The Premier of Gauteng Andrek “Panyaza” Lesufi delivered his State of the Province Address on Monday in Johannesburg, again detailing the situation in the provice, the most populous in South Africa.

Last year’s State of the Province was riddled with a number of references to upcoming technologies Lesufi’s ANC-led administration was investing in, but the 2025 edition focused more on the increasingly dilapidated state of the cities that make up majority of Gauteng.

It focused on water supply woes in Gauteng, especially in Johannesburg, as well as cable theft and vandalism, non-functioning street lights, rampant potholes across the province’s roads, mushrooming informal settlements, electricity woes, lack of schools, lack of service at hospitals, unemployment and failing infrastructure.

The speech painted the full picture of the situation on the ground in what is supposed to be the wealthiest province in the country and the heart of South Africa’s economy. Gauteng is falling apart and in response, Lesufi shared that improved technology will provide the solutions.

You can watch the full speech below:

Lesufi opened the speech saying that it was a riposte to “those that say we are doing nothing in Gauteng”

Johannesburg water crisis

On the water issue, the Premier said it was “unacceptable” for residents to “struggle to access water in our province.”

“We must intervene decisively and call for accountability. We can’t claim to be a smart province while still subjecting our people to this Stone Age problem.” He is blaming Rand Water for the issue.

The premier said that local government has taken a decision to allow Johannesburg’s City Power to take over electricity supply to Eikenhoff pumping station, while Eskom will take over the Emfuleni pumping station in a bid to ensure that no more power outages occur.

These outages cause pumping systems across the city to stop, cutting water supply to residents as there is no water shortage, it is instead an infrastructure issue that has caused the Johannesburg water crisis.

“As we move forward, we are preparing all municipalities to receive a large water supply from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, set for completion in 2028. This requires massive upgrades to municipal infrastructure to ensure it can accommodate the additional water supply,” he said.

The fight against cable theft

The premier says that Gauteng has shut down 1 079 scrap yards in the province where it is believed that criminals go to sell stolen copper cables. He added that law enforcement is now attempting to track down cable thieves as well as the people that purchase the stolen cables, with 116 scrap shop owners jailed already.

Lesufi said that Gauteng has begin installing “high tech locks” that will alert law enforcement when certain systems are tampered with. It has also established 24-hour response teams that will “respond immediately” when cables are tampered with.

He said that he believes this particular intervention will also resolve the scourge of non-functioning street lights across the province, of which there are at least 400, he says. There is supposedly a team that will seek to replace these traffic lights and the province has already allocated budget to do so.

“We will unleash another intelligent system that will be tamper proof, that will immediately alert us if somebody is tampering with our traffic lights.”

Gauteng doubles down on surveillance of criminals

In an insane announcement, Lesufi said that the police is now using “new surveillance capabilities” to keep tabs on around 442 crimelords and kingpins around Gauteng “so we can monitor their moments” and “we can monitor the acts they want to commit,” especially cash in transit, kidnappings, and murders.

So far 50 have been arrested thanks to this new surveillance system, which he did not describe further. “We now monitor them on a 24 hour basis.”

Lesufi then said “We are quite convinced that our CCTV footage is working.” Last year, Gauteng installed thousands of CCTV cameras across the province, and then partnered with private companies to access a network of even more in order to fight crime. He said that the “private sector” was investing R2.5 million per month on the province’s surveillance system to monitor criminals.

The premier said that Gauteng’s integrated command centre, that oversees the CCTV system of claims of 6 000 CCTV cameras, and says that the province has rolled out 580 new CCTV cameras in townships “so that we can stop crimes.”

“We are also upskilling those that are looking at these cameras, and I’d like to thank Sanral, which has handed over the monitoring of all freeway cameras so that they can be part of this observation. People of Gauteng we are now looking across the CCTV cameras of those that want to commit crime.”

He said that through the CCTV system, law enforcement has foiled just under 1 000 criminal “activities” in the province.

The Premier also announced that a “special anti-land invasion system” that is manned by law enforcement agencies and the private. “Since this establishment of this system, we have demolished 6 600 new shacks,” he said.

Gauteng is also developing yet another new technology that will monitor and alert authorities, supposedly a new law enforcement unit, when a fresh informal settlement is established. “We don’t want people to invade land and take land, with the solid tool that we have established we have claimed back 198 new invasions and stopped those that wanted to invade our government land and road reserved.”

False promises?

The premier continued with more promises of new jobs and other efforts to settle the many ills that plague Gauteng, but there was no mention of the 800MW solar farm that Gauteng was supposedly building in Merafong, nor the solar PV batteries heading to hospitals and other public institutions across the province.

No comments about the drones that Gauteng was said to be looking at or efforts to establish more public WiFi hotspots. Last year, Lesufi said that “Beyond 2024, we will roll out connectivity across all townships. All public institutions, schools, healthcare facilities and state offices will have dependable WiFi.”

Yet in 2025, we do not know if these plans were implemented or merely dropped. There is no guarantee that any of what Lesufi has said in his latest address will come to fruition. Even promises to upskill or provide jobs to young people do not always pan out as Lesufi claims.

Last year, participants in the Hoi Hoi Gauteng upskilling drive told Hypertext how they did not receive any of the promised stipends or devices from the government. “We’ve been given excuses and empty promises,” one participant told us.

[Image – Gauteng Provincial Government on X]