Johannesburg – Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane says her administration will pull down abandoned buildings that are being used as lolly lounges in the province.
Tabling her Budget Vote at the Gauteng Legislature on Monday, Mokonyane said her administration is in the process of introducing by-laws that will enable the province to demolish buildings that are being used to produce and sell drugs, and where drug-addicts are used as sex slaves.
Mokonyane’s announcement comes after she accompanied President Jacob Zuma to Eldorado Park t in southern Johannesburg, where women told of their ordeal of drug dealers who preyed on their children.
“The problem with the fight against substance abuse is that we have not been focusing on substance production.
“We want to introduce by-laws that will allow us to demolish these buildings like we did in Lenasia.
“The introduction of these by-laws is a way of us re-claiming our buildings to do away with these lolly lounges,” she said.
Mokonyane said this was a way to intensify the fight against drug abuse.
After Zuma visited the area, an intervention by the country’s law enforcement agencies followed, and this led to several lolly lounges being shut down and several drug lords being arrested.
New hotline launch
Mokonyane, meanwhile, said the province will soon launch an “easy-to-remember” version of the province’s service delivery complaints hotline to make it more accessible.
“We will in the year ahead work to reposition community development workers and better integrate their work with that of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation and the Premier’s hotline in ensuring that government responds effectively and timeously to Gauteng residents’ service delivery complaints and the dissemination and provision of government information.
“To make the hotline more accessible, we will this year introduce an easy to remember short code number that the public can use to access the Hotline. A complaint lifecycle management strategy will be implemented to ensure the resolution of all hotline cases to government entities within 60 days,” she said.
Provincial priorities
Mokonyane said as the curtain draws on her five-year term, a lot of progress had been made to improve the lives of over 12 million residents of Gauteng – the country’s economic hub.
While poverty and unemployment remain a challenge for the country’s economy, Mokonyane said unemployment had dropped in the province from 28.2% in the first quarter of 2011 to 23.7% in the fourth quarter of 2012.
“The Office of the Premier has performed among the best in empowering targeted groups through preferential procurement and employment equity. In 2012/13, 84.3% of our contracts were awarded to historically disadvantaged individuals, 36.6% to women, 27.1% to youth and 4.1% to people with disabilities.”
She said in the 2013/14 financial year, her province aimed to improve the lives of women, youth and people with disabilities by “economic empowerment through preferential procurement, job creation and job placements, skills development, employment equity, and the development of SMMEs and cooperatives”.
“[We will also focus on] eradicating violence against women and children as well as the war against substance abuse,” she said. – SAnews.gov.za
