R44bn projects earmarked for Gauteng
Plans will come to fruition over the next three years, says premier
THE Gauteng government has set aside R44 billion in the next three years to build schools, health facilities and other infrastructure projects across the province.
Of the R44bn, the province is to spend R13.2 million before the end of March.
This was revealed by Premier David Makhura when he delivered his political report for 2016 in the legislature yesterday.
Makhura added that his executive council had reestablished the infrastructure spending committee to accelerate spending, saying it was to ensure that the province has a proper project pipeline.
Makhura also vowed to fight corruption and ensure transparency in the tender-procurement system.
“We have now expanded the open tender process from two departments to all 15 departments. Currently, 72 projects worth R10bn have been awarded using the open tender system.
“We are proud that Gauteng is the leader in promoting open government principles. This approach has received public commendation from civil society, business and government leaders,” Makhura said.
Next year, his executive council would table a bill to ensure that the open tender system becomes an act of the provincial government and legislature.
“Our infrastructure-funding agency GIFA (Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency) has taken to the markets with projects totalling R5bn. Through our infrastructure master plan and the work done by GIFA, there is the potential to leverage R40bn in private-sector investment,” he added.
The premier said Gauteng had already delivered more than 1.23 million RDP houses over the past decade, but that the housing backlog still remained at a staggering 600 000 due to rapid urbanisation.
“With regard to human settlements infrastructure, we will only see better outcomes and impact once we move full steam into delivering megahuman settlements.
“More work is being done to complete all legacy small-scale projects in the current financial year so that we can move to mega-human settlements delivery in 2017/18 and 2018/19.
“Only then will we see a positive trajectory,” mier added.
He also revealed that his government had struck a deal with all taxi associations to deal with the rot in the industry, especially illegal issuing of taxi permits and associations using routes illegally, leading to deadly taxi wars.
“We have now adopted an eight-point intervention plan agreed at the taxi industry summit in July. Many of the problems and wrongs identified by the portfolio committee on roads and transport are now being corrected and resolved through this plan.”
He also said that next year, he would announce exciting plans about the expansion of the Gautrain and further work on the bus rapid transit (BRT) and Metrorail, adding that all these plans would keep public transport “on a positive trajectory”.
“To fast-track transformation and empowerment of the taxi industry, I have appointed an exco political steering committee to deal with all matters pertaining to the taxi industry, including permits, law enforcement, integration into the public transport system and economic empowerment,” he said.