Premier Makhura delivers SOPA of broken promises

Issued by Solly Msimanga – DA Gauteng Premier Candidate
18 Feb 2019 in Press Statements

Today, Gauteng Premier David Makhura delivered his last State of the Province Address (SOPA) as Premier .

Premier Makhura will be remembered as the Premier of Empty Promises who was unable to deliver to the people of Gauteng. His inability to curb corruption within his own government has left the Premier hamstrung by corrupt networks of patronage in the ANC and the provincial government.  Corruption and greed during the Premier’s time in government has seen R20 billion of wasteful, unauthorised and irregular expenditure being reported by the Auditor General. 5 new hospitals, 20 clinics, 30 schools, and 70 000 houses could have been built with this money.

One of my first duties as Premier would be to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into state capture in the province. This will expose and identify the various corrupt networks operating in the province in order to bring much-needed change to Gauteng. Opportunities and jobs will only be possible if we first defeat corruption.

Under the Premier’s watch the worst human rights atrocity occurred; 144 mental health patients died due to the neglect and lack of care by the Gauteng Health Department. Even though the Premier was aware of the transfer of patients, he now pleads ignorance. Two years have passed since the tragedy and still no one is being held accountable. The victims’ families have still not received the compensation due to them. This is further proof of how little influence Makhura has to effect change in the province and deliver on promises. My first priority will be to use the law to recover money from those implicit in this tragedy, such as Qedani Mahlangu, who is continually being shielded by the Premier.  Yet the best the Premier has to offer is platitudes that this will never happen again. However, a recent visit to the psychiatric ward at the Telle Mogoerane Hospital shows that psychiatric patients in the province are still vulnerable and are not receiving the care they need.

Despite bold statements by the Premier on how e-tolls have no future in Gauteng and how it will soon come to an end, the Premier today had the opportunity to show bold leadership in dealing with the issue of e-tolls by making use of his SOPA to announce a dispute with the national government. Instead, the Premier opted to remain submissive to his bosses in the ANC, instead of putting the people first and declaring an end to e-tolls. When the DA takes over government on 8 May we will declare a dispute with national government and if need be go to court to end this unfair and unjust tax burden on our people. This is the course of action we followed in the Western Cape which ensured that e-tolls were never implemented.

The DA is able to deliver change that voters can believe in. In 2016, the DA embarked on a mission to bring change to Gauteng, by taking control of the Cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane. In just two years we have started to turn these cities around. Our mission will not be complete until we have taken control of Gauteng to effect even greater change to the people of this great province.

The power to bring change and make Gauteng into a province that works is in the hands of the people. Only A DA-led government can deliver this kind of change.