The Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, has pleaded with mayors in different municipalities to put the needs of residents first.
Delivering his State of the Province Address on 20 February at Greenhills Stadium in Randfontein, the Premier was pushing a message of how all government entities must work together.
Makhura urged the various municipalities, especially their mayors, to work together with provincial government in delivering state-of-the-art infrastructure, which he said would create much-needed employment, and ultimately improve the lives of all residents in the province.
“As leaders representing all citizens, let us act in the public interest by resisting the temptation to assert authority by stopping projects that benefit citizens and the economy of our city region,” Makhura said, adding that this very act compromises the quality of lives and overall competitiveness of the province.
At the beginning of February, Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba announced that he was shutting down the Jozi@work programme, which he said was full of patronage. That move was quickly criticised by the ANC, labelling it an attack on the poor.
Jozi@Work was established to give communities the opportunity to partner with the City in delivering municipal services in their neighbourhoods.
Mashaba said he will soon unveil a new programme that will benefit all community members.
Makhura announced that the government was going to focus on empowering young people over the next two years. He said that the cancelled Jozi@Work programme will be taken over by province and will be known as Gauteng@Work.
He highlighted that the programme will allow young people to be contracted to the government and also sub-contracted by companies doing business with the government for infrastructure maintenance and other work in public facilities. The premier said the provincial government has adopted a policy that 50 per cent of all people employed in their infrastructure projects should be young people.
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