KwaZulu-Natal businesses have risen from the ashes to rebuild stores and warehouses after deadly floods broke the infrastructure of a province already on its knees after the devastating civil unrest of July 2021.
But the government’s response to repair critical infrastructure — roads, bridges, water and sanitation — has been underfunded at worst and slow at best, according to local business leaders.
This was the concern raised after KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube’s opening address and media briefing on Friday at the government’s planning lekgotla, which took place in the province at the weekend.
According to the provincial government the July 2021 civil unrest cost the KwaZulu-Natal economy R20bn in GDP and affected 1,200 shops in the province. A recent November 2022 parliamentary committee report noted that in KwaZulu-Natal alone the total amount required for post-disaster recovery is estimated at R17.8bn against an available national contingency reserve fund of R5bn.
Many houses, schools, roads and bridges remain in a state of disrepair after the floods while port road access continues to be a problem.
In Shongweni farmers repaired parts of the MR 551 road after the government refused for months to take responsibility, the report noted.
Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) president Prasheen Maharaj has raised concern about the government’s approach to repairing flood–damaged infrastructure and the impact on investor confidence.
“As a business community we have seen a gradual recovery post the Covid-19 pandemic and the July 2021 unrest, which was encouraging. However, with the April/May 2022 floods, it has been difficult. Just when we saw many businesses coming back and recovering, the floods added more strain. Not only did it destroy some businesses, but it also hit our infrastructure — roads, bridges, canals — and further affected business insurance cover,” Maharaj said.
He said the government had been reluctant to accept assistance offered by business, free of charge, to expedite infrastructure repairs.
“Our water and sanitation challenges in Durban, has hit our travel and tourism hard. We have experienced one of the toughest festive seasons this past year [2022], due to water and sanitation issues that resulted in several beaches being closed down during this period,” Maharaj said.
He said co-operation between the public and private sector was a “non-negotiable” to confront the challenges.
Dube-Ncube, responding during the media briefing to Business Day’s question regarding underfunding and the slowness of the rebuild, said the government had estimated the damage to infrastructure at R5bn.
“We have been able to mobilise resources — more than R300m for houses for the people who are living in temporary shelters to build their permanent houses. We have been able to get money for repairs to all major roads, the N2, and M4 and roads in the South Durban Basin,” she said.
“We are waiting on Sanral (SA National Roads Agency) to fast track the reconstruction and rehabilitation of those roads,” she said.
However, she said repairs to some roads would be done over two to three years.
“We have also discussed the possibility of working with local municipalities as there is a tendency of trucks diverting from major roads to small roads. Those roads are now becoming more dangerous, and municipalities don’t have the funds to restore them,” she said.
“Municipalities get an equitable share (of the budget) for water and sanitation and waste removal, directly to their accounts. Often, we find money is not spent where it’s supposed to be spent so then there is no money to put into leakages,” she said.
Massmart, Mr Price and the Association of Meat Importers & Exporters of SA (Amie SA) were among major investors to suffer severe damage. Amie CEO Paul Matthew said the sector had managed to completely rebuild the 55% of the province’s cold storage capacity, equating to 20,000Mt of storage, that had been destroyed during the riots.
“With regards to the riots and cold stores affected, those cold stores have all been repaired but the port is still slow, though they have gone the extra mile to get things working. Road infrastructure problems around Bayhead Road is still an issue,” Matthew said.
“The costs of repairs run into the hundreds of millions. One of our members spent R250m just on one cold store,” he said.
However, he said businesses were taking a “wait and see” approach to further investment due to uncertainties caused by load-shedding.
“I have not heard of anyone wanting to expand or make huge investments in terms of cold stores, they have just done repairs and are recovering. There is also a lot of frustration about bridges not being repaired and how slowly things are moving,” he said.
Massmart and Mr Price Group had not responded to questions about the rebuild at the time of publication.
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