Lesufi promises incentives for athletes, to tackle cancer backlog and eradicate urban hunger

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi has vowed to invest in programmes that ensure athletes' success, improve health care and wellness, eradicate hunger and improve life in townships.

In his state of the province address on Thursday, he said lifestyle audits on all heads of departments and CEOs of the GPG agencies had been completed and he was awaiting a report from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Lesufi said Gauteng was the home of champions. “Today this august house is privileged to be joined by, among others, Tatjana Smith, Bradley Nkoane, Bayande Walaza and Shaun Maswangane. All of these distinguished athletes, including Akani Simbini, have put Gauteng on the map. We are ready to unveil our incentive package to these athletes as a token of appreciation by the Gauteng government.

“As part of our investment in sports and the creative arts, we have allocated a budget of R340.14m in the 2024/2025 financial year for school sports and recreation programmes to ensure that young athletes have access to quality training, facilities, and competitions through the renewal of the Wednesday League School Programme,” he said.

Smith, Simbine and Alan Hatherly lifted Team South Africa to a six-medal haul at the Paris Olympics, doubling the country’s total from Tokyo 2020. Much has been said about the government's lack of support for athletes, but sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie has promised to reimburse the parents of Olympic javelin silver medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk.

Van Dyk won her medal without much support from official structures at home. Her parents dug deep in their pockets to allow her to continue competing after she finished her studies in Potchefstroom.

Lesufi said there are 800 township schools participating in the Wednesday League programme that includes the codes of football and netball.

“These interventions will go a long way in ensuring the implementation of health, anti-drug, and girl-child support initiatives. We will revitalise community arts centres, community halls and community recreation centres and make them the nerve of community cohesion in the province.

“In this regard, we will provide infrastructure maintenance and programmes to Rabasotho Community Hall in Thembisa; ensure the renovation of Mphahlalatsane Theatre in Sebokeng (Vaal); capacitate and programme the Moses Molelekoa Arts Centre; Uncle Tom Hall and many other community halls that have now been hijacked,” he said.

Speaking on the ongoing challenge of healthcare provision, he said part of the strategy is to enhance the experience of the service in the province for both users and providers and accelerate the system reforms in preparation for universal health coverage- National Health Insurance.

“To date, 28 of our health facilities, inclusive of clinics, hospitals, community healthcare centres and five schools, have an alternative energy supply.

“We remain committed to the ongoing improvements in key health outcomes. We will continue to monitor the outbreak of Mpox in our province and acknowledge the Africa CDC’s and the WHO’s decision to declare it a public health emergency.

“As part of preventive measures, Gauteng province is capacitating clinicians in all five health districts. Moreover, Mpox campaigns are ongoing in the communities to educate communities about the disease. We acknowledge the ongoing concerns of cancer treatment in the province,” said Lesufi.

The Gauteng health department has been under the spotlight over its alleged inaction in the provision of urgent radiation oncology services to 3,000 patients on the backlog list.

The Cancer Alliance, represented by the NGO Section 27, filed an application against the MEC for health in Gauteng, the Gauteng health department and nine others in response to the department’s failure to use the allocated R784m set aside by the Gauteng Treasury in 2023.

The organisations have asked the court to interdict the expenditure of the funds to preserve the R250m ring-fenced for outsourcing services, to direct Gauteng health to update the backlog list and start providing radiation and oncology services to these patients immediately, to direct the department to report back to court frequently on their progress and to declare that the department’s failure to provide radiation is unlawful. 

“We shall promptly designate an impartial group headed by cancer specialists to serve as a mediator between the department of health and interest groups. The provincial government will continue to make investments in ensuring expanded capacity to treat this highly specialised area.

“Construction at both Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital is expected to commence before the end of this financial year. Once completed, the radiotherapy centres will provide treatment rooms for Linear Accelerator machines, thus accelerating care for patients awaiting radiation oncology treatment.”

He announced that the province plans to build four hospitals to service residents in Daveyton, Olievenhoutbosch, Diepsloot and Orange Farm.

“In partnership with the Workers Investment Fund, we are expanding access to hospital care for people without medical aid. A partnership for access to trauma units by members of the scheme is being pursued with private hospitals and will be finalised in due course.

“The provincial government currently has four MOU agreements with private healthcare providers, including the Clinix Group, Zamokhule, the Apex surgical hub and Mediclinic. The MOUs cover mainly orthopaedics and motor vehicle accident trauma.”

In terms of improving the lives of Gauteng residents living in townships and informal settlements, he said: “Hostels are no longer hostels of old but family units. Let's embrace this reality. Working with municipalities, we have identified five local government-owned hostels in Johannesburg, Tshwane, West Rand, Sedibeng, and Ekurhuleni.

“Each of these hostels will transformed into decent family units. We are also focusing development efforts on the informal settlements. We have identified Makausi informal settlement in Germiston as our starting point, which will be followed by the Alexandra township in Johannesburg.”

The other priorities, he said, were food security, eradication of urban hunger and food production.

“Urban hunger is a silent pandemic with invariably adverse outcomes. It deprives our children of the ability to learn and develop appropriately due to early childhood stunting. It is our duty, as the seventh administration, to close the urban-rural spatial divide and accelerate the fight against hunger using all available resources.

“To this end, we will expand our interventions to include food production value chains, food markets, parcels, daily cooked meals and community nutrition centres. Gauteng is not traditionally a key agricultural production region. It is constrained by limited land available for agricultural activities.”

The department of agriculture being tasked with identifying farm areas in the province, establishing a state farm to develop the food production value chain, creating farm markets for small-scale farmers to sell their produce setting the foundation for commercialisation and markets will ensure that residents have access to affordable nutritious food, he said.

Reiterating his dedication to wellness, he said the fight against substance abuse remains on course.

“We have allocated over R427m towards the fight against substance abuse in the current financial year and over a billion rand over the MTEF period. We will also ensure that no person with substance use disorder is turned away when they are seeking assistance.

“This will be done through the establishment of substance abuse calls and walk-in centres in each township across the province. We are also moving towards repurposing the Emmasdal CYCC in Lesedi to become an additional state-owned substance abuse facility.”

In the interim, he said, he will be making public a report on lifestyle audits done on all heads of departments and CEOs of the provincial government.

“Two days ago, I received a full report from the SIU indicating those HODs that have passed their lifestyle audits and those who did not . I will brief the people of Gauteng further on this report and we are also prepared to release the report.

“This work has been completed. We have just received a report from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). I will in the coming weeks meet the SIU to get the full brief so that the matter can be finalised and appropriate actions taken where required.”

He conceded the state of the Johannesburg CBD is an “embarrassment for the people of Gauteng. But we can’t be sorry forever. We must act. We must not improve Johannesburg for nostalgia, but we must improve it because of strategic significance.

“This task is not easy; this task is risky, but this task must be undertaken. A new Carlton Centre must rise. A new Carlton Hotel must rise. And the new centre must bring back the entertainment needed today — a Johannesburg where we will live, a Jozi where we will shop and a Jozi where we will play will rise.”

He said they intend to kick-start an initiative in the Johannesburg CBD to unlock significant economic opportunities, including attracting investment and businesses, creating jobs, boosting tourism, supporting SMMEs, enhancing real estate values and improving infrastructure.

“Having vacated Carlton Centre in 2018, Transnet has decided to relocate back to the CBD in the spirit of the CBD revitalisation. This move by Transnet complements our work and injects the required vitality into the regeneration process.”

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