Lesufi on Gauteng’s progress: Gautrain, lifestyle audits, e-tolls and women’s safety

Gauteng is more than halfway to paying off its e-toll debts and all Gauteng government CEOs and heads of department have completed their lifestyle audits.

These were among key claims made by Premier Panyaza Lesufi in his state of governance briefing on 16 September.

Lesufi also elaborated on other transport related matters and addressed the highly publicised femicide cases currently casting a shadow over the East Rand.

Government and police officials have confirmed a strong response to the recent rapid discovery of the bodies of murdered women, yet Lesufi remained mum on the specifics.

“Operation Shanela tomorrow kickstarts the lockdown. Unfortunately, I will not share the details of what we are going to do because then I am alerting those who want to deal with our plans and our strategies,” said the premier.

Lifestyle audits

Lesufi said the progress of the provinces lifestyle audits were “galloping at a faster pace” as the province scrutinises its supply chain and finance departments.

He said the MECs of eGovernance, environment, finance and roads and transport were currently being audited, with audits on his own office and the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs being complete.

“The next department to be audited, starting with Tembisa Hospital, is the department of health.

“We have concluded all the lifestyle audits of the CEOs and heads of department and we are now at a final stage of concluding the remaining departments so that everyone who is responsible for contracts or tenders can go through these lifestyle audits,” said Lesufi.

He explained that so far, eight officials had been flagged as being high-risk and six were flagged as medium-risk, with the names being handed to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Transport

Lesufi announced that National Treasury had approved the last administrative hurdle for the expansion of the Gautrain to Roodepoort, Fourways, Springs, Pretoria and Magaliesberg.

“With the approval we have received thus far, we are on course to appoint the successful bidder that will build this train on our behalf,” said the premier.

High-speed rail links to Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal were still in Lesufi’s sights, confirming negotiations were still ongoing.

“We are now concluding the last line of consultations with the minister of transport, with the intention of accelerating this high-speed train with these two provinces.

“As the Gauteng government, we have put up the necessary resources for this commitment,” said Lesufi.

On roads, Lesufi said that as of June 2026, the province had paid R13 billion of its R20 billion e-toll debt.

“Today we are proud that after that intervention, all our e-toll roads in the province have been improved and maintained, and the e-toll debt is about to end, thus concluding this part of our history that was very unfortunate,” he stated.

Lesufi dismissed suggestions that other departments had had their budgets diverted to accommodate the e-toll debt, giving an alternative explanation for education funding shortfalls.

“The delay was mainly on cash projections that we normally get from national treasury and provincial treasury.

“There is no school that will not get funds on the basis that their funds had been diverted to pay the e-toll debt,” stated the premier.

Kempton Park murders

The tense situation around the safety of women on the East Rand drew specific attention from Lesufi.

“We will step up all the necessary systems that have been identified, especially from the investigators, so that we don’t have this situation spreading to other regions or other municipalities.

“Those that are responsible must know that we are coming for them and we must demonstrate the full might of the law,” he said.

While police had confirmed one suspect had been arrested, murder and rape have been at excessive levels for some time.

Provincial crime stats released earlier this month showed 1 276 murders were recorded in Gauteng between April and June this year – an average of 14 per day.

In the same three-month period, Ekurhuleni police stations opened 407 murder cases at a rate of four per day.

Rapes were higher across both Gauteng and Ekurhuleni, with 1 666 provincially and 414 in the municipality over the same period.

These figures were lower than the same quarter last year, with murder decreasing by 10.7% and rape down by 8%.

Lesufi stressed that the response to the Kempton Park situation would be unlike any before.

“We are bringing all of our partners, literally everyone. Actually, we are bringing state power to Kempton Park and surrounding areas,” he stated.