The Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga said some of the roads in the North West Province will be under the auspices of SANRAL so they can be part of the National Roads portfolio.
Chikunga said this on Tuesday in Rustenburg, North West where she was interacting with provincial stakeholders in the transport sector saying the government has a plan in place to fix the roads in this region.
“It’s about us having an opportunity to discuss and to share information with regards to the state of the roads in this province and of course how they’re spending the grant that we transfer to them and of course their equitable share, whether they raise any money from it so that they can actually attend to their road infrastructure.
“The roads are not in good shape but they have a plan which we’re ready to assist with. We have agreed that they can transfer some roads to us, to SANRAL, we gazette them so that they then become National Roads, and that we have agreed upon, we have shared information with them to say there’s a proper plan.
“We’re in the process of procuring, we’ve agreed that we have to speed up the processes, so they’ll actually be attended to sooner. We’re then looking at transferring some roads to SANRAL but also they have given us a list of roads that they want the private sector to adopt, particularly those that are damaged by the everyday height of trucks and heavy traffic. But together with them we can engage the private sector, ” said the Minister.
Chikunga said she was concerned that the provincial department of Public Works and Roads, hasn’t been spending its budget, and keeps rolling it over and implored the department to fix the roads with the money, instead of sending it back to treasury, while the roads are in a bad state.
