This year’s Durban July theme Show Me The Honey couldn’t be more apt in drawing the crowds like bees to a province that has been ravaged in the past three years by the pandemic, rioting and, most recently, deadly floods.
There was a veritable swarm of people — an estimated 35,000 — dressed to the nines who cheered S’manga Khumalo and his filly Sparkling Water to victory at Greyville Racecourse on Saturday. The crowd was thrilled to return to a sense of “normalcy” during the country’s first post-pandemic event of this magnitude without the limitations posed by masks and social distancing.
eThekwini was a shining image of its former self, pre-2019, when the country’s premier horse racing event illustrated its impact on tourism and creating jobs for designers and stakeholders in the entertainment and events industry.
Last week event co-ordinators setting up the marquee city told TimesLIVE Premium of their relief that the entertainment industry had reopened, allowing them to create jobs for locals.
And designers, who had complained bitterly when the race continued behind closed doors for the past two years, spoke about their booming business, as celebrities and VIPs showed up in their finery for the event regarded as the sport of kings.
The reality is that around this time last year the province suffered devastating carnage when civil unrest claimed lives and decimated the economy already suffering from the restrictions of Covid-19. Then, nine months later, the floods hit and the economy edged further towards breaking point.
In a province where unemployment and poverty levels have been higher than the national average even before tragedy struck, rising inflation has hit hard particularly on food baskets, with significant nutritional implications set to burden the already-depleted health service.
This is why the importance of events such as the Durban July is about much more than just the fashion and fillies.
CEO of Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal, Neville Matjie, says he is optimistic that if the province could host more events similar to this, its economy would fully recover.
Three months after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the floods a national emergency on April 18, committing to making the financial resources available to meet this challenge, government is yet to show KZN the money.
Matjie said the high turnout was an indication of the house-full capacity for the hotels who had come to the party and showed that the city and province were indeed open for business, while capitalising on the school holidays. The beaches — recently closed for several weeks because of dangerous e-coli levels — were reopened and were another drawcard, helping pave the way for the province’s much-needed economic recovery.
Which makes it unbelievable then to comprehend the delay in delivering the R1bn flood relief funding promised to KZN.
Three months after president Cyril Ramaphosa declared the floods a national emergency on April 18, committing to making the financial resources available to meet this challenge, government is yet to show KZN the money, even though finance minister Enoch Godongwana had said that money was immediately available.
But it seems that the goalposts were changed last month when Treasury said this money was not going to be made “immediately” available to KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to recover from the flood disaster. Instead, the two provinces were asked to reprioritise their budgets — using money that would be refunded when the National Treasury approved their applications to access disaster grants.
Then last month Godongwana said the R1bn set aside to resolve the damage caused by the flooding is languishing in Treasury coffers, largely untouched and that his department would not take responsibility for the delay in accessing funds, hinting that the delay lay with the province.
But after a sitting of parliament’s ad hoc joint committee on flood disaster relief and recovery on Friday, KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala said the delay is not from their side and has called on Godongwana to urgently clarify the status of the R1bn.
He appealed to the finance minister to take the nation into his confidence about the funding because it is clear there is some political tomfoolery going on that has kept hundreds of homeless people, living under trying circumstances, in community halls for 12 weeks. It has also prevented vital road networks, schools and clinics from operating and providing vital services.
The premier also appealed to the national government to assist the eThekwini municipality with interim financial support as it waits for insurance settlements for damage to key properties and assets.
The people of KZN need to rebuild and recover from their economic nightmare with the assistance promised to them.
We know government can’t show us the honey — but we do expect it to show us where the money for the recovery is. It is high time that government kept its word.
