Major revamp of East Cape roads

Lysippos via Wikimedia Commons

Delivering her policy speech in Bhisho yesterday, Roads and Public Works MEC Thandiswa Marawu said the investment would make roads in that part of the province the best in the country.

Over the next two financial years, plans are afoot to upgrade the section of the R72 between Port Alfred and Peddie as well as the R335, also known as the Addo Road. The R334, which is the "shortcut" road linking the N2 near Colchester to Uitenhage that has been closed off for years, will also undergo construction, but only in the 2017-18 financial year.

Road infrastructure

The tender for the reconstruction of the Sandriver Bridge at Cape St Francis has been awarded to start this year, but the contract is still under a legal challenge. Marawu said there had been an unprecedented roll-out of road infrastructure projects in the last financial year and this year would be the same. "Anyone travelling through the length and breadth of our province can attest to this fact," she said.

"The SA National Roads Agency Limited [Sanral] has been working closely with us to achieve the phenomenal results that we see on our roads.

"Roads infrastructure is always receiving special attention from all the department's stakeholders, owing to the critical role of roads in enabling economic activity and mobility to access social infrastructure and amenities," Marawu said.

She said Sanral had spent R2.3-billion on Eastern Cape roads and planned to spend an additional R5-billion in the 2016-17 financial year. "It can be said without any equivocation that in the next five years the national road network in the eastern part of our province will be second to none," Marawu said.

"It must also be pointed out that a significant amount of the Sanral budget is dedicated to the participation of local SMMEs in their various programmes."

Paying attention to Eastern Cape roads

Asked if the focus on the eastern part of the province was a deliberate strategy by the government, Marawu said the former homelands had previously been neglected and needed a lot of attention. "But there will be a balance. We are also using Sanral on the western side of the Eastern Cape to fix roads," she said.

Marawu said they were focused on upgrading roads in line with President Jacob Zuma's call for the government to invest in infrastructure. "Roads are the heartbeat of the economy. That's why you see the stop-and-goes. We want to attract investors to our province," she said.

Foremost in the heart of business

Border Kei Chamber of Business executive director Les Holbrook said the increased investment on roads was welcomed, as it was foremost in the hearts of business. However, as organised business in the eastern part of the province, they would like to have more of a say on which roads the government should fix.

"Largely, government is going to be maintaining the roads and tarring some gravel roads. We would like them to pursue roads that have an impact on the economy," Holbrook said. "We believe that where bad roads are utilised by business, that is where the spending ought to go."

Participation of SMMEs

Marawu said 30% of all construction would be allocated to SMMEs. The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry's provincial secretary, Mercy Mini, said while there were skills in the province to handle the work, the government often gave contracts to companies that did not have the capacity.

She said the government had to help develop emerging SMMEs to be able to handle "real work".

Cutting down on costs

In her speech, Marawu spoke about her department's plans to heed the national call to cut down on unnecessary and wasteful expenditure. "The department is currently implementing the cost-containment measures," she said. "For the next financial year, the department will continue to implement and monitor all the revised cost-containment measures."

She said the measures included that they would ensure that outsourcing was properly managed; officials would travel on economy-class flights and use airport shuttles and hiring of vehicles would be limited to category B-class cars.

Source: Herald