KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli is undoubtedly correct in saying the province is going to need more money to recover economically from the combination of political riots and floods of recent years.
Specifically, it is going to require substantial investment to repair damaged infrastructure, without which almost every sector of the provincial economy, from tourism to agriculture, heavy industry and the ports, will remain hobbled.
Where the premier is wrong is in implying that it is the National Treasury’s responsibility to stump up the cash if it wants to prevent the failure of the government of national unity (GNU) — and presumably the provincial coalition government that was cobbled together when no party achieved a majority in KwaZulu-Natal.
That’s thinly disguised blackmail. And it ignores the root cause of most of the problems the coalition partners in the new government were elected to address — poor governance, mismanagement and corruption.
Throwing capital at the structural problems that are holding the KwaZulu-Natal economy back will not resolve these issues. On the contrary, the fact that progress in fixing the damage caused by the floods and the 2021 unrest has been so slow is directly attributable to the continued generally poor state of governance in the province.
There is no denying that Ntuli has been handed a poisoned chalice by his ANC predecessor, but “the first point of advancement” — his words — is not a Treasury bailout, it is clean governance. There is no shortage of private capital looking for a home. Stabilise the province and the investment will come.
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