KZN cabinet to explore infrastructure advancements in the Western Cape

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli and his cabinet will undertake a working visit to the Western Cape for an information sharing session on infrastructure development.

This was announced by Public Works and Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer after signing a memorandum of understanding with his counterpart Tertius Simmers in Durban on Monday.

Meyer said that as part of the memorandum of understanding agreement, it was agreed that the cooperation between Public Works and Infrastructure and the Western Cape Infrastructure department will be expanded to all departments in the provinces.

“As part of the memorandum, Premier Ntuli and all the MECs will travel to the Western Cape. Our province will benefit a lot from the Western Cape government particularly in infrastructure development because the province is ahead of our province. These two provinces have a lot in common therefore both can learn from each other,” said Meyer.

He said the signing of the memorandum followed his fact-finding visit to the Western Cape last year. The MEC said he learned a lot on the trip, describing it as eye-opening.

He stated that during the trip, Simmers and his department showcased the various infrastructure and construction advancements achieved such as roads, water, flood defences, and climate adaptive structures. The trip was in line with KZN Public Works and Infrastructure’s direction towards building for resilience and for the future which will save the department millions of taxpayers’ money.

It is also an effective move towards further developing the skills of the department’s professionals in our province.

“Under the MOU the KwaZulu-Natal province will be able to speedily and seamlessly summon the expertise of valuators and engineers from the Western Government during times of emergencies related to flooding, infrastructure damage and periods of project planning to ensure that the rebuilding process is done differently,” concludes Meyer.

Simmers said developing infrastructure also helped the province to grow the economy and created jobs which saw the unemployment rate coming down to 20%. He said infrastructure and agriculture are the main economic drivers in the province.

KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape commonalities are that both are coastal provinces, in between them there are three biggest harbours which help in making these provinces the second and third contributors to the GDP (gross domestic product) respectively. They are both also prone to disasters.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za