Gauteng Sopa 2022: ‘No good story’ for Premier Makhura

Against the background of a collapse in public health services, high unemployment, soaring crime figures, a spike in informal settlements and corruption in government, experts yesterday had no good story to tell about Gauteng – South Africa’s economic hub – ahead of today’s State of the Province Address (Sopa).

Gauteng Sopa 2022

While in last year’s Sopa Premier David Makhura promised to end the looting of state assets by senior civil servants and the politically connected, independent political analyst Dr Ralph Mathekga painted a gloomy picture of Gauteng.

The province was rocked by the multi-million-rand Covid-related personal protective equipment graft, which implicated powerful ANC individuals.

“The Gauteng government is really struggling. You just have to look at the crisis in the health sector, which has affected the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg and the Life Esidimeni disaster,” he said.

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“What makes the crisis even worse, is the level of corruption. In looking at what Makhura has to offer, the record of service delivery does not say much, with no area where the Gauteng government shows exceptional capacity.”

‘Disastrous’ municipalities

Mathekga said Gauteng municipalities were “disastrous”, with the situation getting worse because the provincial government cannot intervene to assist.

“As a financial hub, Gauteng continues to fail and now the biggest thing that is going to create problems, are the big metros that are run by different political formations, with no agreement reached with the province for mutual cooperation,” he said.

University of Johannesburg economics professor Peter Baur said key service delivery areas, which required intervention by the Gauteng government, included municipal service delivery; security; social support to poor communities; better management of the growing informal settlement crisis and a high unemployment due to the rural-urban migration.

Baur said electricity and water were considered a human right.

“Another focus should be on security and the protection of people living in informal settlements, including services to support and improve their human living conditions.

“Beyond the national implementation of development objectives, Gauteng’s focus on healthcare should be is critical. Service delivery to schools and frail care centres is vital. Many core centres, such as police and rescue
services, also need support.”

Baur called for business, telecoms and roads infrastructure.

Provincial budgets

Daniel McLaren, an economist with Section 27, said the organisation was interested to hear how the provincial government is going to handle cuts, which Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana proposed in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement – “putting a lot of pressure in the number of provincial budgets, especially on health, education and housing”.

“How the provinces are going to maintain service standards and access to services in the context of a shrinking provincial equitable share, is going to be an area to watch,” said McLaren.

“On education, we want to see those responsible for irregular and wasteful expenditure on the cleaning of schools and buildings – about R400 million spent – being held to account for what has been deemed unnecessary.

Charlotte Maxeke hospital

“The full reopening of the Charlotte Maxeke hospital is now critical, with 30% closed for a significant period of time.”

He said with the trauma ward closed, it is affecting people’s access to services.

“People can only access that hospital on the basis of referrals,” he said.

“We need a transparent plan on how the buildings will be fixed and for procurement to be subjected to scrutiny – following the looting we have seen in education on the cleaning of schools.”

– brians@citizen.co.za

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