‘Spend on uplifting poor youth’

Premier appeals to business

KWAZULU-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu has appealed to the province’s business community to spend a portion of their money on the advancement of young people in poor communities.

Addressing captains of industry during a Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry business breakfast in Durban yesterday, Mchunu said businesses should contribute to the fight against drugs.

Mchunu cited Inanda, north of Durban, as the area worst affected by dagga.

He said that if the business community could assist the government to fight the use of dagga, whoonga use would automatically decrease.

“Those drugs are nothing unless you put dagga in them. We are told that there is no whoonga without dagga,” he said.

Although Stats SA had indicated that KZN was not the worst province when it came to drug abuse, he had gone to various communities around the province where he found locals complaining about the seriousness of the situation.

He said Chatsworth, Phoe- nix and Wentworth were documented as the areas worst affected by drugs in the province, “But go to uMlazi, go to Chesterville, go to Clermont, go to Inanda. In fact some people think Inanda is the capital of drugs. Maybe it is, because we are talking about different types of drugs, as some people do not regard dagga as a drug. There is one place in Inanda that has been historically known as the capital of dagga,” he said.

He asked business owners what role they could play in fighting drug abuse.

Resuscitate

“In that sense, the fight against drugs is one of the issues that we must all attend together. We have said that this year we want to resuscitate the programme of moral regeneration,” said Mchunu.

He also asked wealthy members of the province to help the government in educating young people whose parents could not afford it. He said the R47 billion that was allocated to the province’s education this year was not enough as there was a huge backlog of school libraries, laboratories and technology.

“But there are areas in which the business sector can play a role. There is no education without infrastructure. Otherwise we are back in the past, where children were learning under trees. It is time to transform our society, it is time to transform the lives of the people. Therefore invest in school infrastructure together with government,” Mchunu added.

He said business owners who were not willing to work with the government could contribute to youth advancement as individuals.

eThekwini Municipality’s deputy head of economic development and investment promotion, Ajiv Maharaj, said education was key to advancing the province’s economy.

“Unemployment among (university) graduates is sitting at 7%, which is quite low. The key challenge is to focus on the youth and focus on education,” he said.

Head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ KZN tax division, Greg Tarrant, said the business community was already contributing to the upliftment of society through the payment of taxes. “They also participate in other ways through corporate social investment and procurement,” he noted.