Untarred roads a concern says Peters

Dipuo Peters - Image GCIS

"While a lot had been achieved in transport in cities, many rural transport networks were still struggling," she said in a speech prepared for delivery at the launch of transport month in Pretoria.

She says rural transport development had become one of the country's main problems.

"Some in the rural areas have to walk long distances to access public transport. It is important for all of us to focus on the improvement of mobility and access in rural areas," Peters said.

She said a national travel survey had highlighted that a high percentage of the population could not afford transport costs and this in turn affected their access to social and economic services.

Peters acknowledged that much had been achieved in transport. In centres such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Rustenburg there were investments in projects such as the Bus Rapid Transit system.

"The system is a catalyst for urban regeneration, reconnecting isolated nodes and bringing disconnected communities closer to economic opportunities," she said.

She said the country had more tarred roads than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa combined.

"They are worth over R1trn, which is equal to the national budget for a year. We need to spend R30bn a year on just maintaining them, but at the moment we can only spend R30bn on both maintenance and new construction," she said.

Peters said that hundreds of billions of rands were being invested in expanding and upgrading rail networks, harbours and airports, in order to enable easy access to goods on which the country's economic growth depended.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge