RISE Mzansi Gauteng premier candidate Vuyiswa Ramakgopa has promised to return the province to its former glory.
Ramokgopa said he believed the province, which was once a bustling economic and cultural hub, had collapsed due to years of neglect, mismanagement and poor leadership.
Ramokgopa, who is an entrepreneur and business leader, made these remarks during the party’s launch of the “Tsoga Gauteng Plan” this week.
The event was held at Beyers Naude Square in the Johannesburg CBD across the road from the Gauteng provincial legislature.
Gauteng has been crumbling under crime, constant power and water cuts and corruption worsened by political infighting and incompetent public servants. The provincial municipal infrastructure has also been deteriorating for years because of a lack of maintenance and investment.
Addressing supporters, Ramokgopa said Gauteng had extraordinary potential and she had witnessed the impact of poor planning, corruption and poor leadership.
She had been overwhelmed by a growing sense of hopelessness when she visited communities, saying that over two and half million of 16 million residents were unemployed. Ramokgopa added that of these, over 600 000 people had simply given up and stopped looking for work.
Ramokgopa said her party, Rise Mzansi, had one urgent priority for Gauteng, which was good government. She said this meant the voting in of new leaders who would clean up the mess made by the current “failed” government. This also meant ending corruption and the deployment of “incompetent and clueless” cadres.
“It means removing entrenched insiders who are there simply to eat, and replacing them with the best officials, whom we know exist, but who are overlooked. It means making Gauteng a place of meritocracy, accountability, and transparency. It means turning the province into a high-functioning government that is efficient and responsive,” she said.
Ramokgopa said the basic function of a government was to ensure the safety, health and prosperity of its people and that currently Gauteng was succeeding at none of these.
Ramokgopa said the current leaders were out of ideas and out of touch, adding that they were obsessed with PR and being in front of cameras instead of service delivery.
“They look busy but no delivery,” added Ramokgopa.
“Only new leaders can take this province into the future. As Rise Mzansi we are ready to deliver a cohort of new credible leaders this province deserves. Leaders who care. Capable leaders and leaders who will implement change,” she said.
Ramokgopa, who was born in Hillbrow, said her mother’s family was forcibly removed from Sophiatown to Meadowlands, adding that they were victims of apartheid’s Group Areas Act. Her parents were among the first black people to move into Hillbrow in the 1980s, resisting the Act.
“It breaks my heart that in Gauteng most people still live in functional Group Areas, far-flung and disconnected from opportunity. Forgotten and neglected by this uncaring government,” she said.
She said young people in the province were perishing from drugs and drug addiction because of unemployment and idleness. Ramokgopa said this was because there were no recreational facilities and jobs.
She lambasted the housing backlog in the province, saying some people had been on the waiting list for more than 20 years. She said in other areas, such as Soweto, houses were hijacked, sold and transferred illegally by public officials and councillors while the rightful occupants were still living in them.
“In Sebokeng, Koko Bella tells us that after 22 years of waiting for a house, the application is now showing as approved but for two years she has received no feedback from the Housing Department and remains in a state of limbo.”
Ramokgopa said people also told her that they lived in a constant state of fear as they faced the ever-present threat of being raped and killed, even in their homes.
She said in Boiketlong informal settlement, Sebokeng, residents told her that they had never had access to piped water, while sewage-infested water flowed freely into the homes of residents in Emfuleni Local Municipality.
“These are not isolated incidents Bahlali – these are just a few of the hundreds of stories that the people have told me.”
These sentiments were also shared by EFF leader Julius Malema who, during the party’s provincial manifesto launch at Dobsonville stadium in Soweto last month, accused the ANC of collapsing Gauteng and its infrastructure.
Ramokgopa is expected to go head-to-head with the likes of the EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, the DA’s Solly Msimanga and current Premier Panyaza Lesufi, who leads the province under the ANC.