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Gauteng SOPA: Lesufi puts icing on a rotten cake

Dear Editor

The FF Plus considers the plans that the Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, put forward in his Gauteng State of the Province Address (SOPA) for 2023 to be icing on a rotten cake as they do not address the root causes of the province’s problems.

Against the backdrop of an economy that is already with its back against the wall, Lesufi announced plans that entail great expenditure of tax funds.

In addition, such expenditure would be inappropriate seeing as there are no plans for the economic development of the entire province in the context of Eskom’s inability to supply enough electricity to Gauteng.

It is clear that Lesufi’s plans are solely aimed at spending as much as it takes to save the ANC from a total implosion in the 2024 elections.

Lesufi started his address by focusing on an event that transpired during the Apartheid era before making promises of handing out sweets to voters.

It means that his approach to the 2024 elections will be the same as always, with a strong emphasis on race and false racial incidents – like the Jan Viljoen Hoërskool incident – to create a sense of emotional solidarity, and spending funds that he does not have in order to buy votes.

Lesufi announced plans for combating crime, township development and basic education, and then boasted some more about the scrapping of the e-toll system, which is ironically enough still active.

He conveniently failed to state how these projects will be funded.

His plans are, furthermore, crippled by the lack of a holistic economic plan that simultaneously addresses several the province’s problems.

Crime and social decay correlate strongly with, among other things, unemployment and poverty. If the economy can create job opportunities, people will not have to turn to crime to survive and many social ills born out of poverty will disappear.

Lesufi quite rightly focuses on developing township economies, something that the FF Plus has been advocating for a while now.

It will, however, be done to the exclusion of support to businesses in other areas, which are also bleeding due to the broken economy created by the ANC and the impact of the needlessly long lockdown that the ANC imposed.

It is clear that Lesufi is a Premier for certain communities, but not the entire province.

The Premier’s ideas to combat crime with technology, like face-recognition cameras and drones, are no more than a fantasy seeing as the criminal justice system is dysfunctional due to a weak police force and corruption.

The Premier also wants Gauteng to become a cash-less community to reduce crime.

It makes one wonder whether Lesufi has taken a leaf from China’s book, which has become a technocratical securocracy through electronic monitoring and cash-less systems.

That type of power in Lesufi’s hands sets alarm bells ringing and is another important reason to overthrow the ANC in Gauteng in 2024.

Lesufi’s notion for Gauteng to generate its own power is interesting and raises the question of whether it is not too little too late.

Eskom has already caused so much damage with load shedding that the roll out of the plan to spend R1,2 billion on new power projects will probably be hindered by the usual practices of corruption and poor service delivery.

In essence, Lesufi’s plans are seriously flawed.

Regards

Adv. Anton Alberts
FF Plus national chairperson and MPL for Gauteng

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The Oriental Plaza: A Phoenix in Fordsburg

If Johannesburg is a city of forced displacements, the Oriental Plaza is its most resilient response. While the Rand Club was built for the elite and Ponte for the “jet-set,” the Oriental Plaza was born from the trauma of the Group Areas Act—a piece of Apartheid legislation designed to geographically separate the races. Yet, in true Johannesburg fashion, what was intended as a tool of containment and financial ruin for the Indian community transformed into one of the most vibrant, independent commercial powerhouses in the country.

The story of the Plaza begins with the destruction of Pageview, affectionately known as Fietas. In the mid-20th century, Fietas was a legendary multicultural hub, centered around the bustling 14th Street. It was the city’s premier destination for textiles, clothing, and spices, where shoppers of all races would rub shoulders in a “jazzy, soulful” atmosphere. However, because Fietas was located so close to the white-only city center, the Apartheid government declared it a “white area” in 1962. The community fought back for decades, but by the 1970s, the bulldozers arrived. Homes were leveled, and the thriving traders of 14th Street were forcibly relocated to a purpose-built, modernist complex a kilometer away in Fordsburg: the Oriental Plaza.

The government’s intent was cynical: by moving the traders into a controlled environment with high state-mandated rents and strict rules on what could be sold, they hoped to break the back of Indian commercial dominance. The early years were devastating; many businesses folded, and the “Grand Bazaar” felt like a sterile warehouse compared to the street-level energy of Fietas. However, the traders refused to vanish. They eventually won the right to purchase their own shops, making the Oriental Plaza unique among South African malls because it is owned by the shopkeepers themselves rather than a corporate landlord. This ownership model changed everything. Without the burden of massive monthly mall rentals, the 360+ independent stores can offer prices that national retailers cannot touch, turning the Plaza into a “bargain-hunter’s paradise” that draws millions of visitors a year.