.4-million jobs. Gauteng, the country’s economic hub, was not spared, contributing significantly to the loss.
A survey released in September 2021 by the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO), a research project between the Gauteng provincial government, Wits and Johannesburg universities and the SA Local Government Association, showed a significant drop in the quality of life of residents over the past two years.
The GCRO’s Quality of Life Survey 2020/2021 indicated how the proportion of those living below the poverty line had steadily declined over the years, from 35% in 2013/2014 to 24% in 2017/2018, and 36% during 2020 and 2021.
The overall index dropped from 64 to 61, which GCRO director of research Graeme Gotz said was “a very, very serious weakening in the quality of life in Gauteng”.
Makhura is set to deliver the state of the province address at the Brixton multipurpose centre in Johannesburg on Monday.
The premier is expected to focus on measures aimed at improving the quality of life of the estimated 15-million residents of Gauteng, many of whom lost their jobs and livelihoods as a result of the pandemic.
Satisfaction with all three levels of government has dropped, with the Gauteng provincial government suffering a massive 15 percentage-point decline, to 29%, according to the survey.
Satisfaction with national government was 33% and local government at 25.7%, it said.
The provincial government said Makhura’s address would focus on “winning the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic”; reigniting the Gauteng economy to take a lead in SA’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan; improving governance across the province to focus on delivering results; and “improving the quality of life of residents” as well as enhancing ethics, integrity and accountability.
The premier will also focus on recalibrating social policy to improve educational and health outcomes, fight crime and protect the vulnerable against “urban poverty and hunger”.
Gauteng, which is battling an unemployment rate of 37%, contributes about 35% to GDP. Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were rocked by violent unrest in July 2021, during which warehouses were stripped bare of their contents and set alight.
The mayhem, which followed the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma, cost the economy an estimated R50bn.
DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga, in his “real state of the province address” on Thursday, said while it was the responsibility of the government to create a conducive environment for residents to seek and find employment, incidents like the July unrest would chase investment away from the province.
“The private sector will see our province as unstable and will be hesitant to invest funds into an already fragile economy that is seen as a time bomb where at any time looting and rioting can break out,” Msimanga said.
“Corruption is one of the major characteristics that can be used to describe Makhura’s government and that has had a huge impact on service delivery. I remember when Premier Makhura came to office in 2014, he promised the people of Gauteng that he will decisively fight corruption in his government and act against those implicated,” he said. “Like all the promises that he has made, only a handful have materialised.”
Business Day understands that Makhura will focus on the special economic zones (SEZs), including the Vaal, Lanseria and the Tshwane Automotive SEZ as part of the province’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan.
Makhura said on Friday his administration will focus on rehabilitating the Vaal River to unlock about R42bn worth of investment. There were also plans to turn Lanseria into an innovation hub to attract global technology companies.
In his state of the nation address in 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a new smart city was taking shape in Lanseria, which 350,000 to 500,000 people will call home within the next decade.
Makhura said the provincial government was also putting processes in place to cut red tape in an effort to assist businesses to have simpler access to finance and link them with value chains in the SEZs.
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