Road infrastructure always gets high priority owing to the critical role roads play in impacting the socio economic progress of the Eastern Cape.
Thandiswa Marawu MEC responsible for Roads and Public Works in the Eastern Cape speaking during her policy and budget speech for 2014/15.
“Huge backlogs still remain a major challenge despite the progress we are making. This state of affairs is further compounded by constant floods that are wreaking havoc in the province year after year, with devastating effects on our road network.”
“The situation is unlikely to improve in the near future, for the simple reason that it is further exacerbated by the shrinking of the fiscus allocated to the department. The situation has resulted in the department resorting to focusing primarily on the maintenance of the existing roads network, with very little hope of constructing new roads in the short-term. This has been reflected in our Annual Performance Plans targets over the last couple of years, including the current financial year where the targets for construction are zero.”