Appalling road conditions unacceptable says DA

“A good provincial road network is pivotal in Mpumalanga where tourism plays a big part. Good roads are needed for economic recovery. It is from this perspective that the DA finds it unacceptable that for the 2020/2021 financial year, the department failed to meet the target of the road surface that needed to be resealed by 17 664 square metres,” said Trudie Grové-Morgan, DA spokesperson for public works, roads and transport.

Grové-Morgan said the former finance minister, Tito Mboweni, spoke about his disappointment with the potholes between Dullstroom and Lydenburg (Mashishing).
She also referred to the untimely death of Linah Malatjie, executive mayor of eMalahleni Local Municipality. The cause of her accident was potholes on the R544 between Gemsbokspruit and Verena.

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The DA said that many municipalities were ravaged by heavy rains during the last couple of months, and this has led to the increase of potholes.

“We call on MEC Latchminarain to assess the state of the roads in the following municipalities: the City of Mbombela, Thaba Chweu, eMalahleni, Steve Tshwete, Thembisile Hani, Lekwa, Govan Mbeki, Nkomazi, and Emakhazeni,” said Grové-Morgan.

The Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport is also in a position to create much-needed employment for thousands of residents.
According to the DA, 46.4% of the province is currently unemployed.

“The DA is against the department’s act of decreasing the number of work opportunities created by the transport sector from 37 285 in the 2018/2019 financial year to only 6 238 in 2020/2021. Given the above, the DA calls on Latchminarain to ensure that targets set in the APP are met and that we focus on the condition of our roads and job creation in the coming year,” said Grové-Morgan.