Lesufi: only ANC can take Gauteng forward
The ANC, which is battling declining electoral support and a slew of governance, financial, operational and administrative challenges, said it is ready to defend SA’s economic powerhouse of Gauteng during the 2024 national and provincial elections by creating jobs and rolling out service delivery.
The ANC has acknowledged it is in danger of losing control of the province that contributes almost 40% to national GDP as it struggles to deal with unemployment and deteriorating basic services such as access to housing, clinics, schools, water and electricity.
The ANC lost control of the Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metros in Gauteng to DA-led coalitions in the 2021 municipal elections, where its national electoral support fell below the 50% mark for the first time since 1994.
The governing party’s support in the province had been on the decline before that too; in the 2019 provincial election it received 2.1-million votes, or 50.1%, down from the 53.5% it mustered in 2014.
The Gauteng ANC held a provincial executive committee lekgotla on Monday and Tuesday in Boksburg, to map out a programme of action for 2024 and to “critically deliberate on the elections strategy”.
In his closing remarks, Gauteng ANC chair and premier Panyaza Lesufi said the organisation came out with one message from the meeting: that Gauteng ANC “is ready to defend this province”.
“Indeed, we also close with a commitment to our people that as we knock at their doors and engage in our streets, as we meet in churches, stokvels and as we further debate at various platforms that [have] been created for elections, so that our people can receive our message, we come to them with a highest level of humility, eliminating any form of arrogance, asking them that through the ANC the country can prosper,” he said.
ANC leaders including its national chair, Gwede Mantashe, and former Gauteng premier David Makhura have previously criticised the ANC, saying it was arrogant, out of touch with society and preoccupied with selfinterest and factionalism, while its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had said the ANC was “accused number one” when it came to corruption.
Lesufi has been travelled the province and implementing various initiatives aimed at addressing the unemployment scourge and load-shedding.
“It is crucial that we continue to have a desire to avail sufficient job opportunities in Gauteng; accordingly, Nasi Ispani [a mass job creation programme] has touched a nerve, and the opposition does not have plans to counter it, hence they accuse us of electioneering,” said Lesufi, who is expected to deliver the state of the province address at Nasrec on Monday.
“This is a legitimate government that must govern this province until a new administration is ushered [in]; whatever we do is legitimate and no-one must falsely accuse us of anything else.”
Lesufi said his administration would leave no stone unturned in attending to crime in the province. “It is exciting to inform you that, in addition to the 6,000 crime-prevention wardens already onboard and making a significant impact, we will further train about 3,000 additional young people to be deployed, to fight crime at strategic levels, including in the taxi industry [and] business forums, and prevent land invasions,” he said.
“Wherever there is lack of service delivery in any municipalities, we will use services from elsewhere to provide services to our people … Accordingly, we are now convinced that there is no organisation that can take this province forward, only the ANC can do so.”
Gauteng is expected to be a battleground province during the elections, with EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Rise Mzansi national chair Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, and DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga all wanting to replace Lesufi as premier.