The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) will embark on projects to improve roads on its network within the Mahikeng Local Municipality and Ratlou Local Municipalities in the North West.
The agency said it will cough up more than R78 million on the projects – which will be on the N18, R49, and R505 national roads – during a stakeholder meeting in Mahikeng on Thursday.
However, the North West Amalgamated Business Forum member, Lungile Mtuyetwa accused Sanral of making empty promises.
“It’s not the first time that we are called by SANRAL only to be misled, we have been invited to participate in such engagements several times in different towns like Zeerust and Lichtenburg. So we keep taking part in these engagements yet we never benefit from anything.
“The national government gives SANRAL a lot of money that we the North West citizens don’t benefit from, it’s only outsiders from Gauteng and Limpopo that benefit from this agency.
And when we raise such issues, we are often told that we don’t know how to fill the documents, and we only have one grading as there is no grading in the North West.
“Now we want them to clarify for us the conditions of their subcontracting, the local capacity management, and the incubation of contractors, which we believe can take emerging SMMEs that have one grading. But that incubation must also have funding to help us grow.
“We, local businesses need to be recognized and afforded opportunities to grow. We are tired of watching people turn this province into a cash cow. Companies from other provinces come to our province only to do shady work. In less than a few months the roads already have potholes. “We can actually do much better than them because this is our home and we would like to see it developed,” he said.
The Mahikeng Local Municipality Mayor, Tshepiso Mphehlo, said they will further request for N18 to be expanded.
“The N18 is only going to be revamped, but what we really wanted is for it to be expanded. As it is very narrow and too thin. This results in a lot of car accidents that take people’s lives.
“But I have made a commitment to the community of Mahikeng that we are going to write to Sanral. So as to see how they can best put us in the next budget of expanding the N18 road by widening it,” Mphehlo said.
Sanral’s project manager, Lethu Dlanjwa, said the engagements are a platform to listen to the concerns of the SMMEs’.
“When we come to local municipalities, we do establish a PLC in the affected areas. So that we can then be able to let the people know about the project. So these sessions are very important for us to hear all these concerns that are perhaps not ventilated at PLC structures.
“We take the people’s concerns. We commit to being transparent and fair in the process of these projects,” Dlanjwa said.
