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Roads have been given the biggest slice of the Limpopo public works department's annual budget.
Residents and investors have called on Limpopo to ramp up its plans to deal with poor roads. Picture: Supplied
Limpopo’s department of public works, roads and infrastructure will spend more than half of its allocated budget for 2025/26 to build new roads and maintain old ones.
Most of the province’s roads were damaged by severe storms early this year.
R3 billion set aside to tar roads
During an interview with The Citizen on Thursday, MEC for Public Works, Roads, and Infrastructure, Tonny Sebataolo Rachoene, said Limpopo currently has 13 000km of unpaved roads. He added that more than R3 billion has been set aside to pave and tar roads this financial year.
The MEC believes for the province’s economy to grow, smooth roads are needed.
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MEC says R300 billion needed
Despite this, Rachoene said the R3 billion allocation is just a fraction of what is needed.
For the province to tar the remaining R13 000km of unpaved roads, the MEC said it would need more than R300 billion. He said his department has no money to fund the projects. He appealed to the private sector, provincial Treasury and the national Department of Transport to come to the party.
Poor roads hurting Limpopo’s economy
The tabling of the budget, comes as both residents and investors have called on the province to ramp up its plans to deal with the poor road infrastructure.
Rachoene said the bad state of some of the roads was making it difficult for the transportation of goods and services, for tourists trying to use the roads, and deterring investment in the province.
“Through our road agency, we intend to upgrade 21 new roads from gravel to tar. We have taken a resolution not only to build roads, but to maintain them as well and to ensure our assets, including our fleet, is protected,” he said.
