In his speech, Makhura said, “I once more stand before this august house as a humble servant of the people of our province, ready to give a full account of the work we are doing and to share plans related to the work we will do over the next four years to transform, modernise and re-industrialise this beautiful and resilient province.”
He said he wanted to restate the 10 pillars which constitute the core mandate of the fifth administration. These are radical economic transformation, decisive spatial transformation, accelerating social transformation, transformation of the state and governance, modernisation of the economy, modernisation of the public service and the state, modernisation of human settlements and urban development, modernisation of public transport and other infrastructure.
In order to broaden the energy plan in the Gauteng, Makhura said the government has adopted a plan of numerous interventions. He said, “We have been working with municipalities to finalise plans to bring in additional 1 200 megawatts of electricity by increasing generation capacity of the current coal-fired power stations in Joburg (Kelvin Station). We are installing roof top solar panels for all our government buildings. Our estimate is that we have available 8 million square metres of roof top space suitable for this and will be able to generate 300 to 500 megawatts of electricity.”
However, John Moodey, Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng provincial leader said the speech was not inspiring and he was not impressed as the premier also ducked the question of e-tolls and the DA’s call for provincial referendum on the issue. Moodey also said, “Makhura today laid out an ambitious agenda for Gauteng’s economic and spatial development, but without any clear implementation timelines and deadlines. He said said nothing was real or innovative in the speech.”
Meanwhile the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Gauteng caucus leader, Bonginkosi Dhlamini said, “We are concerned that each and every year great plans and ideas such as the 10 pillars are introduced without any accountability in the aftermath. We were expecting the premier to account in his State of the Province Address 2015, but instead, new plans were introduced. We hope that these new plans will be followed through.” He added that they were surprised by the premier not making any major announcement on the e-tolls.
Meanwhile Economic Freedom Fighters Gauteng leader Mandisa Mashego said, “As usual the African National Congress has come up with empty promises and lies.”
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