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Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi continues to shield corrupt officials by refusing to make the completed lifestyle audits of the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) department heads, director generals, and the entities' CEOs public. Shielding corrupt officials has become a norm for Premier Lesufi’s government. This severely affects residents of this province. Officials continue to steal resources meant to improve people’s lives without consequences.

The same happened concerning the 177 forensic reports that he initially refused to disclose and only released once the DA had to involve the Information Regulator of South Africa to force him to release the reports. Still, Lesufi released heavily redacted reports, hiding the most crucial information that the public needs to know about how the money meant to improve their lives was stolen.

Premier Lesufi has been determined to hide information from the public. This is evident by his refusal to disclose the unredacted 177 forensic reports and the lifestyle audits, indicating that he does not lead an open and transparent government that takes a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, maladministration, and mismanagement of funds.

While Lesufi claimed the lifestyle audits were completed in 2023, they have yet to be released. The Democratic Alliance (DA) demands that Lesufi make the completed lifestyle audits public. Gauteng residents are already struggling to access basic services such as water, electricity, health care services, and quality education due to corrupt officials who are protected from being held accountable by Lesufi.

In January 2026, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng sent a Promotion of Access to Information Act request to the Premier’s office to access the completed lifestyle audits. March, an appeal was sent because the Premier’s office did not respond to the initial request. At the beginning of April, we took the matter to the Information Regulator of South Africa.

Later in April, the DA Gauteng received a response from the Premier stating that our appeal was denied, but the Premier sent a summary of the progress of lifestyle audits with no details. The same happened with 177 forensic reports; instead of releasing full reports, he released redacted ones, hiding certain information from the public.

The DA again appealed the decision not to disclose the lifestyle audits, but the Premier rejected the appeal. We are currently engaging the Information Regulator of South Africa on this matter.

If Lesufi is serious about rooting out corruption in government, he would have released the unredacted 177 forensic reports and made the lifestyle audits public.

The DA will continue to engage the Information Regulator of South Africa to ensure that Lesufi releases these lifestyle audits. Gauteng residents deserve to know whether their government has honest and dedicated senior officials or crooks stealing from the coffers.

A DA-led Gauteng Provincial government would immediately make lifestyle audits and forensic reports public. We would urgently act on any allegations about government official being involved in corrupt activities. Disciplinary action would be instituted and concluded within 90 days.

Issued by Solly Msimanga MPL - Leader of the Official Opposition- Gauteng