Steady progress is being made to improve the condition of the country’s roads.
This is according to Transport Minister Dipuo Peters as she tabled her department’s R48.7 billion-budget in Parliament.
“With regard to the state of our roads, 10% of our roads are in a very good condition, while 30% are actually just good. Sixty percent are fair to very poor, and this 60% is predominantly in our municipalities and rural areas and provinces.”
“One of the achievements that we can talk about that shows that South Africa is truly a better place is the integrated Gautrain Rapid Link, the construction of new airports such as King Shaka International in Durban and the upgrading of the existing ones in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Mthatha, Nelson Mandela Bay, Upington and Mangaung, as well as many others.
“We are also very proud to indicate the improvement on our road infrastructure, particularly the introduction of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project.”
The minister says more than R20 billion of the R 48.7 billion-budget is money that gets transferred to provinces and municipalities for road maintenance and public transport systems.
“The remaining resource is what we transfer to our agencies as well as other public utilities and we remain with 1.7% of the budget to do the administrative work of the department, as well as building capacity in the department.”
Peters says her department is currently training 120 civil engineering graduates, who will be absorbed by the department when they finish their studies.
Source – SAnews.gov.za