Lerato Mbhiza
THE DA’s Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga believes nothing new will come out of the Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s State of the Province Address taking place on Monday evening and predicts that “the residents of Gauteng will continue to hear about the economic corridors of this province as in previous years, but there will be no tangible results”.
Msimana said that crime in Gauteng continues to rise, yet hundreds of Crime Wardens have been deployed to prevent and fight crime.
“The drones that were promised last year by the Premier have yet to be rolled out. Therefore, our residents, particularly women and children, continue to live in fear”.
Lesufi is expected to deliver the address on Monday evening at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
During his maiden address in 2023, the Premier highlighted the issue of fighting crime as the provincial government’s apex priority.
This led to the establishment of a crime prevention wardens project, which has been mired in controversy for most of the year.
Opposition parties have accused Lesufi of using the crime wardens as an election stunt.
Msimanga said it has been difficult for the DA to support Lesufi’s unrealistic plans for Gauteng.
“The Treasury has said most of the things Lesufi is implementing are not financially sustainable. The wardens… there is no plan for them after the elections because they are taking money from other programmes – social development.
“NGOS that were supposed to be getting money, supporting vulnerable women and children who are homeless are now not getting their money because Panyaza was desperate to make a point and take money away from other programmes for something that was not part of the plan.”
He added that Police stations and Community Policing Forums (CPF) need to be given adequate resources to fight crime in the province instead of the Premier spending millions of rands on drones and CCTV cameras. “While police stations do not have enough vehicles and generators to operate during load-shedding”.
“Given that this is an election year, Lesufi will continue to push his pipe dream of a bullet train from Limpopo to Gauteng. While our current railway system does not function properly, residents struggle to get to and from work daily. Furthermore, the goalposts for the scrapping of e-Tolls have been moved every year since the 2019 elections. Our residents are being forced into paying for a system they never wanted. We need a real solution to e-Tolls immediately, not empty promises” said Msimanga.
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