Pretoria - Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has promised to give all provincial townships a major facelift, including turning some of the taxi ranks into business centres.
Lesufi was speaking at his maiden State of the Province Address (Sopa), where he gave an extensive view on his plans to turn townships into financial hubs and major service providers for government departments, including his office.
“The freedom we fought for will remain meaningless if our townships, informal settlements and hostels remain in squalor with sewage flowing freely together with uncollected garbage.
“The gap between our townships and suburbs is growing unabated. This gap must be closed and this Sopa is setting a firm foundation for that mission. We will endeavour to convert our townships, informal settlements and hostels to be better and respectable,” he said.
Lesufi said his government was of the strong view that the townships “are our new gold” and that with new malls and filling stations rapidly going up in the townships, “we must ensure these investments benefit our people”.
Following the government’s adoption of the Township Economic Development Act, Lesufi said as from April 1 they would use 60% of the R34-billion goods and services budget to support township initiatives, saying they were establishing a digital database (township business register) of all businesses in townships.
“We are told that the reasons our spaza shops are struggling is because they don’t have collective buying power. We have now finalised a financing model to allow township businesses to have their own bulk-buying mechanism through the establishment of township-based warehouses and distribution centres, such as the ones we already launched in Katlehong and Mamelodi.
“We have also adopted a prototype for these retail shops (loosely known as spaza shops) so that we can differentiate them from shops owned by foreign nationals. We are now firmly reclaiming our shops in the townships.
“The township residential rental market or the “backroom economy” has been part of the township economy since the beginning of time. We are upscaling the formalisation and upgrading of backroom properties,” he said.
Lesufi also said that they were empowering aboMastandi (landlords) to be in the real estate industry.
“I am pleased to announce that 2 000 applications have been validated for funding for aboMastandi and 40 loans have been approved to the tune of R50 million, which has the potential to create employment.
“We want to ensure the timely lodging of zoning applications and direct collaboration with municipalities on the delivery of this project of backyard dwellers.
“With our Gauteng Broadband Network, we will provide reliable internet in the townships and make free wi-fi available in strategic areas in our communities. We are bringing free wi-fi in our communities.”
He also said that the taxi industry was playing an important role in the township economy, saying together with the taxi industry, they would continue to invest in this sector.
“We have put together a taxi fund to the tune of R20m as seed capital for the taxi association to raise money in the market. Taxi ranks will be our future shopping stations. We will be launching taxi ranks of the future, a one-stop shop, for taxi parts and tyres, banks, restaurants and many other related businesses, such as filling stations.”
Lesufi said a new model of taxi rank of the future would be unveiled and that he was excited about this project.
Adding more to the charm, Lesufi said all major sporting and government gatherings would now be held in Gauteng’s townships to support the township economy.
“We are proud – after 11 years, this year’s Gauteng Sports Awards were held in the township of Soshanguve and they were a major success. This initiative boosted lots of township business. We are now walking our talk,” he said.
Lesufi also announced that his government has set aside R3.1bn to upgrade 179 informal settlements.
Pretoria News