Road maintenance to be a top priority for public works department in Mpumalanga

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30-06-2022
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Mpumalanga News
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In March, a delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Premier Refilwe Mtshweni Tsipane visited the bridge and promised that it would be repaired.

The MEC for public works, roads and transport, Mohita Latchminarain, said the department has engaged the community on various service delivery challenges and their message is clear.

Latchminarain said they have taken guidance from the public’s messages to prioritise areas mostly affected by no service delivery, and to protect state resources from malfeasance and corruption.

This was during the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport’s budget and policy speech she recently delivered at the Provincial Legislature. The department’s overall budget allocation for 2022/23 is R4.9b.

This amount has increased by R40m, which is 0.8% when compared to the main appropriation budget in the 2021/22 financial year.

Latchminarain said this increase is below the inflation rate, thus in essence, this means there is less money to spend on government programmes, projects and personnel.

“We must therefore ensure value for money on all public spending.” The amount is broken into five programmes. For administration, they have set aside R359.4m, public works infrastructure gets R1.2b, transport infrastructure receives R1.9b, transport operations gets R1.3b and community-based programmes will receive R82.8m.

“The department has set aside R649m for road maintenance to reduce the current backlogs. In addition, approximately R677m has been set aside for construction of various strategic roads across the province.” She said one of these projects is the Tekwane bridge, which was washed away during the heavy rain last February.

According to Latchminarain, the National Development Plan (NDP) notes that to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth by 2030, South Africa needs to invest in a strong network of economic and social infrastructure. “However, the Covid-19 pandemic put at risk the achievement of the socio-economic outcomes envisaged in the NDP.

That said, the need for infrastructure investment and development has not gone away. In fact, it is more pertinent than ever.

“The construction and built environment are central to the revival of the economy and opening up of opportunities that will transform and benefit the province. To continue driving investments into each of these sectors, increased engagement and collaboration between public and private sectors have become a priority.”