The premier of Mpumalanga, Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, announced on Friday that R9bn would be allocated to repair roads in the province.

She made this announcement during her State of the Province Address (Sopa) at the Radisson Hotel in Mbombela.

Residents and tourists are hopeful this budget influx toward Sanral will include repairs to the so-called ‘triangle of roads’: Lydenburg, Burgersfort, Steelpoort, Dullstroom and Ohrigstad.

Jane Sithole, the DA’s provincial leader, said it was a pity the premier did not make it clear which roads are targeted.

The Ohrigstad Road (R36) and the Burgersfort Road (R37) are currently under construction and benefiting from Sanral upgrades.

The work needed to be done includes general road maintenance, such as potholes and road surface repairs, grass cutting, stormwater drainage, fencing and road signs. The R36 and R37 project is estimated to take 36 months.

“A good provincial road network is pivotal in Mpumalanga where tourism plays a big part. Good roads are needed for economic recovery,” said Trudie Grové-Morgan, the DA’s spokesperson for public works, roads and transport.

Grové-Morgan also said before the Sopa that the DA found it unacceptable that for the 2020/21 financial year, the department had failed to meet the target of the road surfaces of 17 664 square metres that needed to be resealed.

“Hopefully, this includes the roads that connect the provincial tourist attractions, like the New Skywalk at Graskop or the Panorama Route. Our province has the best venues for attracting tourism, yet no one would want to visit us with the bad state of our roads.

“Most of Mpumalanga’s roads are filled with potholes. We hope this Sanral investment will also be used to fix the potholes and upgrade all our roads in general,” said Sithole.

By the time of going to press, Sanral has not yet indicated which roads will benefit from the Sopa budget allocation.