Those who thought transporters had been exaggerating their complaints about the country’s deteriorating road infrastructure are in for a rude shock: more than 173, 000 kilometres of municipal roads across South Africa are in poor to very poor condition and repairing them will require about R149 billion.
Transform SA gathered this from the Acting Transport Director-General, Mawethu Vilana, as he was briefing Parliament’s Transport Portfolio Committee. “It’s a mountain to climb,” he acknowledged.
According to the department’s strategic and annual performance plan, of the 173,089 km of roads that need urgent intervention, 16,402km are paved roads, and 156,687km gravel. The document defines poor roads as those needing “significant renewal or rehabilitation”, and very poor roads as those “in imminent danger of structural failure and requiring substantial renewal or upgrading”.