Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s State of the Province Address (SoPA) has highlighted “greater determination” to accelerate South Africa’s most populous province’s radical transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation programme, particularly the revitalisation of township economies and resolving youth unemployment.

The “new dawn” alluded to in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s inaugural State of the Nation Address needs to represent a “major facelift” in the infrastructure, look and feel of the townships as part of the renewal and revitalisation programme.

“If Gauteng is the hub of South Africa’s economy, the townships are the heartbeat of Gauteng. I dream of the townships being spaces where there is a vibrant culture and dynamic local economies underpinned by state-of-the-art infrastructure,” Makhura said during his SoPA on Monday.

In light of this, the province aimed to accelerate its support for the township economy, working with township communities and investors to turn them into havens of sustainable socioeconomic development and empowerment.

“The people in the townships need real jobs and thriving businesses where they live. They need state-of-the-art schools, libraries, clinics, hospitals, roads and other social amenities right in the townships. They need reliable, efficient and affordable public transport,” he said.

In addition, township businesses and entrepreneurs need a suitable platform and environment to succeed, as lack of access to funding and markets often dampen the potential growth of local start-ups and township enterprises.

This is significant considering that the number of start-ups based in Gauteng increased to 44% in 2017 from 26% in 2015. Fifty-three per cent of the start-ups owned by black young entrepreneurs are based in Gauteng.

“We have completed a feasibility study on the establishment of a provincial State bank which will enable us to mobilise funding for small, medium-sized and microenterprises, township enterprises, women and youth businesses and infrastructure development,” he added.

Further, an initiative on a township stock exchange is in its final stages, in partnership with the private sector.

“The Gauteng provincial government (GPG) and municipalities have been the leaders in the country in the revitalisation of the township economies,” Makhura said.

The GPG continued to spend its procurement budget on township-sourced services and goods, with public procurement increasing from R600-million in 2014 to R17-billion in 2017.

The number of township enterprises doing business with government increased from 642 in 2014 to 4 182 in 2017.

“We have also helped formalise many township enterprises,” Makhura commented, adding that the province would also focus on decisively enforcing by-laws and trading regulations to address the surge in unregulated businesses owned by foreign nationals.

Gauteng’s partnerships with more than 40 corporates are also opening up further opportunities for township-based businesses to participate in corporate supply chains.

To support the development of future financial providers to township enterprises, GPG continued to invest in the development of cooperatives and had, to date, registered 14 cooperative banking institutions serving over 16 000 member-owners, with over R100-million in savings and R150-million in assets.

Gauteng is also taking the lead in addressing youth unemployment and youth development and aims to reduce youth unemployment through Tshepo one-million, in partnership with the private sector and the youth.

With close to two-million youth without jobs or in training, GPG will now “inject momentum” into the large-scale programme, which was established to open up opportunities to demand-led skills development, job placement and entrepreneurship.

“This ground-breaking partnership between the GPG, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and more than 40 major private sector corporations is a living example of a social compact,” Makhura noted.

Since 2015, nearly 460 000 young people have benefited from the flagship Tshepo 500 000 programme, which had since been upgraded to absorb more youth.

“We can get more companies to lend a hand and give our youth a chance,” he said, highlighting the province’s ambitions of aligning education and training to meet the needs of the economy.

“We have a partnership with technology companies to train large numbers of young people in digital skills so that they can take advantage of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the digital economy,” he concluded.