Question NW274 to the Minister of Transport
13 March 2024 - NW274
Sithole, Mr KP to ask the Minister of Transport
Considering that her department acknowledged in the National Land Transport Strategic Framework (2023-2028) that nearly 80% of the national road network has exceeded its 20-year service life structure design and, furthermore, based on National Treasury estimates more than R255 billion will be needed over the next three years to build, upgrade and maintain the Republic’s road transport infrastructure, what (a) plans does her department have in place to address the Republic’s ailing road infrastructure and (b) is the breakdown of the budgetary allocations for such restorations per annum?
Reply:
Following the rapid decline in the condition of Provincial and Municipal roads, the Cabinet retreat of 1 June 2022 then appointed SANRAL as the lead agent to support Roads Authorities in fixing their roads in an integrated way through Operation Vala Zonke programme. In order to effectively provide this support, the Minister of Transport launched Operation Vala Zonke as part of the build-up to Presidential Imbizo that took place on 12 August 2022.
a) As part of the National intervention, the Department did put forward a national plan for road refurbishment and rehabilitation, that is: (i) Availing of Integrated Transport Information System (ITIS) for all authorities to use; (ii) Handing over of Road Condition and Traffic Data for uploading into ITIS; (iii) support on Network Verification, Data upload and spatial map, (iv) Rollout of the National / Centralised Road Authority App for authorities and the public to report potholes; (v) Signing of MOUs between SANRAL and Provincial Road Authorities for technical support; (vi) Consideration and transfer of Strategic and Primary road network to SANRAL to enable SANRAL to reprioritise its existing non toll budget to address the immediate maintenance needs of some of the critical roads and (vii) Private Sector Involvement and Adopt a Road programme to enable various private companies to make contributions towards the maintenance and upkeep of roads through their Corporate Social Investment and claim for BEE Scorecards and obtain Tax deduction for such donation and (viii) Upgrading of low volume gravel roads using block paving bricks and Nano technologies to maximise jobs through labour intensive methods.
To date, the public has reported over 45 000 of potholes using the App for the repair of which has actively been monitored via central war room. The above process is creating much higher levels of accountability at all spheres of government regarding road network and its maintenance.
b) The breakdown of budgetary allocation provided by the Department for road restorations per annum over the MTEF is summarised in table below:
Table 1: The breakdown of 2023/24 to 2026/27 budgetary allocation
|
Authority |
2023/24 R’000 |
2024/25 R’000 |
2025/26 R’000 |
2026/27 R’000 |
|
SANRAL |
25 430 715 |
25 720 319 |
28 845 591 |
30 169 036 |
|
Provincial Road Maintenance Grant (supplementary fund to assist the 9 Provinces |
15 867 086 |
16 672 290 |
17 882 779 |
17 278 699 |
|
Total |
41 297 801 |
42 392 609 |
46 728 558 |
47 447 735 |
Though the Department does not have a mandate to address municipal roads, the Department do provide support to municipalities by inviting them to participate on the joint Vala Zonke Operations to fix potholes.