Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi would make a remarkable salesman. He has a knack for telling people what they want to hear, how they want to hear it, at the exact time they want to hear it.
Delivering his state of the province address, Lesufi was again in his element, hitting the right notes in terms of the many challenges facing Gauteng.
These include dealing with growing unemployment by creating jobs, and resolving the water and power crises, which threaten both economic development and residents’ quality of life. Lesufi also promised, among other things, to ratchet up the fight against crime and gender-based violence.
Without practical action, ideas alone will not bring about the changes needed to improve citizens’ lives and make the province a place conducive to living and doing business in
Few will quibble with his plans to fix the province’s poorly maintained and overloaded hospitals and clinics, to extend the Gautrain service to townships or to address the power problems that plague water pumping stations. His plan to create a borderless policing system for city police is to be welcomed.
While new ideas and innovation in dealing with the province’s problems — and indeed, the country’s problems — can be useful, these have to be followed up with action that is measurable. The problem with such speeches is they tend to be a collection of any and all issues, while short on practical detail. They end up sounding like a revamped rehash of previous ones, which risks feeding public scepticism about political leadership.
The reality is that without practical action, ideas alone will not bring about the changes needed to improve citizens’ lives and make the province a place conducive to living and doing business in.
The proof of the pudding will be in the securing of funding for the proposed projects — and insulating such funding from the now-endemic threat of corruption.
In addition, Lesufi will have to ensure his administration is properly staffed with personnel who are committed to delivering services to the residents of Gauteng.
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