Johannesburg - At least a million people settled in Gauteng from other provinces between 2011 and 2016, putting pressure on service delivery and job opportunities in the province, said Premier David Makhura on Monday.
“In other words, an average of 200 000 people move into our province every year, with needs for jobs, housing, health, education and other life-supporting infrastructure,” Makhura said as he delivered the state of the province address in Sebokeng, south of Johannesburg.
“Despite the impressive achievement in the number of new jobs created, we still have 2.2 million people unemployed in our province. Similarly, despite the fact we have provided close to one million housing opportunities in the past two decades, the housing backlog remains stubborn,” he said.
Also read: Steinhoff to slash 4 000 jobs
To cope with the influx of people into Gauteng and to meet service demands, the provincial government needed to increase job creation and housing every year, he said.
Earlier on Monday, during his address, Makhura said service delivery protests had decreased in the past 12 months due to the introduction of a new service delivery model in Gauteng. He said the province's service delivery model, called Ntirhisano, had seen the prevalence of protests decrease from 21 to 15 percent in the past 12 months. He noted that “Ntirhisano has already received independent acknowledgement from the Municipal IQ Monitor, which reports that service delivery protests in Gauteng have decreased from 21 to 15 percent in the past 12 months, the most dramatic decline in the past decade and a half.” Makhura said Ntirhisano was launched last year as part of a service delivery “war room” that sought to mobilise resources to improve services and interaction between local government and communities.
“The IQ Monitor further states that the outcomes of the war room - to address grievances of protesting communities before they spiral into violence - deserves keen attention, especially with the preliminary signs that levels of violent protest may be receding,” Makhura added.
AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY