Pretoria - The DA in Gauteng has warned Premier Panyaza Lesufi against the establishment of a provincial state bank while there are existing provincial government entities doing the same job.
DA leader in the province Solly Msimanga issued the warning while delivering his party’s “Real State of the Province Address” at the DA’s legislature headquarters in Joburg yesterday. Lesufi is scheduled to deliver the State of the Province Address on Monday at the Joburg City Hall.
Lesufi made his pronouncement on the establishment of a provincial state bank moments after he was elected premier, replacing David Makhura in October last year. In his announcements, Lesufi said that the bank would assist his provincial government to empower township businesses through loans and other necessary skills to run their respective businesses.
However, the DA yesterday described the move as a waste of funds and the sidelining of provincial entities such as the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller that was established to do the same job.
“There is no need to establish a state-owned bank. This will just be another waste of our taxpayers’ money. Under the DA we will utilise the entities already in place like the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller to ensure that they start delivering on their mandate.
“Furthermore, we will make sure that only officials who are qualified will be appointed to senior positions at these entities. Budgets set aside for the empowerment of small businesses must be used. We cannot continue to have a situation where money is ring-fenced for small businesses but is never used,” Msimanga said.
Condemning the continuation of load shedding and the water crisis that continues to hit several parts of the province, Msimanga said his party would, after taking the helm of government in 2024, urgently set up an intergovernmental task team to look into ways of reducing the number of blackouts the province was currently experiencing.
“Yes, load shedding is not only a Gauteng problem but a national one. But if we look into the strides made by the Western Cape government, we can reduce the number of times our power goes off. We can become less reliant on Eskom if we engage independent power producers. This is not a quick fix but one that we will reap the benefits of in the future.
“In terms of the water crisis in the province, the task team that we are proposing to be set up will also look into declaring all water reservoirs a national key point. This means that all our reservoirs will be exempted from load shedding. This will ensure that our residents are not subjected to having no water or using water tankers to get water for their basic day-to-day needs during load shedding,” he said.
Msimanga said they had already approached the South African Human Rights Commission on the water crisis, saying it had given his party feedback on the progress of the investigation. According to Msimanga, the commission was awaiting a written response from Rand Water regarding the issue.
Pretoria News