Question NW1907 to the Minister of Transport
30 June 2023 - NW1907
Tito, Ms LF to ask the Minister of Transport
(1) What number of provinces has she identified to transfer their provincial and local roads to SA National Roads Agency Ltd (SANRAL) due to lack of maintenance; (2) whether there will be budget transfers from the affected provinces to SANRAL’s coffers since the entity has hit a fiscal cliff resulting in the entity being unable to address its own road maintenance backlog; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details? NW2161E
Reply:
- See attached annexure A.
- Road transfers to SANRAL are not accompanied by direct budget transfers from the affected Province to SANRAL. The Provincial allocation will automatically reduce through the Provincial Road Maintenance Grant formula which is based on kilometer network length work in each Province, and SANRAL allocation will be adjusted by National Treasury over the MTEF period.
As per SANRAL press statements the “fiscal cliff” article that recently appeared in papers is based on 2016 scenarios as presented in SANRAL Horizon 2030 and the non-toll funding levels at the time. This scenario fortunately did not materialize, and SANRAL non-toll funding allocations received from National Treasury has increased by over 90% since 2015/16, enabling SANRAL to address national road backlogs and incorporated the remainder of the Strategic and Primary network, of which ± 12,000 km still remains to be transferred.
It is important to note that the transfer of roads is a process to be initiated by the Premier of the province with a formal letter to the Minister of Transport, meaning that without the Premier’s request, no transfers can be initiated.
ANNEXURE A
SANRAL mandate is to be responsible for the identified Strategic and Primary Road network of South Africa ± 35,000 km, of which 23,559 km has been transferred to SANRAL to date. The remaining portions of identified Strategic and Primary network per Province is summarised in table below.
During the 2022/23 financial year only three provinces, namely Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and North West the following Strategic and Primary roads were transferred as follows:
- Eastern Cape transferred thirty (30) roads=332km
- Northern Cape transferred twenty (20) roads= 951km
- North West transferred one road (N12) with three (3) sections= 20.23km