LIMPOPO – Despite numerous calls and promises to repair the R530 from Mica to The Oaks, the condition of the road has worsened.

A frequent motorist posted on the Hoedspruit Facebook Page complaining about the worsening condition. The motorist stated that she drives the road twice a day with her two young children in a small sedan car.

“It is so dangerous that I have to stop and slowly drive through the potholes while trying not to scrape the bottom of my car. I have been in situations where I was trying to dodge the potholes, and a truck nearly took us out trying to overtake us without even slowing down. There have been so many accidents and people having to change their tyres which is crazy. Shockingly, this road has not been properly fixed in at least the last four years that we have been driving it,” stated the post.

In 2022 the Herald reported on the state of the road after the Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote to the Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) to urgently address the matter.

They claimed that in 2019 there were already claims worth over R118 million against the Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads, and Infrastructure as well as its entity, RAL.

At the time Public Works, Roads, and Infrastructure’s then spokesperson, Witness Tiva, said the department regarded the letter written by the DA to RAL as a cheap political stance as processes to maintain the road had already started.

“The road in question is on the list of projects we are finalising the designs,” He said they are busy with investigations to reduce the cost of maintenance. This is one of the roads that are on the priority list as it links the busy R40 and R36 roads. The other challenge is that it carries heavy traffic volumes, mainly trucks, and this dictates to us that we must use quality material that will stand the pressure on the road, hence we are doing proper designs and borrow pit investigations.

At this point, the department is unable to give specific timelines for the actual construction work to start, as we are still at the final stages of designs,” he said. To date, the road has not been attended to and has deteriorated even more after the recent heavy rains.

In 2023 the DA visited the road again and it was found that it was still in the same condition. Tiva repeated his response to the Herald.

Recently the DA called on Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure MEC Ernest Rachoene to urgently intervene in RAL’s out-of-control irregular expenditure and non-compliance with legislation.

They alleged that the entity’s irregular expenditure increased from R6.8 billion at the beginning of the 2023/24 financial year to R8.6 billion at the end of March 2024.

The Herald contacted Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure’s new spokesperson, Emmanuel Mongwe about the DA’s allegations and the plans to repair the R530. At the time of going to print no response was received.