Gauteng has moved from a public health emergency to an economic and service delivery emergency, Gauteng Premier David Makhura said during his State of the Province Address, in Johannesburg, on February 21.

“As we steadily work our way out of the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, we should show urgency and act with the same speed and agility to tackle the crisis of unemployment, rebuild and protect our infrastructure for basic services and fight crime and corruption in an emergency mode,” he implored.

Makhura insisted that government departments should no longer work in silos, stressing that inter-departmental and inter-governmental cooperation were required to achieve change on the scale required.

“The collapse of infrastructure for basic services also requires an emergency response akin to the way we dealt with the Covid-19 public health emergency,” he said, adding that “all hands on deck” were required to turn the situation around.

Makhura revealed that the Gauteng provincial government had established a Provincial War Room, in which government and industry leaders had joined forces to drive economic recovery, unlock growth in every sector and create sustainable jobs, as well as to support small, medium-sized and microenterprise (SMME) development.

“Through the war room, we are working with the captains of industry on programmes that will unleash growth by matching public policy support and government action with consolidated commitments by sector leaders on investments and jobs,” he explained.

Makhura said the Gauteng provincial government was opening up value chains, building competitive local content production, while promoting commercially meaningful enterprises, suppliers, SMMEs and township enterprises.

“The war room has now initiated a programme of quarterly sector action labs with industry representatives focusing on problem-solving and social compacting platforms,” he explains.

In partnership with the Public-Private Growth Initiative, the Gauteng government would work with businesses, organised labour, State-owned enterprises and relevant national government departments to reignite the Gauteng economy, he added.

Tackling infrastructure development and upkeep was another major issue, Makhura noted.

“Our record on maintenance has been dismal. Delays and costing [of] projects are areas of big concern. Investing in infrastructure includes improving efficiencies, value for money and effecting the modernisation of the delivery of government services,” he said.

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

In terms of information and communication technology (ICT), Makhura said work was being done to draw in experts, policymakers and businesspersons from across the digital economy landscape to support the implementation of Gauteng’s Fourth Industrial Revolution strategy.

“Our eKasiLabs, Township Cloud Zones and Hot-Desking Hubs will be optimal sites for new data centres and big investments in communication technologies,” he stated.

Makhura said that, since last year, the Gauteng provincial government had upgraded six core network nodes, provided wide area network connectivity to 1 224 sites; local area network connectivity at 652 sites; enabled voice over Internet protocol at 287 sites; and provided 37 Wi-Fi breakout points.

He added that the government had implemented 45 different online applications platforms to allow citizens to access government services at their convenience.

Through the Gauteng Centre of Excellence and in response to the ICT skills shortage, the Gauteng provincial government had facilitated training for 6 976 of its staff, and was also working with technical vocational education and training colleges to provide ICT training.

AGRICULTURE

In the food, beverage, agroprocessing and agribusiness sectors, the Gauteng government was working with industry players and organised farmers in partnership with the Agricultural Development Agency to ensure food security and promote urban agriculture as a key sector for employment and business.

Drawing ire from some members of the house, Makhura noted that the Gauteng government had been interacting extensively with cannabis industry role-players to identify the unique economic opportunities that the industry might hold for Gauteng.

“This year we will establish a dedicated unit within the provincial government to work with the industry and national government to address regulatory and licensing issues, attract investment, and facilitate black participation in this new sector that has enormous medicinal and industrial potential,” he said.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Makhura admitted that there had been challenges in the delivery of infrastructure over the past year.

“The work on infrastructure projects has not only been affected by Covid-19 lockdowns but there has also been . . . continuous stoppages by people claiming to be business forums demanding 30%, which is impeding good work of and progress on these projects,” he said.

The other challenge Makhura noted was the capacity of the Department of Infrastructure as the implementing agent for most social infrastructure projects. This has been compounded by allegations of corruption levelled against senior managers in the departments of Infrastructure and Health.

“The disruption by the so-called business forums is nothing short of economic sabotage. We will continue to support and empower genuine black businesses.

We are working with the police . . . for the arrest and conviction of all perpetrators,” Makhura said.

He said that, over the next year, the focus would be on the completion of incomplete projects and the acceleration of the completion of new infrastructure projects across all regions.

“We will ensure that departments take full responsibility for the maintenance. All our infrastructure projects must be delivered on time and at cost,” he promised.

Makhura said the delivery of infrastructure required a war room approach that would assemble critical role-players to jointly deal with efficiencies, delivery and create partnerships.

“Should any of the implementing agents fail to deliver on time and on budget, I will not hesitate to replace them with agencies that will deliver on time and on budget,” he warned.