By Simon Nare
Fixing roads and potholes, tackling economic development, combating crime and lawlessness, expanding Gautrain services, creating jobs, and enhancing struggling sectors are some of the key priorities for the province of Gauteng during this financial year.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi outlined these goals during his State of the Province Address (SOPA) in Mamelodi, Tshwane, on Monday night.
Lesufi, whose future as Premier has been under intense scrutiny following the province’s poor performance in the recent general elections, said these initiatives are crucial to give new strength to Gauteng, the economic powerhouse of South Africa.
Kicking off his speech, Lesufi cautioned that no matter what his administration says or does, its efforts will be meaningless if they fail to address what he termed the “Gauteng 13” – a set of pressing challenges facing the province.
The “Gauteng 13” problems include water shortages, cable theft and vandalism, non-functional traffic lights, potholes, crime and lawlessness, the rapid growth of informal settlements, and electricity issues such as load shedding and load reduction.
Others are the following: rising gender-based violence and femicide, drug abuse, poor healthcare services, a shortage of schools, failing infrastructure and deteriorating CBDs, and unemployment.
Lesufi emphasised the need for action to tackle these challenges.
“We have to reverse the impact of these G13 problems if we are worthy of being called government,” he said.
Focusing on economic matters, Lesufi said the province’s economy continued to demonstrate resilience at the end of 2024 and significantly outperformed the national government with a 1.2% growth rate in the last year.
“Over the past year, Gauteng’s GDP grew by 1.2%, compared to the national rate of 0.4%, reinforcing its role as a key economic driver. This consistent outperformance highlights Gauteng’s economic importance and resilience amid broader national challenges,” said Lesufi.
The premier added that the country’s economic hub will in April host the inaugural investment conference to target R800 billion investment pledges.
“From this investment conference, we envisage investment pledges of over R300 billion from the private sector alone by the end of April 2025. We are not stopping here. The public sector will showcase an infrastructure pipeline of at least R220 billion,” he said.
Lesufi declared an all-out war on criminals, vowing that the province will take the fight directly to them.
He stressed that combating crime remains the provincial government’s top priority.
He said that in collaboration with the private sector, Gauteng has identified and profiled 442 criminal kingpins responsible for the province’s most serious offenses.
These 442 crime kingpins are responsible for Cash In Transit, kidnappings, hijackings, rented murder, ATM bombings, blue light gangs and business robberies.
“Instead of waiting for them to commit crimes, we have put full-time surveillance around them,” he said.
“Of the 442 we have already arrested 50, and we are monitoring the rest closely. Thanks to the partnership with the private sector through Business Against Crime SA and the private security industry.”
He congratulated police for arresting an alleged mastermind while trying to flee the country to Ethiopia.
“We congratulate the SAPS for arresting an alleged mastermind who has been linked to the murder of a Sandton businessman while he was trying to flee the country to Ethiopia,” he said.
“What is notable about this case is that the three suspects were discovered through CCTV footage and were arrested by the police with the help of a private 8 security company. This is the template to fight crime that GPG has been propagating for the last two years.”
As of March, Gauteng will resurface and upgrade the Golden Highway, Malibongwe Drive, Garsfontein Road, and key interchanges in Tshwane and Johannesburg.
These projects will put thousands of people to work while fixing the key routes, he said.
Allandale Road is now done while K101 Olifantsfontein Road, Midrand is also about to be completed.
He said the Gauteng Provincial Government, working with municipalities, is also committed to addressing potholes on the roads.
“A 72-hour pothole repair commitment and intelligent traffic systems will keep businesses moving and productivity high. With the help of the CSIR, we’ve now mapped and identified all potholes in our province,” he said.
“Work has already started with the fixing of these potholes, beginning with our provincial roads and, where possible, as we did with the 40 worst roads in the Sedibeng, we will assist municipalities.”
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