17 FEBRUARY 2026
Madam Speaker of the National Assembly,
Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces,
His Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Africa,
The Deputy President of the Republic,
The Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders,
Honourable Members,
Councillors,
Distinguished Guests,
Fellow South Africans.
On behalf of the Premier of Gauteng, Honourable Panyaza Lesufi, whose apology I am pleased to convey, please receive our sincere greetings.
We congratulate His Excellency the President on a State of the Nation Address well delivered. We believe that the Address was delivered so well that it reverberates and echoes in the hearts and minds of the people of our country. Well done.
We appreciate the manner in which you correctly reminded us of our past and the militant struggles waged by women and youth. We also appreciate that you invited and paid tribute to the contribution of Mama Sophie de Bruyn, who is a resident of our province. Indeed, Mr President, the clause in our country’s Constitution, “united in our diversity”, is a product of various struggles waged by different generations. Our task is to sustain national unity in diversity.
Honourable Members, Gauteng Province welcomes the SONA. In particular, we appreciate the strategic thrust that resonates across the speech: the three spheres of government working together, led by the President, the Premiers and the Mayors, with the people. We believe that this profound principle constitutes a decisive turning point and certainly a new normal in how government across the three spheres and organs of state should work in a coordinated, integrated and cooperative manner.
As Gauteng Province, we hold a strong view that what the President has put before us, namely the three spheres of government working together, should not be seen or treated as isolated fragments, one intervention here, another there, but should be understood as inaugurating a unity of purpose for the renewal of intergovernmental relations to deliver a better life for all, to grow the economy and to improve the quality of life of our people.
We say this because the persisting and stubborn legacy of colonialism of a special type was a nationally coordinated project: national oppression and exploitation of people across the length and breadth of our country. That is why it continues to reproduce poverty, inequality and unemployment. We cannot address this legacy through fragmentation, blame-shifting, pointing fingers and working past one another. We need national unity of purpose.
That is how we, as a province, understand what the President has put before us. It is precisely through working together as National, Provincial and Local Governments, Gauteng successfully hosted G20 World Leaders’ Summit last year.
As Karl Marx taught us, philosophers interpret the world differently; however, the point is to change it. Honourable Members are within their right to interpret the SONA as they wish; however, we do not have the luxury of diverse interpretations only. We need unity of purpose, as outlined by the President, to work together to change the lives of our people.
Honourable Speaker, if we do not adopt this new normal as put forward by the President, we run the risk of falling into the trap of what Karl Marx, writing in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, would have termed “easy come, easy go”. This is precisely what we should avoid.
Allow me to share some of the key aspects of this new normal:
Water Security
We welcome the establishment of the National Water Crisis Committee, which will be chaired by the President. Already, Mr President, you have sent Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Water and Sanitation and COGTA to attend to the water shortages we experienced. We are pleased to announce that there has been significant improvement in stabilising the water network. We are attending to a number of required interventions, such as increasing water storage capacity in municipalities, reducing non-revenue water, responding promptly to water leakages, replacing old water pipes and improving the delivery of water infrastructure projects. We also welcome the provision of financial resources to address water infrastructure backlogs. Honourable Members, alone as a province we would never be able to achieve this.
Fighting Crime and Lawlessness
Mr President, we welcome your decisive announcement on the deployment of members of the SANDF to assist in the fight against illegal mining. We are confident that this effort will strengthen our fight against crime and gender-based violence and femicide. In addition, we recognise the support we received in working with your Ministers towards resolving the problem affecting the traffic wardens. We are very pleased that the traffic wardens are now formally recognised and designated as Peace Officers. Mr President, we are clear that working alone we will not achieve all of this.
Growing the Economy and Job Creation
Mr President, you have correctly stated: “All our actions now are driven by the need for rapid and inclusive economic growth to create more jobs and better-quality jobs.” You further indicated that Cabinet has adopted and approved a comprehensive implementation plan to drive growth and inclusion. As the economic hub of the country, we welcome this plan.
We believe that through this plan we will grow the economy, create jobs and address the crisis of youth unemployment. This plan will also complement our Nasi iSpani programme aimed at reducing youth unemployment. We can say without any shadow of doubt that working alone as a province, we will not be able to address the economic challenges facing our province. We therefore reaffirm that this plan requires us to work together.
Health and NHI
Mr President, we welcome the fact that you visited Dr George Mukhari Hospital and further welcome your approach of working with various public and private financing institutions to finance the building and revitalisation of healthcare facilities. This will certainly enhance our readiness for National Health Insurance.
Energy
Mr President, you have correctly stated: “We will work in each province to address transformer overloading, illegal connections and equipment failure, with the objective of eradicating load reduction by next year.” While the province has been working on these initiatives, we believe that better coordination and support will go a long way in resolving the challenge. Alone as a province, we will not be able to address these challenges.
Infrastructure Delivery
Honourable Speaker, we welcome the President’s profound point that “Infrastructure is much more than an investment in brick and mortar, concrete and steel; it is an investment in jobs, productivity and growth.” We need better coordination across the three spheres of government to deliver infrastructure. No single sphere, working alone, can realise this. It is for this reason that we believe the point you have been making, that infrastructure is the flywheel of the economy, is more relevant than ever before. We welcome the introduction of the new housing model, where people are given subsidies for ownership and rental in areas suitable for them. We further support the principle of shifting from building houses for people to supporting them to build, buy or rent their own homes. In our province, we have already introduced the Rapid Land Release Programme precisely to achieve these objectives. We believe that working together on this issue will help us achieve more.
We welcome your interventions on foot-and-mouth disease to protect livestock. We also welcome efforts to fight drug and substance abuse in order to protect children and the youth.
We further appreciate the point, Mr President, on the need for collective action to review the White Paper on Local Government. This requires a coordinated effort from all of us.
Honourable Members, we wish to conclude on the same note on which the President concluded his SONA. We took great interest in how, in his conclusion, the President mentioned six “we musts”. For example, the President said: we must fix local government; we must fight crime and corruption; we must create jobs; we must build a state that works for the people; we must ensure that the rising tide lifts every South African; and we must look ahead and move with speed.
With the President’s permission, we would like to add a seventh “we must”. Hoping that permission is granted, we would like to say: we must all adopt and welcome the State of the Nation Address so that no one is left behind.
I thank you