Panyaza Lesufi broke all the promises he made for 2025

A year after Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi delivered his 2025 State of the Province Address (SOPA), he has failed to reach any of the goals set for Gauteng over the last year. 

This is according to Governance Expert Professor Alex Van Den Heever, who said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika that there has been “no realistic progress” on any areas of focus outlined by the Premier last year.

On 24 February 2025, Lesufi said that the provincial government’s priorities for the year would align with three national priorities: driving inclusive growth and job creation, reducing poverty and the high cost of living, and building a capable, ethical and developmental state. 

Lesufi then announced a list of 13 priority items that the province would hone in on and improve over the 2025 year. 

“Whatever we do, and whatever we say, if we don’t resolve the following Gauteng 13 problems, being here will mean nothing,” Lesufi said at the last SOPA.

Water security, cable theft and vandalism, broken traffic lights, potholes, crime, mushrooming informal settlements, electricity, gender-based violence, drug abuse, health services, schools, failing infrastructure, and unemployment were all part of this list. 

“I think that all of those are issues that you would want a provincial government and the various metros to address, but they haven’t been addressed,” said Van Den Heever.

“There’s been no realistic progress on any of those particular areas, and there’s potentially a deterioration in key areas, including the financial position of the province.”

He said this lack of progress and regressing financial situation is “quite plausibly related to significant corruption” in the province. 

“Projects are palpably not delivered to the province, so I think progress has been extremely problematic and there hasn’t been much delivered by the government at this point,” he said. 

no realistic progress

This was echoed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) Official Leader of the Opposition in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga, while delivering what he calls the “real” SOPA.

“Crime is increasing, water and electricity outages are becoming more frequent, our roads are littered with potholes, fading road markings, non-existent road markings, and sinkholes,” he said. 

“Streets and homes in various parts of this province are being flooded with raw sewage. Residents in desperate need of medical treatment are forced to sleep on the floor due to a lack of beds.”

The Premier’s top priority for 2025, water security, is an issue that has now reached crisis proportions.

Selby, Kensington, Bez Valley, Johannesburg CBD, Houghton Estate, Norwood, Killarney, Orange Grove, Ivory Park, Radiokop, Eldorado Park, Kliptoen, Klipsruit West, Richmond, Rossmore, Brixton, Helderkruin, Melville, Emmerentia, Greenside, Westcliff, Parktown West, Midrant, Diepkloof and Orlando all experience daily water outages. 

The provincial government blames high demand for the crisis, but this is only partly true. While migration and population growth have added strain to the system, the provincial government’s calculation of demand includes water lost in the distribution system. 

About 35% of the water supplied by Rand Water to Gauteng is lost to leaks. Regardless, residents in Gauteng have recently been called on to reduce water consumption to combat the crisis. 

Broken traffic lights, potholes and crime

In the 2025 SOPA, Lesufi said that the province is responsible for 400 traffic signals, and that 186 of these were not operational in January 2025. 

“We have now set aside a budget and a team to immediately repair or replace these traffic lights,” he said. Lesufi said an intelligent, tamper-proof traffic system will be installed. 

By February 2026, however, it was revealed in a Portfolio Committee meeting on Roads and Logistics that 44% of the province’s traffic signals are broken, amounting to 176 traffic lights, or an improvement of 10 traffic lights over the last year.

The committee heard that it would cost R273.2 million to repair all the non-functioning traffic lights. 

Lesufi further committed to implementing a system that would see potholes in the province repaired within 72 hours.

“We’ve now mapped and identified all potholes in our province. Work has already started with the fixing of these potholes,” he said in February 2025. 

However, Lesufi faced fierce criticism after he claimed that 97% of targeted potholes were repaired before the G20 Leaders Summit at the end of 2025. Residents and political parties said that the province focused on the G20 route, leaving all other roads littered with potholes. 

The Gauteng government is facing 988 pothole-related lawsuits and has spent R199 million in taxpayer money on payouts and legal fees for these cases. 

Despite a commitment to intensifying efforts to fight crime, Gauteng’s latest crime statistics for the third quarter of 2025 paint a grim picture. The province recorded the highest number of contact crimes in the country.

Gauteng has the highest number of murder cases, accounting for 24.2% of all murders in the country.