African Renaissance Road Upgrading Programme (ARRUP)

What is the African Renaissance Road Upgrading Programme (ARRUP) About?

Community Empowerment

  • Communities actively participate in the planning and implementation of the programme through their Project Liaison Committee (PLC). These represent stakeholders including Amakhosi (Traditional leaders), local government, local business and other community interest groups.
  • ARRUP will ensure the circulation of vast amounts of money in the local rural economy.

Skills Transfer

  • The African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Programme creates opportunities for emerging contractors to become involved in higher order road construction. This is done by teaming emerging contractors with established firms, thus bringing huge opportunities for skills development and growth to Vukuzakhe Contractors.
  • The African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Programme partners newly established consultants with well-established consultants in joint venture agreements in order to ensure skills transfer.
  • The African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Programme, through opportunities and skills transfer, intend fast tracking the development of previously disadvantaged contractors and consultants to a level where they are able to compete equitably.
  • The African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Programme provides training interventions to contractors in a systematic manner that balances previous experience and skills with job requirements.

ARRUP, which was launched in 2001, currently comprises the upgrading of eight major rural road transport corridors & one urban transport corridor.  Collectively, the ARRUP projects provide strong evidence to support the view that that Department is making significant progress towards bridging the gap between our first & second economies.

An efficient & effective transport system is considered a necessary condition for economic growth & development.  It is common cause that a major legacy of the apartheid & separate development era is that our democratic Government inherited a situation in which the majority of rural communities, as well as some urban & peri-urban communities did not have adequate access to transport facilities.  Their physical isolation also resulted in their social & economic isolation from the rest of South Africa – resulting in President Tabo Mbeki coining the concept of a “second” economy.

ARRUP projects are specifically designed and planned to result in the integration of complex changes both to the construction industry of KwaZulu-Natal and to the lives of beneficiary communities. ARRUP is expected to renew beneficiary communities in that a minimum target of 67% of total budget allocations is directed towards broad-based black economic empowerment, including the support of local suppliers, entrepreneurs and work seekers. It is pleasing to report that ARRUP has achieved an on average 71,5% of budget allocations towards securing broad-based black economic empowerment. Indeed, some projects have been designed and managed to achieve a 100% record.  Massive new opportunities have been created for previously disadvantaged South Africans to become entrepreneurs in the fields of civil engineering, road construction and the supply of road construction material. This is readily evident from the growth and development of the Department’s Vukuzakhe emerging contractor programme since the initiation of ARRUP.

ARRUP is also expected to kick-start stagnant rural economies by dramatically reducing local transport overheads and accessing communities to a new dispensation in investments concerning the agricultural, tourism and transport sectors.

Through ARRUP, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport has adopted a corridor development approach designed to:

  • develop the agricultural potential of the lands adjacent to all ARRUP roads

  • develop a black-top road network to provide cost efficient transport systems that link the major initiatives of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs to appropriate markets

  • develop, by labour intensive methods, a feeder road system to unlock the development potential of agricultural lands

  • extend local investment opportunities in agricultural projects to women headed households through our Zibambele programme

  • develop water resources (dams, weirs and boreholes) that can be offset against an alternative budget required to haul water for road construction

  • renew small rural towns (e.g. Hlabisa, Nkandla) by beautification projects which include new sidewalks, paved areas and public transport facilities; and

  • establish local hospitality facilities along ARRUP roads that promote historical, cultural
    and eco tourism

Increasingly, ARRUP “development corridors” are resulting in a wide range of government Departments co-operating in planning and pooling their resources in the best interests of beneficiary communities. The introduction of “development corridors”, through ARRUP, promotes a more integrated response to the multi-dimensional and complex nature of poverty.

Thus the African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Programme will:

  • Promote cultural and eco-tourism and a diversified local economy;

  • Develop a competitive transportation market;

  • Act as a catalyst for future investment decisions;

  • Improve access to markets and open new markets;

  • Diversify and create new types of employment;

  • Enhance access to health, education, extension services, banks, etc.;

  • Raise the standard of living in rural areas to a more equitable level;

  • Change consumer patterns; and

  • Reduce rural/urban migration.

Although ARRUP is still a very young programme it is already clear that its innovative approach to road construction has contributed significantly to the social and economic empowerment of beneficiary communities.  On 28 October 2005, the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE), Pietermaritzburg branch, presented the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport with an award for the “Best Community-Based Programme” for ARRUP roads.  ARRUP is undoubtedly creating a bridge between the first and second economies of the province.  It is anticipated that ARRUP policies, procedures & methodologies will provide a new framework & dispensation for road building in South Africa.

The African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Programme presents an opportunity for the department to provide a unique and integrated response to the challenge of community development and addressing the apartheid legacy. 

 

back