SOLLY MSIMANGA | Days of unaccountable leadership in Gauteng are numbered

In 2014, David Makhura emerged as premier of Gauteng. His praises were sung from every rooftop that he wanted to place solar panels on. He was fawned over as one of the good guys – because he was from the “good” ANC – the one where you haven’t been outwardly accused of anything bad.

We were fobbed off about re-industrialisation, modernisation and transformation – the creation of black magnates, tycoons of industry who would be the panacea to unemployment and inequality.

Grand plans of prawn farms, industrial parks – a hydro city, an aerotropolis, digital city, knowledge city, breaking the back of apartheid spatial planning – all of which you could access off freeways that were just that – free, of e-tolls at least.

It sounded like a golden dawn.

And so, after nearly eight years, one must ask: Is this province getting better? Is there hope? Simply put, the answer is a hard no.

Crime is at an all time high. No-one is spared, not our mother, sisters, children, fathers or brothers – not you, not I. Look at the latest crime statistics.

And why is crime so high? Because little to nothing has been done to arrest unemployment. Poverty and desperation are the foundations on which criminal activity is borne.

There are 2.6-million unemployed Gauteng residents, while 680,000 people have given up looking for work.

If you are a young person, your chances of finding sustainable employment to support you and your loved ones are slim to none.

If you live in an informal settlement, you more than likely not only face the indignity of living in filth and squalor, you are the main recipient of both crime and unemployment.

Millions upon millions of rands are lost to corruption in building projects. Projects aimed at building houses, schools, clinics are strangled by the tentacles of corrupt cadres.

None of this money has ever been recovered because there is simply no political will to do so.

The excuses are endless.

Go back at least four state of the province addresses and you have heard about all the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) reports – the outcomes of which are imminent. It's 2022 and the outcomes are still unknown.

A sum of R500m amounted to wasteful expenditure on the white elephant called Anglo-Ashanti Hospital.

The department of health saw R2.2bn of public funds devoured by well-connected cadres, one of whom served in Makhura’s cabinet, through the hyperinflation of the price of PPE at the height of a global pandemic.

The sanitising of schools at prices beyond reason is another – at a time when neither a teacher or pupil was in attendance. This R431m wasteful expenditure could have been put to better use than lining the pockets of tenderpreneurs.

The unyielding desire for theft by this government knows no bounds.

Six years and two administrations on, we are still awaiting the outcome of the “game-changing” lifestyle audits on members of the executive – Makhura included. What ill-gotten gains are being squirrelled away? This is the only logical reason these are yet to be released.

Gauteng residents are still awaiting the long overdue outcome into the criminal investigation into the fire at Charlotte Maxeke hospital. It is beyond thinkable that such a crucial institution could catch fire in the first place. It is criminal that to date no-one has been held to account.

No-one is held to account because, under Makhura, no-one is accountable.

There are myriad reasons why Makhura must go. The DA in Gauteng has tabled a motion of no-confidence in Makhura. The poor will die of malnourishment on a steady diet of empty promises. Our youth will grow old waiting for changes that never come.

No longer can Gauteng abide the empty pledges and fantasies of a man removed from reality. 

It is time this province and its people were served by those who legitimately want to make a difference and improve their lives.  

• Msimanga is DA MPL and opposition leader in the Gauteng legislature.