Four Roads Delivered for Ga-Seleka Villages as Successful Partnership Bears Fruit
Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) and Exxaro Resources successfully completed their first strategic partnership road project since 2015 in Ga-Seleka, Lephalale within the Waterberg District Municipality of Limpopo Province recently.
The project, for the upgrading from gravel to tar of four roads, started in October 2016 after a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed in 2015, and it has practically been completed since the beginning of July 2019 pending a snag list and issuing of a completion certificate.
Snag list is a colloquial construction industry term for ‘final touch-ups or checklist’ that include things such as installations of road safety measures, traffic signs, and restoring the area to acceptable environmental state, etc before it is officially handed over by the appointed contractor to RAL, as the owner. Only then is the completion certificate issued.
R132.3 million of the R148.4m contract (excluding VAT and contingencies) has been spent to date.
The JSE-listed black-empowered diversified mining company, Exxaro contributed R71.2m or 28.5% towards the construction cost while RAL has carried the balance of R178.8m out of the total R250m (all inclusive) contract.
The completed project comprises of roads D3117, D3114, D3102 and D3109 in the Lephalale Local Municipality of Waterberg district. A total of 34 kilometres of road and as many as 75 culverts were successfully constructed on this project.
These roads will connect several Ga-Seleka villages on the outskirts, namely Sefithlogo, Morwe, Botshabelo, Moong, Segale, Botsalanong, Kopanong, Kgobagodimo and Letlora (D3102 and R3112), and Kiti,
Motsweding, Dipompong and Mokuruanyane on D3109, to the commercial centre of Lephalale.
The villages that will benefit from the upgraded Sefihlogo Road (D3102 and D3114) while the upgrading of Road D3109 will benefit residents from Kiti, Motsweding, Dipompong and Mokuruanyane.
The completed roads are part of the first phase (referred to as the Northern Link) agreement signed between RAL and Exxaro. The two companies have so far signed two agreements, valued at R350 million.
The second agreement, the R100 million ‘Southern Link’ for the upgrade of road D2001, was signed in April 2018 not only as a vote of confidence in the way the Agency conducts its business but with its strategic partners overall.
At that second MoA signing ceremony for D2001 last year, Exxaro’s Executive Head of Coal Operations, Nombasa Tsengwa had highlighted the combined oversight role both organisations have through their respective project managers and engineers “as professional, and a hallmark of a successful partnership”.
RAL has, since adopting the strategic partnership approach in 2015 to augment its constrained financial resources, raised over R500m to help construct and rehabilitate strategically economic Limpopo Provincial roads. These funds have helped to supplement the insufficient annual grant allocation of about R1.5 billion that RAL gets from Provincial Treasury to build roads.
The 9.56 kilometre road D2001 upgrade, that is still in implementation stage, will be completed during the current 2019/20 financial year as per initial 10-month contract period.
The recently upgraded roads, D3117, D3114, D3102 and D3109, and the D2001, were jointly identified through the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) of the Lephalale Local Municipality and Exxaro Grootegeluk’s Social and Labour Plan (SLP).
In all RAL projects, 10% of project value is earmarked for the employment of local labourers and 30% is ringfenced for the employment of Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in areas where the Agency implements its upgrading projects.
R17.9 million had been earmarked for labour employment resulting in the project overachieving a total of R19.9 million in the end employing 210 beneficiaries. 118 of those labourers received Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) accredited training.
A total of R47.5 million (31.22%) was spent on 52 local SMMEs, exceeding the initially set expenditure target of R45.6 million.
Once the Northern and Southern links of the Ga-Seleka and Kitty road projects are completed, these roads will, impressively, improve access to as many as thirteen rural villages to the commercial centre of Lephalale and lower vehicle operating and maintenance costs for the general public and motorists.
RAL has, since adopting the strategic partnership approach in 2015 to augment its constrained financial resources, raised over R500m to help construct and rehabilitate strategically economic Limpopo Provincial roads. These funds have helped to supplement the insufficient annual grant allocation of about R1.5 billion that RAL gets from Provincial Treasury to build roads.
“A TOTAL OF 34 KILOMETRES OF ROAD AND AS MANY AS 75 CULVERTS WERE SUCCESSFULLY CONSTRUCTED ON THIS PROJECT.”