Question NW2217 to the Minister of Transport

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17 June 2022 - NW2217

Profile picture: Ceza, Mr K

Ceza, Mr K to ask the Minister of Transport

What (a) plans have been put in place to ensure that quality rural roads are built across the Republic and (b) insourcing plans does his department have in place in order to achieve this initiative?

Reply:

a) The Department of Transport is currently assisting Road Authorities through the Shamba Sonke Programme and it is a nation-wide initiative involving all Provincial Road Authorities.

Provincial Road Authorities are supported through this Provincial Road Maintenance Grant (PRMG):

  • for routine, periodic, and special maintenance;
  • for rehabilitation of paved roads, limited to a maximum of 25% of the value of the PRMG allocation per province;
  • to ensure all roads are identified, proclaimed and reclassified as per the COTO publication TRH26 Road Classification and Access Management Manual;
  • to collect road inventory data to maintain an up-to-date RAMP;
  • for the repair of roads and bridges damaged by declared natural disasters;
  • to improve the state / condition of the road network serving rural areas; and
  • to improve road safety with a special focus on NMT safety

The PRMG is also used on the rural road networks to gather road data where District Municipalities are supported through the Rural Road Asset Management Systems Grant (RRAMSG) to:

  • collect condition data (paved and unpaved) for the municipal road networks within the boundaries of the District Municipality in accordance with the COTO publication, TMH9 Manual for Visual Assessment of Road Pavements;
  • collect traffic data on selected intersections of the municipal road network;
  • collect data on the condition of structures (bridges and culverts) as per the COTO publication, TMH19 Manual for the Visual Assessment of Road Structures; and
  • develop a Road Asset Management Plan (RAMP) in line with the COTO publication, TMH22 Road Asset Management Manual to inform maintenance and investment via the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG).

The inspections in loco are performed by the technical teams to ensure quality assurance of road infrastructure delivered. Back to basic ethos are adhered to within the limited scarcity of technical resources.

b) In terms of the Division of Revenue Act (DORA), these funds has to be transferred to the Provinces and municipalities, who are the “implementing Agents”. Therefore, at this stage, the Department is reliant on the Provinces and Municipalities to insource the works as much as possible.

In most provinces, there is some form of insourcing taking place through implementation of projects using in-house teams. In the case of the Western Cape, additional insourcing is taking place through the appointment of the District Municipalities as an Implementing Agent by the province. The District Municipalities has their own staff.

The Department intends to change the Schedule of these grants to become an “Indirect Grant”, which allow the department to implement the works on behalf of the Provinces and Municipalities.

If this proposal is accepted by the Budget Council and the DORA is supported, as such, by Parliament and approved by the President, the Department plans to insource the works as much as possible within reason.

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