KZN Public Works slashes wasteful expenditure to zero, invests R20m to go paperless

KZN Public Works and Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer and HOD Dr Vish Govender at the KZN DPWI Technology & Innovation Summit in Durban on Monday. Source: DPWI

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has pulled off a dramatic financial turnaround, cutting its historically bloated unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure to zero for the 2025/6 financial year.

The second-smallest provincial department by budget allocation is leveraging its savings to bankroll a R20 million digital overhaul aimed at eradicating paper-based bureaucracy, stamping out tender corruption and multiplying productivity in the next three years.

The department, which buckled under hundreds of millions of rand in rampant overspending, has tightly shut the fiscal taps.

“Previously this department had R731m in unauthorised expenditure (mostly on goods and services). We’ve cut that to almost zero,” KZN Public Works and Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer said on Monday.