Free State Agriculture announces plan to fix poor roads

The poor road system in the Free State needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, and Free State Agriculture (FSA) has therefore drafted an infrastructure action plan for the province, with roads as the main focus.

This was according to

Dr Jack Armour, operations manager at FSA, who said gravel roads in particular were deteriorating at a fast rate.

One of the reasons for the disintegration of the road network was that inadequate funding was being budgeted by the provincial government for road maintenance. “The rate at which gravel road maintenance was [carried out] now will [mean it will] take about 100 years to get to all the roads that need re-graveling, given that the maximum lifespan of a gravel road is about 20 years,” he said.

The main aim of FSA’s draft action plan was for agricultural associations in the province’s districts to appoint a dedicated representative responsible for infrastructure, with the emphasis on roads. The designated representative would then act as FSA’s contact person in a specific local community.

According to Armour, the idea was to create WhatsApp groups and in that way form “virtual road boards”. “This would, among other things, help to prioritise work on the worst roads. This would also provide FSA with the necessary data to challenge the provincial roads department and hold it accountable for the upkeep of the roads.”

According to Armour, a “bloated bureaucracy” was one of the reasons for the everdeteriorating road network in the province. This had resulted in an “overload of managerial positions” in the provincial administration, leaving very little of the budget for people who needed to do the work at grassroots level.

He said FSA’s farmer association representatives would be expected to help drive action in their communities. This could, for instance, include the creation of work teams in conjunction with the community that could tender for the reparation of fences along the road network, or to keep the sides of the roads clean.

Kempen Nel, a farmer near Jacobsdal, said the poor roads in the province had a negative impact on the sustainability of agriculture. Contractors who delivered or transported inputs and agricultural products were becoming increasingly reluctant to traverse the gravel roads. He said the contractors claimed that the excessive damage caused to vehicles by poor roads made it impossible for them to conduct their businesses profitably.

According to Nel, even the tarred roads were deteriorating rapidly. “In Jacobsdal, the large number of trucks transporting manganese from the Northern to the Eastern Cape caused the R705 to become virtually impassable. I cannot begin to describe the damage the farming community is facing because of the terrible roads.” – Annelie Coleman