‘It’ll take 115 years to tar Limpopo’s roads’

The Roads Agency Limpopo says it will take 115 years at the current rate of funding to tar the backlog of gravel roads in the province.

Provincial government decides which roads get tarred first.

“Rough estimates show that the Roads Agency Limpopo [RAL] needs a total of R138 billion to upgrade all gravel roads in the province… At the current funding level for road upgrades, it will take approximately 115 years to clear the current backlog,” it said in its March 2021 Performance Plan.

RAL, which is tasked with the planning, designing, construction, management, controlling and maintenance of provincial roads, says it has prioritised for tar 3 793km of the province’s 13 828km of gravel roads. This amounts to 27% and will cost R37 billion. But the road upgrade budget for 2022-23 and 2023-24 is R1.27 billion.

Only 31% (6 263km) of Limpopo’s roads are currently tarred.

RAL intends to prioritise roads in the Capricorn district, because its gravel roads are in extremely bad condition.

“We have to take long routes to Lebowakgomo or Mathibela,” says Tefo Nthlane, a resident of Ga-Rakgoatha, a village with a population of 6 179 in the 2011 census.

From Rakgoatha to Lebowakgomo shopping centre is 15.7km, about 20 minutes’ drive, but due to the poor condition of the road, many motorists and taxis use the Moletlane tarred route (22km).

For years, residents of Rakgoatha hoped RAL, which took over maintenance of province’s roads from the district municipalities in 2000, would tar the road.

“It has been over two decades since we were told the tar road is coming. The lack of feedback ... is another issue. We don’t know what is blocking the implementation of the road,” said Nthlane.

The condition of the road also affects the local school. Pupils from Befful section sometimes skip school because the summer rains make the road impassable.

A tribal official, who asked to be anonymous, said: “The road was supposed to have been tarred years ago [when it was] allocated a budget.”

To makes matters worse, villagers complain that Lepelle-Nkumpi local municipality tarred a street which runs past the house of a former ward councillor before tarring the main road. But the councillor had support for the project and it is a busy road.

RAL spokesperson Maropeng Manyathela said: “All decisions for upgrading roads are taken by the provincial government based on the province’s strategic imperatives and needs.”

According to RAL it needs R2.8 billion to complete prioritised incomplete roads of 289km; R3.9 billion to fund the paving of 397km of roads categorised as “prioritised political commitments” and R10 billion to finance prioritised 1 004km of road paving projects “in hotspots”. –