SOLLY MSIMANGA: Freedom Day for some, but not the majority

Freedom Day this year marks the 30th anniversary of SA’s first democratic elections, making it an opportune time to reflect not only on the progress we have made since the dawn of democracy but also on the policy failures and broken promises that continue to plague Gauteng under the ANC-led government.

April 27 1994 was a watershed moment in our history. People of all races, young and old, rich and poor, stood in long queues waiting to cast their votes with hopes for a better tomorrow. However, three decades of ANC provincial government in Gauteng have made life far worse for its residents and created a near-impossible environment for a provincial economy to grow.

Annual inflation as measured by consumer prices was 5.6% in February 2024, up from 5.3% the month before. The cost of essential ingredients for preparing nutritious meals, such as milk, eggs, cheese, vegetables, bread, and meat, has been rising well above the official inflation rate for years. Increasing food prices has placed severe strain on household budgets in SA, particularly in Gauteng where food insecurity is already a serious issue.

Despite the promises of a better future, the reality for many Gauteng residents is unfulfilled expectations, missed opportunities and despair. There are still households that have no access to water or electricity. Some communities use pit latrines and bucket toilets, and children are still taught in asbestos structures.

Gauteng faces the huge challenges of unemployment, poverty, crime, deteriorating infrastructure, load-shedding, water outages and inequality. According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey the province’s unemployment rate was 33.8% at the end of last year, higher than the national average. That translates to 2.6-million people without a job and more than 500,000 discouraged work-seekers. The unemployment crisis is hitting the youth especially hard.

Youth hit hardest

The Spectator Index’s 2023 youth unemployment rate list reveals that SA had the highest level of youth unemployment of all the countries it surveyed. In its 2022/23 annual report the Gauteng department of economic development created just 1,372 of the targeted 392,784 jobs. Yet the current government has made even bolder promises to provide an additional 500,000 jobs. How will these jobs be budgeted for? Where is the plan?

As is the norm, April 27 sees the ANC laud itself, focusing only on the good. Yet the party’s track record in Gauteng is one of policy failures that have directly affected its residents. The housing crisis persists, with many people still living in inadequate conditions despite promises of improvement. The Gauteng human settlements department can only build 10,000 houses a year, while the provincial housing backlog stands at more than 1.2-million.

Gauteng’s ANC premier appears to have forgotten his promise to deal with hostel residents’ appalling living conditions, leaving them in squalid, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions that that are a hazard to their health.

Furthermore, Gauteng is littered with incomplete and abandoned infrastructure projects that have cost millions of rand but provided no benefit to anyone. These projects are a monument to the dysfunctionality and inefficiency of Gauteng’s department of infrastructure development.

The ANC’s governance in the province has been characterised by corruption, mismanagement and a lack of accountability. In the 2022/23 financial year the province incurred irregular expenditure amounting to R5.7bn, largely a result of deviations from proper procurement processes.

The people of Gauteng deserve a government that prioritises their needs and delivers on its promises. Instead, the provincial government has failed to deal with pressing issues such as load-shedding, which has a disastrous effect on employment. In 2022, 302,893 job opportunities were lost due to 3,212 hours of power cuts in the province, and our youth are the biggest losers in that regard.

The Gauteng healthcare system faces several challenges, including supply chain issues, infrastructure and maintenance, occupational health and safety hazards and poor management. These issues have contributed to delays in patient care, unpaid suppliers and poor allocation of funding for health services. By April 2023 the department owed R4bn to more than 42,000 service providers. This has significant consequences for the healthcare system, affecting both patients and the ability to buy the necessary equipment and supplies.

Corruption and mismanagement

The department is still characterised by corruption, mismanagement and a complete disregard for the wellbeing of patients, as evidenced by the Life Esidimeni tragedy and Covid-19 pandemic procurement fraud, among other scandals. The assassination of whistle-blower Babita Deokaran serves as a stark reminder of the deeply entrenched graft that has crippled the department’s ability to deliver and their continuing failure to hold those responsible to account.

Crime statistics repeatedly prove the severity of the problem in Gauteng. Between October and December last year more than 1,700 people were murdered in the province. Gauteng has just 143 police stations responsible for the safety of more than 16-million people. Some of these police stations close at night and are badly maintained, understaffed and under-resourced.

May 29 offers another to elect a government of choice. We must hold our leaders accountable for their broken promises and demand better for the people of Gauteng. The optimism we felt on April 27 1994 must not evade us.

Let us reject empty promises and work towards a brighter, more prosperous future for all.

• Msimanga, a member of the Gauteng legislature, is DA Gauteng premier candidate.