Question NW64 to the Minister of Transport
02 March 2021 - NW64
Sithole, Mr KP to ask the Minister of Transport
(1)Whether he has been informed that the roads in the agricultural town of Standerton in Mpumalanga are full of potholes and that this has persisted for quite some time now; if not, why not; if so, (2) whether his department has plans in place to address the persisting problem; if not, why not; if so, by what date will the plans be implemented?
Reply:
1. The Minister of Transport has been informed about the bad condition of roads within the town of Standerton in Mpumalanga Province. The Minister has also discovered that the mentioned roads fall within the jurisdiction of the local sphere of Government and they needed to be rehabilitated through the MIG funding made available by COGTA.
2. The Department is constantly engaging with all 44 Municipalities on road data collection so that municipalities can be able to prioritise the maintenance and rehabilitation of their road network using their MIG allocations from COGTA. The Department is of the view that the Standerton local Municipality has made plans as per assessment data they have received thus far.
Municipalities are also encouraged to enter into MOA with SANRAL to augment their technical skills where that is a challenge for their execution of road maintenance activities.
Furthermore, SANRAL through its routine maintenance contracts do daily route patrols of all national roads under SANRAL’s jurisdiction and identify, for example potholes that must be repaired within 48 hours.
We are made to understand that, the Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport (PWRT) is aware of the poor condition of the Municipal roads in Standerton and was requested by the Local Municipality in question for certain municipal roads to be taken over by the Province. This transfer is encouraged.