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A total of R75 billion needs to be invested over the next five years to stop the decline of South Africa’s road network, according to Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula.
Addressing the Road Construction and Maintenance Indaba at a hotel at OR Tambo International Airport on Thursday, Mbalula said the total paved and gravel network at provincial level is 184 816 km — but 40 percent of this has reached the end of its design life, because about 80 percent of the road network is now older than the 20-year design life.
On average, more than 30 percent of South Africa’s roads are in poor to very poor condition, he added.
“Among the many challenges we seek to tackle, we remain burdened with the intractable challenge of the road maintenance backlog.”
Perspective
Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine said investing R75 billion to improve South Africa’s roads infrastructure is a relatively small amount compared with other infrastructural projects, such building power stations and addressing Eskom’s debt.
Jammine said it amounts to spending about R15 billion a year over the five years.
“In the full context, R15 billion a year would amount to no more than 2 percent of fixed capital formation every year. Surely that is a reasonable amount to put aside to improve the road network? It’s really not that much.” — Moneyweb.
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