‘Don’t go that side’ – Lesufi to train 3,000 MK vets to fight crime in Gauteng

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi has called on uMkhonto weSizwe military veterans to not join former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party, but to stay in the ANC and fight crime in Gauteng.

Lesufi and other ANC leaders were at the Orlando East Communal Hall for the assembly of volunteers, where he and the party’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula addressed supporters at the weekend.

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Lesufi made several promises to the voters, including the employment of the young and MK vets, and restoration of electricity in Soweto.

He called on MK vets to stay in the ruling party, as it had plans to employ them to fight crime in Gauteng.

“We also want to declare, comrades, from 1 March, we need veterans of MK and other military organisations. We need those who were part of MK and other military organisations. We need 3,000 of you to come and join the provincial government to go and fight crime in Gauteng,” said Lesufi.

“All combatants of MK do not go to that side. Come to this side, from the 5th of February we want to take you to train you to come and work and fight crime in Gauteng.”

The 35,000 young people who were hired as teacher assistants at schools, whose contracts ended in October 2023 will also not just sit at home, said Lesufi.

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“From the 1st of February, we will start to employ people so that we don’t have young people that are unemployed in our province. There were 35,000 young people. There are 35,000 young people who are employed to take care of our children in our schools,” he said.

Another offer on the table was for every pupil that comes first, second and third in every school to receive a bursary until they finish their tertiary education.

“I want to declare to you, that the government that I have the honour to lead believes in education,” he said.

Electricity was also back in the spotlight for Soweto residents, who according to Lesufi, were being side-lined by Eskom.

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Lesufi promised to install at least 500 transformers a week in Soweto until there are 2,500 of them.

“Comrades in Soweto, we knew Eskom was an opposition political party in Soweto. I want to declare to you, all the transformers that were not working in Soweto, the government that I have the honour to lead, we’ve got 2,500 transformers we’re going to install all those transformers in all our areas. There will not be any area that will not have electricity in Soweto,” he said.

In December, Eskom had to release a statement clarifying it had not processed any debt write-offs for either residents or municipalities following Lesufi’s promise that “all” historical debt owed to Eskom had been scrapped.

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“We are happy that national government has agreed that all the people owing Eskom for years – all those debts have now been scrapped,” said Lesufi at the time.