ICYMI: Premier Makhura delivers his SOPA for 2019

Gauteng premier David Makhura delivered his last State of the Province Address for his term in office at the Alberton Civic Centre on February 18.

February 20, 2019

Simphiwe Malunga 3 minutes read

GAUTENG PREMIER David Makhura delivered his State of the Province Address (SOPA) at the Alberton Civic Centre on February 18.

The premier’s last SOPA of his term was attended by multitudes, from members of parliament to artists such as hip-hop star Kwesta. Despite the fact of its serious nature, the SOPA acknowledged the artistic creativity of artists like Kwesta and writer Themba Emmanuel Mashobane.

The premier gave an account of his progress made and he mentioned that education, training and empowerment of the children and youth of Gauteng remain the number one priority of the provincial government.

Policies introduced

He said they have introduced pro-poor policies to increase school attendance and educational achievement among children from poor households, including the provision of school nutrition, school uniforms and dignity packs.

In his address, he stated that Gauteng is the best-performing province with regards to Grade 12 results.

“Eight out of 10 best-performing districts in the country are in Gauteng and all our districts perform above 80 per cent. Our province contributed the largest number (43 per cent) of bachelor’s passes nationally in 2018,” said Makhura.

He also added that President Cyril Ramaphosa has made a policy decision to invest in early childhood development (ECD).

His SOPA also focused on students at higher learning institutions, he said the provincial government spends close to R1-billion annually on student bursaries.

“Since 1994, more than 13 000 students from our province have benefited from this programme. I advised the Executive Council to sell the premier’s official residence to enable more students from townships to have access to university education,” he said.

Unemployed youth

The SOPA also touched on youth unemployment and how it tackled it.

“We have taken decisive steps to tackle the acute problem of youth unemployment by introducing Tshepo 1 Million as a programme to empower the youth with skills and open opportunities for them in the economy,” he said.

The SOPA also advocated for women empowerment. Makhura said one of the key objectives of their programme for transformation, modernisation and re-industrialisation was to bring women into the mainstream economy of Gauteng.

“Currently, the ANC-led provincial government spends 23 per cent procuring goods and services from businesses owned by women. More than 7 000 women-owned cooperatives have received financial and non-financial support from government.”

Primary healthcare

Makhura expressed confidence in his SOPA in terms of healthcare. He said over the next five years they will continue to expand the primary health care by increasing the absorption of community healthcare workers in the public health system to improve service delivery and care.

“The successful roll-out of the anti-retroviral treatment has drastically reduced mother-to-child HIV transmission in Gauteng to 0.68 per cent, which is close to our target of zero per cent,” he said.

The most spoken of tragedy, Life Esidimeni, came up in his address and the premier said this must never happen again in the government.

“We appointed retired deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke who, after a painstaking and painful process of presiding over the arbitration, ordered government to pay financial compensation to the affected mental healthcare users. We moved swiftly to pay all the claimants by June 2018 in line with the award of Justice Moseneke,” said Makhura.

Corruption and crime

Makhura strongly condemned corruption and crime by saying those who have broken their oath and the laws will be brought to book.

“I have agreed with the provincial commissioner and the entire new provincial leadership of SAPS that one of the urgent priorities is to ensure the 20 most wanted criminals in Gauteng are put behind bars within the next three months,” he said.

On the issue of human settlements, he said there were 31 mega human settlement projects aimed at bringing in private sector partners in the construction of new post-apartheid cities.

He also mentioned there has been a policy shift which has introduced the Rapid Land Release Programme. He said people should own land and property in their country of birth.

He concluded by urging voters to come out in their numbers on May 8 to cast their vote.

VIEW GALLERY: