MEDIA STATEMENT

REPORTS ON KZN ROAD NETWORK MISLEADING

Head of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport Dr. Kwazi Mbanjwa has dismissed media reports that 40 000 kilometres of the KZN road network is unaccounted for as untrue and misleading.

Reacting to the reports, Mbanjwa said that the decline in maintenance expenditure on national and provincial roads in South Africa started way back in the 1970’s and the province of KwaZulu-Natal was no exception. The true extent of neglect in the rural areas of the province only became evident after the abolition of the self-governing territory of KwaZulu and the full integration of the province during 1994. Fortunately, through the intervention of the new government this negative funding trend has been reversed.

After 1994 the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport inherited roads from a number of road authorities in the province, the bulk of which was the 14 700 kilometre network of well-documented provincial roads. Information on the other roads was somewhat less well defined. The challenge facing the Department of Transport was to remedy the road network inequalities that arose out of an old government policy of separate development, while at the same time maintaining the primary road network at an appropriate level.

The Department of Transport adopted a data-driven approach to developing and managing the provincial road network. Some of the notable achievements over the past few years have been:

• In 1996 the ‘Community Access Roads Needs Study’ established and entrenched a consultative forum and identified important community access roads that qualified for inclusion in the provincial road network. 11 400 kilometres of roads were documented and this was a first attempt at quantifying the rural accessibility backlog. 30 democratically elected Rural Road Transport Forums were set up across the province to inform the Department of Transport of road upgrading needs and priorities.

• In 1998 the ‘Road to Wealth and Job Creation Initiative’ was presented at the national Job Summit and this raised the awareness of roads as a preferred option for social and economic development.

• In 1999 the ‘Road Needs Assessment Study’ highlighted the imbalance in the provincial road network and quantified the financial requirements for achieving a minimal equity network. Criteria for classifying roads on a more equitable basis were reviewed and a large number of community access roads and agricultural roads were found to meet the necessary criteria for classification as either district or local roads. An adjusted road network of 42 000 kilometres was proposed. This network was termed a minimal equity network and was seen as the first step in moving towards a cost effective and balanced road network for the province.

• In 2000 the ‘Zibambele Road Maintenance Programme’ was launched as a poverty relief initiative that provided road maintenance opportunities to local woman-headed households in the rural areas.

• Also in 2000 the Department of Transport presented to the Provincial Treasury an ‘Implementation Plan for Conserving the Road Network’. This was a 10-year plan to address the network backlog in respect of construction and maintenance needs that lead to a commitment of an increased level of funding for provincial roads.

• In 2001 the ‘Vukuzakhe Contractor Development Programme’ was launched. This programme is a serious commitment by the Department to the normalisation of the road construction industry through the development of emerging contractors. These registered contractors are now actively involved in the construction and maintenance of our provincial roads.

• Also in 2001 the ‘African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Programme’ was launched with the primary objective of addressing the backlog in the construction of blacktop roads. The Department identified strategic transportation corridors that provided access to rural areas with high development potential and is upgrading these gravel roads to blacktop standard.

• Also in 2001 the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Roads Act (Act 4 of 2001) was enacted. The Act recognised that the provincial road network and the classification of roads was a reflection of past priorities and was neither equitable nor just. The Act provides the legal framework for declaring a new provincial road network and the process of declaring the 42 000 kilometre road network is now well advanced.

• In 2003 the Department presented a Progress Report to Provincial Treasury on the Implementation Plan for Conserving the Road Network.

Since 1994 the Department has worked diligently to revolutionize the way it executes its mandate and has adopted a data driven approach to prioritizing road investments that is both consultative and proactive. Each year the MEC for Transport has held ‘Report Back Summits’, attended by large audiences of people from all corners of the province, at which he has publicly stated the achievements of the Department of Transport and announced new strategic initiatives. With this democratic and consultative approach there is no way that roads in KwaZulu-Natal could have “slipped through the cracks”.

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