Premier Panyaza Lesufi delivered Gauteng’s state of the province address (Sopa) in Johannesburg on Monday night, noting priorities for his government, providing a report back on previous promises made while making commitments for the year ahead.
Water
Top of his list is tackling the widespread water crisis that has seen several areas with dry taps across the province.
Lesufi began his address by apologising for his recent remarks that stirred up controversy when he told journalists that he was also inconvenienced by the water problems and had to check into hotels to shower.
He then announced a R760m infrastructure investment upgrade for Johannesburg, which he said would be implemented in a phased approach.
We are working as the three spheres of government to fix the water challenges in our province
— Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng premier
“Construction of a new ground reservoir and a tower in Brixton is under way and will go live by this Saturday to improve the supply. In response to this crisis, we built an emergency boosting pumping station, which will go live next week, to ensure that these areas are covered with water. The permanent solution will be realised once the construction of the 5km pipeline is concluded at the end of the year,” he said.
Lesufi said the national government would also lend a hand and intervene. However, he highlighted that the major hurdle does not lie with the availability of water but rather the interruptions caused by infrastructure failures, leaks and high demand.
“We are working as the three spheres of government to fix the water challenges in our province. We are about to conclude the expansion of our water infrastructure so that we can be ready to receive additional water from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, thus cementing our water security permanently.”
Municipalities
On the state of the municipalities in the province, he welcomed the presidential working group, which was set up to intervene in Johannesburg.
He hailed Tshwane for its funded budgets, including that the municipality does not owe Rand Water and Eskom, congratulated the West Rand for attaining its second consecutive clean audit and pledged to address sinkholes, as well as Ekurhuleni’s commitment to bring to book all those implicated in the Madlanga commission of enquiry.
“We reported in the 2025 Sopa that Gauteng has identified 13-plus key challenges, which continuously devalue the social lives of residents. The majority of these challenges fall within the purview of local government. In this regard, the provincial government and municipalities have been working together through our intergovernmental relations (IGR) processes to address these challenges.”
Economy
On the economy, Lesufi emphasised that the province needed to ramp up its economic growth because of its importance in the country.
“As the economic heartland of our country, Gauteng should never be allowed to stop beating, for the consequences would be too dire for all of us. Our approach to economic growth is firmly grounded in the reindustrialisation of Gauteng and the deliberate inclusion of township and local enterprises in the mainstream economy.”
However, he indicated that a couple of areas required attention in order to enable the economic growth that his administration envisions.
“We are clear that to grow the economy of Gauteng, we must defeat crime, corruption and lawlessness, improve our infrastructure, fix local government and accelerate service delivery and bring the private sector to the centre of economic revitalisation.”
Bump in tourism
The premier announced a total of R27bn in foreign direct investment from countries such as the UK, Switzerland and France, adding that these commitments underscore international confidence in the province as South Africa’s primary investment and industrial hub.
On tourism, Lesufi said the province had grown from the 2.6-million arrivals in the previous year and was now sitting at 3.8-million international arrivals.
“This surge translated into a record-breaking R41bn in international tourism revenue, far surpassing the target of R29bn.
“We will continue to intensify the ‘Visit Gauteng: Zwakala’ campaign, projecting to generate R23bn in revenue from both foreign and domestic sources, contributing directly to provincial economic growth and supporting jobs in hotels, restaurants, transport, entertainment, and associated sectors.”
Infrastructure
The premier highlighted infrastructure development as a priority, saying that the government was going to spend extra attention on Transnet, Gautrain expansion and bulk infrastructure.
“Transnet has entered into a partnership to construct and operate South Africa’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at the Port of Richards Bay, which will transport gas from Richards Bay to Gauteng for the first time. The converted pipeline will make imported gas available to industrial users across Gauteng, thus wetting Gauteng to ignite our economy. A wet Gauteng propels economic development.
We are finalising the concessionaire for the Gautrain expansion for the next 15 years
— Lesufi
“By the end of March this year, the private sector will hand over to us the R52bn infrastructure fully owned by the people of Gauteng. To maximise this investment later this year, we will resume the process to expand Gautrain to Soweto, Mamelodi, Springs, Atteridgeville, Fourways, etc. We are finalising the concessionaire for the Gautrain expansion for the next 15 years.
“We highlighted in the 2025 Sopa that bulk infrastructure is a catalyst for development and yet remains uncoordinated. To this end, Gauteng will be establishing a bulk infrastructure agency that will co-ordinate and manage the provision of bulk infrastructure in the province with the assistance of all our municipalities.”
Roads
The premier spoke of the importance of cracking down on the pothole scourge, which has engulfed the province, as well as the rise of faulty traffic lights.
“Out of 31,000 identified potholes, to date, 26,000 have been repaired across the Gauteng City region, demonstrating our commitment to providing safer road infrastructure in the province.”
As such, Lesufi announced that he has mandated the cities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni to fix the potholes on provincial roads, which are within their jurisdiction.
He added that in the previous Sopa, his government committed to the immediate replacement of traffic signals across our province and the resurfacing and upgrading of roads.
“To date, jointly with all our municipalities, we are standing at 4,786 functional traffic signals. We have a mission to fix the remaining 699 non-functional traffic lights to complete the task. Unfortunately our traffic signals are being vandalised and this has become a vicious cycle. We fix them and they get vandalised.”
Crime and illegal mining
Lesufi cited crime and lawlessness as a big impediment, which his administration is actively working on addressing.
“When we said we have profiled 392 kingpins and have now arrested 101, we were told it would never happen. Today, all municipalities have joined together to fight crime and have signed an memorandum of understanding to share resources across the province. Despite all the ridicule that we received, today we can report that, as per the crime stats released by the minister of police on Friday, crime in Gauteng is going down.”
On illegal mining, Lesufi decried how the practice has reached intolerable levels in the province.
“Over 600 families, including women and children, fled from their homes in January due to the violence, threats and attacks on the residents by marauding gangsters. The ongoing illegal mining affects the communities of the West Rand, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Sedibeng d1istricts. Dangerous syndicates use high-calibre weapons such as AK-47s to conduct hostile takeovers of illegal mining sites.
He promised that the government would put a stop to the terror and protect law-abiding residents, adding that he welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s deployment of the South African National Defence Force to stamp out illegal mining and rising gang violence.
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