​Rofhiwa Marubini-Tshitahe 
Over the next two years, Gauteng government will prioritise completing unfinished infrastructure projects and implement new ones to contribute significantly to job creation and government's overall economic recovery plan.
"Our determination to build the economy and infrastructure will be the central and driving tenet of this sixth administration.
"The focus will entail the completion of incomplete projects and the acceleration of the completion of new infrastructure projects across all regions," said Makhura during his State of the Province Address (SOPA) on Monday.
The delivery of infrastructure will be coordinated in a war room approach which will bring critical role players to deal with efficiencies, delivery and create partnerships. 
"We will ensure that departments take full responsibility for the maintenance. All our infrastructure projects must be delivered on time and at cost," vowed Makhura. 
He said should any of the implementing agents fail to deliver on time and on budget, he would not hesitate to replace them with agencies that would deliver on time and on budget.
He said the collapse of infrastructure for basic services also requires an emergency response akin to the way the province dealt with the COVID-19 public health emergency. 
The construction of the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (SEZ) amid the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the kind of emergency response required to deal with the economic challenges.  
Currently, there are 12 component manufacturers which are already operating in the Tshwane SEZ while construction work is continuing.
A total of 3440 permanent jobs have been created, exceeding the target of 3288 jobs.
Close to R1 billion has already been spent through the construction phase on SMMEs from Mamelodi township using the local contractor development system nationally. 
"It's all systems go and we will soon witness the manufacturing of the first new Ford Ranger at the Tshwane Automotive SEZ," said Makhura.
The provincial government is currently working with the Presidency and has established the project management office for the Lanseria Smart City development. 
The office is driving the implementation of the master plan by focusing on; securing sufficient land and the acceleration of bulk infrastructure investment which will unlock R85 billion worth of private sector investment. 
Once completed, Makhura said Lanseria will be a hub of the digital technology and services corridor, anchored by the new Hi-Tech SEZ in Lanseria.
Work is also underway for the Global Business Services SEZ at Nasrec, which will feature a plug and play global business services hub. 
Between 2014 and 2019, the Gauteng government has invested R53 billion in social and economic infrastructure such as new houses, schools, clinics, hospitalisation, roads and streets, electricity, and water connection.
These have contributed to the creation of almost 120 000 jobs.
The premier committed to clear the title deeds backlog by 2024, by issuing 44 339 new title deeds to beneficiaries of current housing projects in the year ahead.
Over the past five years, the provision of Human settlements has benefited more than 4 million people, in the 1.2 million public government-subsidised houses built across the province. 
This year, government will prioritise the rapid land release programme as one of the critical interventions in addressing the housing backlog in the province. 
"We are making progress in providing serviced stands that beneficiaries are using to build houses for themselves. In addition to the 1610 sites that we have allocated, we have also acquired an additional 12 000 stands to be allocated to beneficiaries," said Makhura.
Gauteng has introduced mega housing projects to address the ever-growing housing need and facilitate spatial transformation.
Mega housing projects are integrated mixed housing developments inclusive of social amenities, open spaces and economic opportunities.
The construction of mega housing projects is underway in Dan Tloome in Carletonville and Elijah Barayi in the Westonaria, Riversand in Johannesburg, John Dube and Clayville in Ekurhuleni.
According to Makhura, the province will continue to roll the Gauteng Broadband Network infrastructure and the maintenance of the network to improve access to free internet connectivity. 
Since last year, government has upgraded six-core network nodes, provided Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity to 1 224 sites; Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity at 652 sites; enabled Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) at 287 sites and provided 37 Wi-Fi breakout points.