Joburg Road Agency has a new CEO

MMC for Transport Funzi Ngobeni on August 2 officially welcomed the new CEO of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Dr Tshepo Mahanuke, to the City of Johannesburg.

Mahanuke arrives at the JRA to lend his extensive executive management and engineering training and experience to the endeavours to stabilise an entity that carries the multi-party coalition government’s hopes of economic prosperity for the city’s six million residents.

JRA manages a road network of 13 599km, one of the largest in the country, and as the economic heartland of South Africa, the roads agency has a responsibility of driving sustained economic growth through the seamless movement of goods and services.

To this end, Mahanuke will be tasked with ensuring that the city’s road network is fit-for-purpose through proactive repairs and maintenance as well as significant investment in extending the city’s road-related infrastructure network to cater for an ever-growing Johannesburg.

“Key to these envisioned successes, as I explained to Mahanuke, is the continued organisational stabilisation of the JRA. The entity currently has a significant number of vacancies, particularly at depot level where the actual repair and maintenance of our roads, traffic signals, bridges and stormwater infrastructure take place,” said Ngobeni.

“Added to this, are several crucial managerial positions with people in an acting capacity, including the heads of department of infrastructure development, public relations and stakeholder engagement as well as regional operations. The latter is responsible for what occurs across the JRA’s depots, as it relates to repairs and maintenance – either proactive or reactive.

“It will be Mahanuke’s responsibility to fill these posts while paying careful attention to attracting individuals with the right skills and ethics. I am optimistic that, with his attention to the need to create a good organisational culture and improve staff morale by addressing human capital challenges within JRA, one of South Africa’s foremost roads authority will begin to realise effective and efficient service delivery.

“I congratulate Mahanuke on his appointment and assure him of my support in turning the JRA around. I also take this opportunity to thank Siya Nodu, the former acting CEO for steering the JRA ship through a challenging post-Covid period. Nodu ensured that JRA remained on course to carry out its road repairs and maintenance work under very challenging circumstances, externally and internally.

“I extend my gratitude to him for his commitment to serve the people of Johannesburg. Nodu returns to his substantive post as HOD of corporate services. To the employees of the JRA, the arrival of a new CEO allows us a moment to press the reset button and usher in a new era of possibilities,” said Ngobeni.

Over the coming months, the city will spend R20m to refurbish JRA depots. This is to ensure that depot workers carry out their duties in a conducive environment, and to the satisfaction of residents.

This allocation is in addition to the R1.1b for capital projects, including new roads and traffic signals, as well as R918m for repairs and maintenance.