KZN must implement treasury cost-cutting proposals – or face financial collapse

4 September 2023

The DA has called on KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) ANC-run government to urgently implement a series of cost-cutting proposals by national treasury in a bid to save the province from financial collapse.

The proposals include reining in government spending on catering and other nice-to-haves, freezing posts and halting new procurement contracts for all infrastructure projects.

This ANC-run government has broken our country and our province economically and treasury’s proposals must be immediately implemented before it is too late.

Despite having been down this fiscal road before, in 2018, the ANC has not learned anything and KZN remains in an extremely precarious position.

Since then, the DA has consistently warned against runaway expenditure. We have also warned against a bloated bureaucracy. And we have called for zero-based budgeting for government departments, rather than historical budgets. Yet the ANC does not listen.

The reality has that KZN’s Taliban faction ANC government lacks real solutions when it comes to the fiscal cliff that KZN is staring down. Talk about a growing economy is cheap when citizens are suffering the result of a ruined economy – job losses, a rising cost of living and numerous other hardships.

The DA remains committed to its oversight role in KZN. We will continue to look for solutions and we will not stop when it comes to telling the ANC what it needs to do to turn our province around.

The people of KZN deserve a properly-functioning government. The 2024 elections will provide them with the opportunity to save our province from complete ruin.

Issued by Francois Rodgers, Leader of the DA in the KZN Legislature/DA KZN Spokesperson on Finance, 4 September 2023