The DA is concerned by the deteriorating state of roads around the Pilanesberg Game Reserve despite Premier Bushy Maape announcing R50 million in funding towards roads rehabilitation during his 2022 State of the Province Address.

The DA conducted an oversight inspection and found the roads to the Pilanesberg nearly inaccessible. Torrential rains during the last two seasons have only exacerbated the situation. This is adversely affecting restaurants and tourist establishments putting their viability and local jobs at risk. See images here, here, and here.

North West tour operators, game view safaris, lodges, resorts, and members of the public have not been spared from the impact of these poor roads, desperately pleading for an intervention.

There are two main reasons for the collapse of roads around the game reserve. The first is that money for maintenance of the park and its establishments, especially the internal roads, has never been a budget priority for the provincial government. Heavy equipment and machinery used to compact and grade dirt roads have been standing forlorn next to the road, with one roller rusting away. See images here and here. It is evident that the provincial government did not have plans to maintain the game reserve with its animals as heritage and not just as an asset.

Secondly, the unprecedented process of dividing the Parks and Tourism Board as one entity with one mandate into two separate entities. This went ahead despite warnings from the DA, industry stakeholders, and the public that the entity is inseparable and cannot operate effectively without the other.

Since Premier Maape’s SOPA last year, a few road markings and signs were repainted, while a few bags of asphalt/tar were delivered to fix the pothole-riddled roads. If it was not for the non-profit organisation Friends of Pilanesberg those bags of asphalt would still be lying next to the road.

During his SOPA on Friday, we will probe Premier Maape on how much has been spent to rehabilitate Pilanesberg roads if such an exercise has taken place.

 

Issued by Jacqueline Theologo MPL - DA North West Spokesperson on Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism