It was drama at the Gauteng State of the Provincial Address (SOPA) last night with the EFF and Amapanyaza facing off at the Nasrec Expo Centre during Premier Panyaza Lesufi's address. Water bottles and chairs flew as the red berets said they wanted the crime wardens out of the legislature as they did not feel safe with them around.
DISRUPTION
Calling them the "green beans", EFF members demanded that Amapanyaza be removed from the house and go to the townships and work in townships around Gauteng. EFF Gauteng acting chairperson Edwin Mukwevho rose on a point of order questioning why the crime prevention wardens were in the house instead of the streets fighting crime. "We are not going to be intimidated by amapanyapanya and the military battalion of Premier Lesufi. They are not members of this house, and they are not going to participate. They are supposed to go to the communities and prevent crime as they were deployed to do. What are they doing here? There is no one who is going to save Premier Lesufi in this house, not even the green beans," Mukwevho said to a loud cheer from his party as they demanded not to be addressed by Lesufi.
GAUTENG SOPA
Delivering his speech, Lesufi said that Gauteng was winning the war against illegal miners in the province. Lesufi said that the province has already deported around 2 000 illegal miners through the assistance of Metro Police, SAPS and Amapanyaza. "We have broken the backbone of zama zamas in GP and all the soldiers have ensured all those zama zamas are displaced down there. I'm proud that almost 840 zama zamas have been arrested and deported and almost 2 000 miners have been removed from our region of Boksburg, Dobsonville, Kagiso, Khutsong, (and) Krugersdorp,"
He added that they have also addressed the issue of the transformers that are being stolen around Gauteng. "We have engaged City Power and Eskom for intervention and for the last five months there is improvement. " he said. He also addressed water crisis in the province assuring residents that it was a thing of the past.
