Opposition parties accuse Makhura of repeating message from last year’s Sopa

In what opposition parties have seen as implausible and a string of unimplemented promises – Gauteng premier David
Makhura on Monday unveiled a list of projects he maintained would create job opportunities in the province.

Amid the pomp and ceremony which preceded his State of the Province Address (Sopa) – marked by sporadic heckling by red-robed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPLs – Makhura seemed to repeat a similar line of messaging delivered last year.

He spoke of economic growth, investment opportunities, growing the township economy and creating job opportunities.

But to Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow health MEC Jack Bloom and EFF acting provincial chair Itani Mukwevho, Makhura’s message was “unconvincing” for a government with the interests of people at heart.

“He is completely not credible when it comes to corruption, which he has not tried to prevent,” said Bloom.

“The infrastructure MEC should have been fired for failing patients at Charlotte Maxeke hospital – there should be consequences.”

He said Makhura “should have intervened much earlier – as it is a vote of no confidence in his infrastructure development department, which appointed the wrong people for the job.

“Unfortunately, people are dying because of the lack of speedy intervention.”

“They have claimed to create a small number of jobs but business confidence is more determined by national policy, not the province. Government agencies are corrupt, with money not well spent because of corruption and inefficiency.”

Mukwevho said the reason the EFF heckled Makhura was because “he spoke about reviving the township economy last year and now repeating the same message without any tangible progress”.

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He said the EFF asked for the land audit report to establish what land is owned by the provincial government.

“That could not be produced. He can talk about cannabis as reviving the economy but he does not have land.”

Mukwevho claimed Makhura mentioned “faceless and unnamed” beneficiaries of bursaries. “Unless he gives us the list of those who have benefitted, are we going to believe him,” he said.

With his projects described by the EFF and the DA as scant on detail, lacking tangibles like timelines and milestones, economic-related campaigns Makhura reported on include:

• The establishment by the Presidency of a project management office which worked with the Gauteng government on the Lanseria Smart City development.
  
• Twelve vehicle components manufacturers, already operating in the Tshwane special economic zone, “while construction work is continuing”.
  
• R1 billion spent on the construction phase of an SMME project in Mamelodi – “using what is now recognised as a benchmark local contractor development system nationally”.
• A total of 3 440 permanent jobs created in the province since the last Sopa – exceeding the target of 3 288.
  
• Work which continued on the N12 corridor development – with mining houses and other private sector partners facilitating and speeding up investments on solar farms, urban agriculture, green hydrogen and the expansion of the Busmark manufacturing facility.
  

Makhura said Gauteng had established “a provincial war room” in which government and industry leaders joined forces to drive economic recovery “by unlocking growth in every sector and create sustainable jobs, as well to support for SMME development”.

“Through the war room, we are working with the captains of industry on programmes that will unleash growth by matching public policy support and government action with consolidated commitments by sector leaders on investments and jobs,” he said.

“We are doing so with a strong and deliberate emphasis on creating jobs and economic opportunities for the people of Gauteng, especially the youth and women.

“We’re opening up value chains, building competitive local content production, promoting commercially meaningful enterprises, supplier development, SMMEs and township enterprises.”

He added that the war room had initiated a programme of quarterly sector action labs with industry representatives focusing on problem-solving and social compacting platforms.

– brians@citizen.co.za