/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

10 May 2023, Pretoria – The article titled ‘End of the road’ for South Africa, which appeared in BusinessTech dated 9 May 2023, refers.

Although SANRAL is quoted extensively in the article, it is notable that no specific name of the person BusinessTech purportedly spoke to is mentioned. It is also curious that the writer of the article is not mentioned by name. The concealment of the identities of this duo leads us to believe that the intention of the article is naughty and mischievous.

The article was clearly aimed at pitting SANRAL against its Executive Authority, the Department of Transport, and government in general. SANRAL is not a republic of its own but takes its mandate from government via the Department of Transport. Any attempt – such as is the trajectory of this article – to define the roads agency outside government’s efforts to develop road infrastructure in the country in general is not only mischievous but disingenuous and devious.

Although SANRAL’s core mandate is to plan, design, build and maintain national roads, the law explicitly permits the roads agency, through national government, which is its sole shareholder, to assist provinces and municipalities where the need for that assistance has been identified. Indeed, a number of provincial roads have been and continue to be incorporated into the SANRAL network, subject to the procedure that needs to be followed to give effect to such transfers. This is done in the best interest of South African society and the country’s economy.

A recent example of SANRAL being directed to assist government’s mandate to provide quality road infrastructure is the Vala Zonke project where the roads agency was asked to coordinate the national effort to deal with potholes across all spheres of government. SANRAL readily deployed its technical, IT and project management capacity to answer the call.

Any suggestion that this and other interventions by SANRAL in support of government are carried out under duress or reluctantly is devoid of the truth and is malicious in intention.

Even as we speak, SANRAL is working on a strategy, within its ongoing rollout of national projects, to support the Department of Transport’s enhancement of the Vala Zonke programme. The aim of this partnership is to heighten the effectiveness of Vala Zonke based on the previous year’s learnings and insights so as to improve even further the country’s roads for the benefit of road users. The discussion between the Department of Transport and SANRAL includes the funding of the initiative.

Any deliberations regarding the funding of added responsibilities is not something the roads agency ventilates and lobbies for through the media, least of all through faceless sources and writers. The funding of our roads, and indeed of SANRAL, is a matter that is discussed with and between the Department of Transport and National Treasury. For the record, government has over the past medium-term expenditure framework increased its investment in SANRAL and the national road network. Accordingly, SANRAL does not face any fiscal cliff as sensationally alleged in the article. The intention of the article is to create a crisis where none exists and as SANRAL we shall not be insidiously dragooned into that mindset.

In the light of the above, SANRAL wishes to state categorically that it distances itself from the article’s innuendo at best, and insinuation at worst, that the government is foisting additional roads down its throat without a concomitant financial investment in the roads agency.

Issued by SANRAL Spokesperson, Vusi Mona