GAUTENG Premier Panyaza Lesufi has nothing new to offer residents in his State of the Province Address (Sopa) on Monday, 19 February, according to opposition parties.
Gauteng DA leader, Solly Msimanga said the residents will continue to hear about the province's economic corridors like in previous years, with no tangible results.
He said crime continues to rise, yet hundreds of crime wardens have been deployed all over the province.
"The drones promised last year by the premier have yet to be rolled out. Therefore, residents, particularly women and children, continue to live in fear," said Msimanga.
He said police stations and community policing forums (CPF) must be given resources to fight crime, rather than Lesufi spending millions of rands on drones and CCTV cameras.
"Given that this is an election year, Lesufi will continue pushing his pipe dream of a bullet train from Limpopo to Gauteng. While our current railway system doesn't function properly, residents struggle to get to and from work daily.
"Furthermore, the goalposts for the scrapping of the e-tolls have been moved every year since the 2019 elections. Residents have been forced to pay for a system they never wanted. We need a real solution to e-tolls immediately, not empty promises," he said.
ALSO READ: How Sanele escaped from kidnappers
He claimed that abahlali have been hearing about infrastructure improvement. Yet, children were still taught in asbestos schools, clinics were not completed on time, and pupils were still taught in overcrowded classrooms.
He said corruption remains rampant in Gauteng.
"Only a few connected individuals and politicians continue to benefit from government tenders. For many years, we've been told that lifestyle audits will be conducted on all MECs and high-ranking government officials. However, we've never seen any of these lifestyle audit reports. This begs the question: What is the premier hiding from the public?" said Msimanga.
He added that if Lesufi cared about the well-being of residents, he would use the Sopa to admit that his government had failed to improve lives.
ActionSA Gauteng chairman, Funzi Ngobeni said he expected Lesufi to make populist announcements aimed at giving a false impression of progress.
"A prime illustration of this is the establishment of the unlawful Nasi Ispani Crime Prevention Wardens scheme, which is merely an electioneering gimmick," he said.
Ngobeni said the timing of these plans was a desperate political re-election campaign.
"Firstly, stop the economic decline in the province by declaring the damage and theft of the economic infrastructure and the hijacking of buildings as economic treason and implement appropriate sanctions.
"In Joburg alone, there're 188 hijacked buildings. 145 of these are within the CBD. I want you to realise the economic potential of these buildings. In their current state, they're sanctuaries of criminal activities and are a safety hazard," he said.
He claimed that an ActionSA government would reclaim the hijacked buildings and, in working with the private sector, renovate and make them function again.
"This would enable us to address the housing crisis in the province and also bringing people closer to centres of employment," said Ngobeni.
