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In response to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question, the Minister of Transport has revealed that the country is facing a R18.4 billion backlog, with regards to the upkeep of the country's core national road network. In the provinces, there is a further R19.9 billion backlog. The combined total is R38.3 billion. The full details follow below. The Minister was unable to say whether or not the backlog can be addressed, only that this is the current situation and whether or not it will be overcome is dependent on sufficient funds being made available by the Treasury. The full reply is available on request. As with the country's electricity, water and railways infrastructure the current situation with regards to our roads is a consequence of years of neglect, poor planning and a lack of foresight. As a consequence we now sit with a situation whereby the backlogs are so big, that it is next to impossible to ever eradicate them. Government will be forced to borrow money and the result of that will not only be that repayment on interest furthers the cost, but roads will have to be transformed into toll roads to help recover monies spent and the public will have to pay. Should that not happen, many roads will fall into disrepair, beyond even rehabilitation and, ultimately our road network will shrink. The consequences of this for our economy are profound. On the one hand, ever increasing amounts of the budget will have to be set aside to maintain the ever smaller distance of roads managed by the national administration (remember these backlogs are only what is required to keep the status quo). On the other hand, crumbling roads means that public transport and the transport of goods are affected. The Democratic Alliance will be raising this matter before the portfolio committee on Transport, when its annual report is discussed. We will ask how we got to a situation like this, whether government was warned (as it was with Eskom and our railways) about our deteriorating infrastructure and why more money was not set aside. What the Minister does not say, is that the problem, and the resultant backlog, is far bigger than simply the core network. In order to understand the extent of the problem, it is necessary to set out the nature of South Africa's road network. The South African road network consists of approximately 752 000 km of tarred road, of which 535 000 km are classified. A classified road is one where responsibility for that road has been assigned to a specific authority. However, the problem is that some 220 000 km are unclassified. These unclassified roads are in limbo with no clear responsibility for maintenance assigned to any level of government. The 535 000 km of classified roads fall under the jurisdiction of the three spheres of Government (National, Provincial and Municipal). Of these, 366 872 km are non-urban roads and 168 000 km are urban roads. The national government, through the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), is responsible for just 16 170 km of that total. The DA's question asked for infrastructure backlogs at national and provincial level. The answer can be summarised as follows: National The Minister states: "The backlog that exists is with regard to the strengthening of the network. Currently 4142 km (32%) of the non-toll national road network has a remaining structural life of less than five years, and are in need of strengthening within the next five years. The financial need for strengthening over the next 5 years is R35.2 billion. However, he also states that the current MTEF budget allocation for strengthening over the next five years is R16.8 billion, which will mean that, with the current allocation, "only an estimated 1 980 km will be strengthened." This will result in a ‘strengthening shortfall' of 2162 km or R18.4 billion over the next five years. Provincial
Province Backlog Reason
Eastern Cape R95.6 million Maintenance, Rehabilitation
Free State R5.6 million Unspecified
Gauteng R1.68 billion Unspecified
KwaZulu-Natal R2.60 billion Maintenance, Rehabilitation
Limpopo R1.69 billion Rehabilitation
Mpumalanga R5.30 billion Unspecified
Northern Cape R2.16 billion Rehabilitation
North West R306 million Unspecified
Western Cape R6.07 billion Rehabilitation
TOTAL R19.93 billion

The real problem, however, is the 200 000 km of unclassified roads that are not reported on by the Minister. Presumably, because no particular authority is responsible for these roads, their upkeep has been entirely neglected and it is next to impossible to carry out a full and proper investigation as to their condition.

The DA will be submitting parliamentary questions to determine what the national government's approach to this problem is.