The country’s road network, which is crucial to realising economic development and growth, is set to receive a much-needed facelift with billions of rand set aside for construction, upgrade and maintenance.
The government is also going to establish a “roads war room” to address all road-based challenges, transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said during her maiden budget vote speech in a mini-plenary of the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The department has a budget of R79.5bn for the 2023/24 financial year, of which R47.2bn is for its entities and agencies and “R30.2bn is transfers to other spheres of government”.
The minister said investments in road networks are targeted at ensuring that passengers and freight carriers, “which haul almost 80% of SA’s freight load, have adequate access to safe roads”.
The country’s roads have to contend with increased traffic volumes as a result of bulk commodity exporters transferring freight from rail to road due to vandalism, poor maintenance and cable theft crippling SA’s rail infrastructure, and costing bulk commodity exporters billions of rand in lost revenue.
“For this financial year we have budgeted R42.6bn to fund efforts to construct, upgrade and maintain the national and provincial road networks. Allocation to Sanral [SA National Roads Agency] is R25.4bn. Of this budget, R15.8bn is to strengthen and upgrade the national non-toll network,” Chikunga said.
She said the department’s work to improve the condition of roads, which includes refurbishment, rehabilitation and eradication of potholes, “particularly in provincial and municipal roads continues to gain momentum”.
Former Johannesburg mayor Thapelo Amad was ridiculed recently when he said one of his priorities would be fixing potholes in SA’s richest and biggest metro.
“For the Provincial Roads’ Maintenance grant, we have allocated R15.9bn, of which R4.6bn is specifically earmarked for road refurbishment, disaster relief and the construction of 96 Welisizwe bridges in rural areas,” said Chikunga.
“The work continues to restore and rebuild infrastructure that was damaged by floods during April 2022 that affected the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West.”
The Road Traffic Management Corporation was allocated a budget of R220m to maximum visibility of traffic law enforcement officers on the roads; the taxi recapitalisation programme’s budget was increased from R477m to R479m during the period under review; and about R440m was disbursed as part of the taxi relief fund — to holders of more than 80,000 operating licences — to offset the negative effects of Covid-19
On the embattled Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), Chikunga said the government’s work to rebuild commuter rail continued in earnest.
“In the last financial year, we committed to recover 10 priority corridors. I am pleased that we not only achieved the target, but we exceeded it by recovering 13 corridors. This financial year we plan to recover 16 priority corridors total, eight in Gauteng, four in KwaZulu-Natal and four in the Western Cape,” she said.
“For the 2023/24 financial year, we will transfer R20.5bn to Prasa. These funds will mainly focus towards implementing Prasa’s strategic corridor recovery programme, signalling and continuing with its rolling stock renewal drive.”
Prasa is among state-owned enterprises ravaged by corruption and malfeasance linked to state capture. It received a disclaimer from the auditor-general in 2019, 2020 and 2021. A disclaimer signifies that the company’s accounts cannot be relied on and often suggests the company is in a serious financial state.
Chikunga said Prasa’s capital expenditure is expected to increase from R12.5bn to R12.9bn, while the portion of the transfers to the rail agency for operational expenditure increases from R7.2bn to R7.5bn during 2023/24.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.