South Africa required R75-billion over the next five years to maintain its road network, said Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele on Monday.

Speaking at government's Road Construction and Maintenance Summit, in Midrand, he noted that 40% of the country's provincial road network had "reached crisis point".

In the Free State and Limpopo provinces the problem was especially bad, with 60% of roads in poor to very poor condition.

Ndebele said about 80% of South Africa's road network - national, provincial and in some cities - were now older than their 20-year design life, based on information from only 64% of the roads.

He added that the Department of Transport (DoT) was unable to determine the extent of the road maintenance backlog at municipal level, owing a lack of information.

"This is a matter of great concern to us."

Ndebele said the road maintenance backlog was the result of a lack of dedicated funding for road maintenance, poor asset management, as well as capacity challenges in many municipalities and provinces.

He said that the DoT was working towards establishing a Road Maintenance Fund, which he insisted "must be ring-fenced".

He noted that it was of little use to make funds available for road maintenance, but witnessing that money disappear as soon as a crisis developed in other sectors, such as education.

"This is not about sourcing additional funding for maintenance, but ensuring that existing funds are used for the purpose they were intended for. It is about better management of our road assets."

DoT director-general George Mahlalela added that funding also presented a problem, if it did not happen in a predictable, sustained manner.

"You cannot have a situation where you have highs and lows in funding. In 2010, with the World Cup, we had high levels of funding, but now it will go down again.

"Also, when you have more funding, you have more skills and then, when funding goes down, those skills go to other countries."