The DA says the KZN GNU should follow the Western Cape’s example of developing a deliberate investment promotion model, along the lines of the Atlantis Special Economic Zone,to create a base for a provincial hemp industry.
In a statement coinciding with the budget vote for KwaZulu Natal’s Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Department on 14 July 2026, Lidgett said KZN should establish dedicated hemp processing hubs and develop the full value chain, from cultivation and research to manufacturing and export.
“Done properly, this sector has the potential to create thousands of jobs, particularly in rural areas” she said, “but investors cannot operate in an environment of failing infrastructure and administrative uncertainty.”
She said KZN should study the deliberate investment-promotion model being implemented in the DA-led Western Cape where Wesgro, the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, also aggressively and actively positioned the province internationally and directed investors towards specific sectors and economic hubs.
She said the Atlantis Special Economic Zone has been positioned as a dedicated hub for green technology manufacturing in the Western Cape, supported by targeted incentives, infrastructure and coordinated investment promotion.
“KZN needs the same level of focus, coordination and measurable ambition. There is considerable potential in wind energy, biomass and green manufacturing. Biomass can turn agricultural, plant and animal waste into energy and fuel, creating value from materials that would otherwise be discarded” she said..
“Our province also has enormous potential in agro-processing. Rather than exporting raw agricultural products and allowing the value to be added elsewhere, it should be developing local processing facilities, local supply chains and local markets. The Bergville agro-processing initiative provides a useful example of what can be achieved. But isolated projects will not transform the provincial economy, successful models must be expanded and replicated across KZN.”
The DA MLP said that cannabis and industrial hemp represented potentially multibillion-rand industries and that KZN should play a more active role in getting the industry off the ground.
“Hemp can be used in construction materials, textiles, food products, oils, pharmaceuticals, animal feed and bio-composites. But farmers cannot succeed if they are encouraged to grow raw materials without nearby processing facilities, access to markets, regulatory certainty or affordable financing” she said.
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