Question NW1689 to the Minister of Transport
06 June 2022 - NW1689
Madokwe, Ms P to ask the Minister of Transport
Whether, considering the persistent rains in the Eastern Cape over the past three weeks which have resulted in a lot of damage to the roads, his department has made an assessment of affected villages; if not, why not; if so, what plans have been put in place to tar the roads in villages and eradicate gravel roads which get destroyed each time it rains?
Reply:
Yes, the Department has made assessment on the Provincial network. There are two processes currently underway and those are:
- COGTA or National Disaster Management Centre processes – this is the normal process that gets undertaken when disasters occur. It requires declaration, gazette and verification of assessment; and the process normally takes longer than 6 months to be concluded.
- National Department of Transport processes – Department is intervening in the Provinces that were recently affected by recent (April) disaster and Eastern Cape is one of those. There are series of meetings conducted in order to identify the exact intervention required. NDOT is considering reprioritising some of the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant (PRMG) to disaster affected Provinces. NDOT processes are at advanced stages and ECDOT is finalising its implementation plan.
It must be mentioned that both processes will not result in roads being upgraded to surface standard but will restore condition to its original state.