Gauteng residents say they hope that Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s 2024 State of the Province Address (SOPA) will detail a comprehensive plan to deal with the multitude of issues plaguing the province.
Despite it being the economic hub of the country, the Gauteng City-Region faces many challenges including high levels of crime, unemployment and poverty.
Lesufi will deliver his SOPA at 6pm on Monday evening at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg South. This is what some Gauteng residents had to say.
“We want to know how he is going to tackle and bring the confidence to the residents because this is an election year. We don’t want him to campaign for the party but to tell us the residents of Gauteng how is he going to assist us. We want to know from the Premier in his speech, what is he going to do to assist us as the residents of Gauteng. I really hope that the Premier has some good plans in place to tackle the issues facing Gauteng as we are experiencing quite a number of issues. Personally, I must say, I am really really tired of all the outages, the break ins, and the crime escalation.”
Residents of Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, say they hope that plans to address the issues plaguing the crime riddled township, will be highlighted during the SOPA.
Diepsloot community leader, Scelo Shezi, says there are a number of issues that need urgent intervention in the township.
SOPA should also come up with new strategies for combating crimes, as level of crime is at a high degree in our communities, in particular in Diepsloot. The other thing that we think should be on the top of the agenda is that hospitals should be built for the Northern Johannesburg residents, I mean Diepsloot and surrounding communities. The other thing is to ensure that more schools and sports stadiums are built for young people of Diepsloot.”
This marks the final SOPA for the 6th administration.
