KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Willies Mchunu says the province needs R17 billion to address its huge maintenance backlog on the provincial road network.Mchunu says this excludes the investment required to address the backlog related to the upgrade of gravel to tar roads.

The department will use 75% of its R9 billion towards upgrades and maintenance of infrastructure to address the problem.

Mchunu delivered his budget speech in the provincial legislature.

“Whilst we are far better than other provinces, our rate of poor to very poor roads is sitting at 43 % far higher than the global benchmark of less than 10 %. This scale of the backlog informs our realistic response. Our on-going task is to close the backlog.”