Civil Engineering April 2022 | Vol 30 No 3

Civil Engineering April 2022 7 Le t ter from the ed i tor T he state of Johannesburg’s roads has prompted the private sector to jump in to address the problem. In May 2021 Dialdirect Insurance and Discovery Insure partnered with the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) to launch The Pothole Patrol which has since filled more than 80 000 potholes. The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport also launched a Smart Mobility Weekends service delivery campaign last year and partnered with CoJ in an attempt to address the growing pothole problem. Despite these efforts, drivers still encounter potholes daily (and not just in Johannesburg) and without proper plans to per- form ongoing and timely maintenance, particularly sealing cracks to prevent potholes from occurring in the first place, it feels a bit like putting band-aids on bullet holes. Addressing the Portfolio Committee on Transport on 15 February 2022, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula noted that innovative methods are required to attend to potholes, particularly on regional roads. “We are now going to consolidate our work because we want to bring about policy intervention in terms of the provinces. We give billions of rands to the provinces in the form of a grant for them to upgrade and maintain the roads,” he said. “It is quite clear with the uproar and the cacophony of voices that comes out as a result of the non-fixing of roads at the re- gional level, that we need to devise an approach.” Mbalula noted that national roads are well attended by Sanral with potholes typically fixed within 24 hours. However, there is a problem with the upgrading and building of new national roads be- cause of Sanral’s balance sheet due to the non-finalisation of e-tolls. E-TOLLS: DOT’S ACHILLES HEEL Mbalula acknowledge that the buck stops with the Department of Transport (DoT) when it comes to the state of the country’s roads and recognised that the Department’s roads branch has work to do. “Our answers must not be political. They must demonstrate our ability of knowledge and expertise of road fixing, and where it is a problem and how we are going to resolve it. We have not reached that. We are giving you political answers as politicians here in this committee,” he told the Portfolio Committee on Transport. Mbalula said the non-finalisation of e-tolls was the depart- ment’s Achilles heel and that a portion of the DoT’s budget which should be going towards repairing roads is instead being used to service e-toll debt. The minister was highly critical of the situation – and par- ticularly former finance minister Tito Mboweni’s lack of action on the matter – noting that bond markets are no longer willing to provide finance to Sanral due to the e-toll debacle and that the state of roads would likely continue to decline over the next 10 years. He went so far as to allude to a potential “disaster” with roads not being repaired and maintained due to lack of budget. Mbalula went on to say that the e-toll issue will have “dire consequences for this country”, similar to the country’s electricity problems and state capture. He also lamented the mismanagement of funds allocated to roads authorities, noting that funds are often to paid to service providers who do not deliver the work and face no consequences, with Sanral ultimately being called in to take over the road. Lastly, he spoke to the need for centralisation and identifica- tion of priority roads in the various provinces and municipalities so that experts can be called in to assist. ACTION NEEDED A 2021 Frost & Sullivan report indicated that the condition of South Africa’s provincial road network has been on a steady decline since the early 90s. There are several causes of this, in- cluding curtailed funding allocations to roads and the shrinking project output by the public sector. According to Frost & Sullivan, about 30% of the country’s paved road network is in a poor to very poor condition, with the Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the North West in particular struggling with road maintenance. Government has been kicking the can down the road on the e-toll issue for years. It appears as through drastic measures would be needed to enforce compliance by a public that has not bought into the system. But scrapping e-tolls would have similarly dire economic consequences. The rising cost of fuel and calls for government to review the fuel levy only add to an already difficult situation. It is clear that South Africa cannot afford for road mainte- nance budgets to be reallocated to service e-toll debt if we are to ensure that our national, provincial and regional roads remain in a decent condition. Government needs to act fast to find a solution and make a decision on the future of the e-toll system. To watch the full Portfolio Committee on Transport briefing, visit https://youtu.be/FHr_9ppNwrg Danielle Petterson Editor: Civil Engineering danielle@saice.org.za Patching holes, paying tolls For vehicle owners in Johannesburg, dodging potholes has become a critical skill. Exacerbated by the recent heavy rains, declining municipal revenues and a loss of technical capacity over the last few years have left roads in a poor state. But the problem extends far beyond municipal level.