Newly elected KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli. Photo: Mbuso Kunene
KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli has committed his provincial unity government to using its state-owned entities to assist in driving inclusive economic growth and job creation over the next five years.
Ntuli also pledged his administration’s commitment to reducing poverty and tackling the high cost of living and to building a capable, ethical and developmental state during its inaugural term.
Delivering his inaugural state of the province address in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday, Ntuli said the province fully aligned with these strategic priorities outlined by President Cyril Ramaphosa during the opening of parliament earlier this month.
Ntuli, who is KwaZulu-Natal’s 10th premier, heads a government made up of his Inkatha Freedom Party, the ANC, the Democratic Alliance and the National Freedom Party through a one-seat majority in the 80-seat legislature.
He said the priorities would act as “anchor and a compass” for his administration’s programme of action to help rebuild the province’s economy, which had been hammered by the Covid pandemic, unrest and a series of natural disasters.
They would also “strengthen direction and coordination at the heart of government” and help with the delivery of services.
The province’s public works department would become its principal implementation agency for all government infrastructure projects. It has been merged with the province’s human settlements department as part of this consolidation plan.
Ntuli said this would help to speed up infrastructure development, ensure better use of internal resources and achieve the broader goal of assisting economic growth and development.
The premier said the construction industry would be invited to contribute positively to all provincial projects.
“As this government, we must all work together to fight the construction mafia syndrome. There is no place for the construction mafia in our province. We will work with the construction industry to help the industry to grow,” he said.
Ntuli said discussions were taking place with the boards of the provincial entities, which would be leveraged to assist in economic development, as would the key economic institutions in the province, to ensure that their policy decisions translated into job creation.
His government would work with organised business to “galvanise business and foster collaborations to increase business confidence, impacting growth and job creation”.
“In this regard, the government aims to recalibrate its role as an enabler and catalyst for business to thrive,” he said.
Ntuli said his government would take “a closer look into the matter of businesses owned by illegal foreign nationals”.
“The township and rural economies are important elements of socio-economic transformation. It cannot be that our people in townships and rural areas are robbed of these opportunities,” he said.
The provincial government would work with municipalities to ensure that foreign businesses operating legally complied with environmental health and safety regulations, he added. It would also work with municipalities to enforce environmental health by-laws to ensure they complied with regulations within three months.
Ntuli said his multi-party cabinet had agreed to interventions in struggling municipalities to see that they could deliver basic services and were under sound financial management.
“This government will implement a strict zero-tolerance approach to non-compliance, enforce accountability and enforce consequence management,” Ntuli said.
“Clean, ethical and good governance will be the order of the day. Fraud and corruption in this government will not be tolerated. We are committed to professionalising the public service.”
To this end, he had created a toll-free hotline in the premier’s office that whistleblowers could use to report corruption directly by phone or by email.
Ntuli also announced a number of interventions to assist victims of the April 2022 floods in eThekwini and other parts of the province.
A total of 1 151 families are still living in temporary shelters, or rented accommodation, more than two years after the disaster took place.
In eThekwini, five land parcels for permanent housing had been rezoned to accommodate 400 family units, while the director general of the province had been tasked with making sure that the process was finalised.
In Pietermaritzburg, work had begun on building homes for flood victims who are still living in transitional facilities, he said.
Ntuli also announced measures to assist businesses and families who were still battling to get back on their feet after the Covid-19 lockdown and the July 2021 riots which devastated the province.
“We know that some businesses remain closed because they did not have resources to rebuild following the social unrest of July 2021. We will ensure that the departments of economic development, tourism and environmental affairs provide financial and technical
support in rebuilding those businesses that were affected,” he said.
The province would also fast track the profiling and mapping out of child-headed households, which were battling to survive after the loss of parents during the pandemic, to make certain that they received social protection and assistance.
“As the broader community of KwaZulu-Natal, we carry a collective responsibility to return our fellow citizens’ lives to normalcy and assist businesses to get back on their feet. As this government, we will walk with all of you through this journey of rebuilding your lives,” Ntuli said. “We will not stop until all of us have recovered.”
He also committed to small, but concrete, steps towards providing low-cost housing within the first 100 days of his administration.
This included the provision of 150 serviced sites, 500 “breaking new ground” houses and providing homes for another 99 families in terms of the first-time home purchase finance programme.