Gauteng Premier Panyaza outlined his ambitious plan to reclaim township economies by using 60% of the Provincial’s R34 billion budget allocation to fund enterprises for the procurement of goods and services, he said during his maiden State of the Province Address (Sopa) on Monday at the Legislature.
Lesufi spoke about providing basic services at hostels to transforming taxi ranks at the Sopa which comes less than 18 months before the National General Elections.
The ANC won the country’s richest province by a nail-biting 50.2% in the last general elections in 2019 and the party is under pressure to deliver tangible services to the townships many of whom have been engaged in service delivery protests for among other issues rolling electricity blackouts and disconnections.
In outlining his plan, Lesufi said the provincial government is going to establish a digital database or township business register of all enterprises in the townships.
Lesufi’s plan is also to empower the backroom owners or “aboMastandi” as landlords are referred to, to be in the real estate industry by upgrading their properties and by upscaling the formalisation process.
He said 2000 applications have been validated for funding and 40 loans have been approved to the tune of R50 million adding that he wanted to ensure the timeous lodging of zoning applications and direct collaboration with municipalities on the delivery of the project for backyard dwellers..
He also said the taxi business will be used as a vehicle to expand the economy and his government has put together a taxi fund to the tune of R20 million as a seed capital for the taxi association to raise money in the market.
Big businesses such as banks will be allowed to operate at taxi ranks, he said. “Taxi ranks will be our future shopping stations. We will be launching taxi ranks of the future, a one-stop=shop, for taxi parts and tyres, banks, restaurants, and many other related businesses such as filling stations. A new model of taxi rank of the future will be unveiled.”
Lesufi said R3.1 billion will be used to upgrade townships and an anti-land invention unit will be introduced to end the continuing land grabs.
“Madam speaker, we are intervening in 731 informal settlements in our Province. Of this, we have mapped and enumerated 639 and we are upgrading 179 informal settlements at a budget of R3.1 billion. Today we have released 482 service stands.
“This is our new way of speeding the building of houses in our communities. This means instead of people waiting for a RDP house we will release fully serviced stands with roads, water and Electricity.”
Lesufi also turned his focus to single sex hostels, most of which have become dens of crime and no-go areas for many people.
“As government we own six hostels in Gauteng, namely: George Goch Denver; Jeppe;
MBA; Murray and Roberts; LTA Rethabile. We are converting hostels into liveable spaces and we are rolling out the services to them as well.”
He said free WIFI has been installed and free data given to residents of all the six hostels.
“We’ve appointed service providers who will clean these hostels frequently. We are repairing all broken windows, roofs, toilets, doors etc in these hostels. We will install showers, toilets, reconnect electricity, collect refuse frequently with cleaning services by personnel from the Gauteng Government. From the 1st April all the 6 hostels will have weekly mobile health clinics with doctors and nurses.”
Lesufi was sworn in last October and replaced former Premier David Makhura.
