The Department of Transport, in conjunction with the National Treasury, is considering the introduction of a dedicated Road Infrastructure Maintenance Fund to deal with the road maintenance backlog and challenges at a provincial and local level, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said on Tuesday.

It was estimated that South Africa had a R75-billion backlog in road maintenance.

"We are looking at a ring-fencing mechanism, which will set aside dedicated funds for road maintenance," Ndebele told journalists in Cape Town.

Ndebele said that the current state of South Africa's road infrastructure was reflective of a lack of sustained investment in road maintenance over many years.

Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin stated that 80% of South African roads had surpassed their 20-year lifespan for which they were designed.

It was also highlighted that there was a tendency, at a provincial and local level, to use transport budgets to build new roads rather than maintaining existing infrastructure. In other words, maintenance was a less attractive method of provincial and local spending.

It was also revealed that municipalities often lacked the skills to assess and determine the necessary priorities for road maintenance within its jurisdiction.

Thus, government was considering ring-fencing road maintenance finance as a mechanism to ensure that road maintenance would be undertaken in all provinces and that there were available funds to address the backlog.

Transport director-general George Mahlalela said that the fund would be financed by money sourced from the Treasury.

The government would also look at introducing efficiencies within its existing resources and would consider more efficient usage of provincial and local budgets to support the initiative.