Funds have yet to be made available to repair flood-damaged roads.
According to the National Disaster Management Centre’s (NDMC) spokesperson, Legadima Leso, the National Department of Transport, Public Works and Infrastructure has been mobilised to support the affected provincial sectors with the process of reprioritisation of available funds in the 2023/24 budget, to allow those sectors to prioritise repairs and reconstruction of damaged provincial roads.

The provincial Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport (DPWRT) has also been requested to reprioritise its budget to accommodate the rehabilitation of roads.

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With the rainy season approaching, Donavan Pillay, a road expert, claimed that the remaining R40 is ‘a disaster waiting to happen’.
He said the section next to Klipkopjes Dam is deteriorating rapidly due to the trucks using it. “With the rainy season approaching, the last part of the road will collapse. The entire westbound lane keeps on collapsing. Once the rains start, it will also collapse the remaining lane, resulting in the entire road being closed down. The road should have been dealt with before the start of the annual rainy season,” he said.

Leso said the NDMC does not have available funds to repair the damaged roads yet, but has requested additional funding through the Unavoidable and Unforeseeable Programme, facilitated by the National Treasury, as part of the adjustment process of the latest budget to allow the provincial department to prioritise repairs and reconstruction of the provincial roads.

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The spokesperson for the DPWRT, Bongani Dhlamini, said the department will use its annual road maintenance budget to carry out some of the repairs and some major repair interventions.
“We have already advertised a tender for the R536 between Sabie and Hazyview for phase one repairs. The tender is expected to be awarded by October and construction can be carried out from January to March 2024,” he said.

He added that temporary repairs have been done to the road to the Josefsdal Border Post on the Barberton Makhonjwa Geotrail by the provincial internal road maintenance team.

Sanral’s Northern Region project manager, Alan Agaienz, said it will be issuing a tender regarding the repairs to the the R40, next to Klipkopjes Dam, which falls under Sanral.
Sanral structural consulting engineers have completed the design and tender documentation for the project. “It is anticipated that the contract duration would be about 12 months. This is a fairly difficult project. We are in the process of letting tenders to carry out this work. I cannot reveal what we believe the estimated cost of the project will be until the tendering process has been completed,” he said.

Until the situation changes, the R536 between Hazyview and Sabie, as well as the R40 between Barberton and the Josefsdal Border Post, will remain closed. The R40 next to Klipkopjes Dam will continue to operate on a stop-and-go basis.