Makhura’s task

GAUTENG Premier David Makhura will have his job cut out for him as he delivers his State of the Province Address today, what with 100 psychiatric patients – and counting – having died under his watch due to the ill-fated decision by the Health Department to transfer the patients to NGOs not properly suited to see to their needs.

Gauteng residents will be waiting with bated breath to hear how he will restore their trust in the public health system.

With voters in Gauteng’s metros having voiced their dissatisfaction with the lack of service delivery and high unemployment levels through their ballots during the local government elections, leaving the ANC on shaky ground in the province, it is hoped that Makhura will deliver a speech which will instil hope in the poverty-stricken people who are in desperate need of improved living conditions, and the unemployed youth who are tired of hearing of programmes that never come to light.

In his speech last year, Makhura said “We cannot lose the war against drugs” and further mentioned the establishment of the Drug Task Team, which had nabbed 10 602 suspects and led to the closing down of 28 drug laboratories.

With recent developments in Rosettenville and Pretoria West, where residents have taken to torching houses that they claim have been turned into drug dens and brothels, it will be interesting to hear Makhura expand on the Drug Task Team’s achievements, and whether it has been a success.

Last year, Makhura acknowledged that the people of Gauteng are intolerant of government failure and bureaucratic incompetence, and that they want a government that honours its commitments. Failure in this province, he said, was not an option, incompetence was not permissible and corruption was not acceptable.

Here’s to hoping that Makhura will give a clear and detailed plan of how he plans to take the province forward and deal with incompetent public servants instead of simply regurgitating previous speeches.