Newly elected Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi being sworn in by Deputy Chief Justice Aubrey Ledwaba after being voted in at the Gauteng Legislature in Johannesburg, 6 October 2022. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen
Newly elected Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has vowed to fight crime and corruption, and improve service delivery in the province as he takes over the reins from his predecessor, David Makhura.
However, his challenger for the premier position, Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga, says the official opposition is expecting more of the same from Lesufi’s incoming administration.
Msimanga further claims Lesufi will be a lame-duck premier who won’t be able to take decisive action to fight corruption in the province.
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Lesufi was elected on Thursday as the premier of Gauteng during a special sitting of the provincial legislature in Johannesburg.
He replaces Makhura who resigned from office on Tuesday following the ANC’s 14th provincial conference in June.
After he was officially sworn in as the first citizen of Gauteng by Gauteng High Court deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba, Lesufi said he would announce his provincial executive council, or Cabinet, on Friday afternoon.
He said his administration would focus on fighting crime and lawlessness and improving service delivery, especially in Gauteng’s townships and informal settlements, ahead of the crucial 2024 general elections.
Lesufi also said that he wanted to keep Gauteng as South Africa’s economic powerhouse.
The new premier further said he didn’t want to delay the appointment of the new MECs, saying he wanted people who are ready to hit the ground running and work long hours.
“I will be influenced by skills, talent and commitment. We are almost 18 months from the national elections, also we have no time to waste. We need people that will be agile and people that will understand the task at hand and people that will work extra ordinary hard,” Lesufi said.
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But his challenger for the premier position, Msimanga said the DA expected more of the same from Lesufi.
“Unfortunately, we’re not expecting anything different from Panyaza Lesufi as the premier. Lesufi has been part of the Cabinet for two terms and he is also the leader of government business.
“He cannot talk about new programmes while he has been leading the existing programmes. Therefore, for us it then says we’re going to experience some of the same,” Msimanga said.
Lesufi beat Msimanga by 38 votes in the legislature to clinch the post of premier. Msimanga only received 22 votes.
In total, 60 members of the provincial legislature (MPLs) cast their ballots, while the EFF abstained from voting.
“I can tell you now that the new MECs will be his opponents because the PEC, which is not controlled by him, is going to dictate who he must appoint to the MEC positions.
“He is not going to be able to commit and command who gets to do what, but he will be dictated to by Lebogang Maile and his faction in the PEC. And that, unfortunately, will render Panyaza Lesufi a lame-duck premier,” Msimanga said.
The DA Gauteng leader added that the new premier would also be overshadowed by the scandal over the R431 million school decontamination irregular tender involving the Gauteng Education Department he led before being elected as premier.
Lesufi has not been directly implicated in the corruption scandal.
“For us, there is no hope that we’ll ever get rid of corruption in Gauteng. There is no hope that we’ll ever get any new programme that will take us out of the economic doldrums that we find ourselves in.
“We don’t have anything that we’ll get services speeded up in Gauteng, and therefore, it will be some of the same going forward.
“It doesn’t matter who the ANC puts in place. The fact of the matter is that it’s not an individual problem, it’s an organisational problem,” Msimanga said.
WATCH: EFF walks out of Gauteng legislature amid new premier’s election
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