If roads are the economic lifeblood, SA is flatlining

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By Michael Appel

Over 90% of South Africa’s agricultural produce, worth about R12bn, is transported on South Africa’s dilapidated road network annually. It presents threats not only to the sustainability of business, but to life and limb itself. This is according to Agri SA, which has just released the results of its Rural Roads Report in which 311 participants – across the five worst-affected provinces of the country – made submissions.

Those provinces are Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West, and Western Cape. The agricultural sector already contributes R128bn to South Africa’s gross domestic product, but this figure could be much higher believes Agri SA.

Below are some of the questions each participant had to respond to regarding the knock-on effects of poor road infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, 94% reported paying more in vehicle maintenance costs, while 93% had to spend more on replacing tyres. Over 60% were involved in accidents as a consequence of bad roads.

The report also makes some shocking findings about just how much farmers fork out of their own pockets to repair road infrastructure in their respective areas. The estimated average cost of repairs incurred owing to bad road conditions during the last financial year was approximately R200,000 per participant in the survey. About 70% of participants polled said they had tried to fix the roads themselves.

Bad roads have a direct impact on farmers’ bottom line. The estimated average percentage loss of turnover while transporting agricultural produce on bad roads during the last financial year is 16%.

As an aside, South Africans are exhausted from waiting for the government to fix the country and have often rolled up their sleeves to get the work done themselves. Here is an excellent example in Harrismith, Free State when the water, power and sewage systems collapsed. Residents, quite literally, are taking back the power from corrupt, incompetent and bankrupt local municipalities that do nothing but pay salaries to staff.

It is not that there isn’t budget for building roads and maintaining existing infrastructure, it’s just poorly spent or stolen. It is a combination of incompetence and under-spending believes Dr Jack Armour, operations manager at Free State Agriculture, an affiliate of Agri SA.

You can watch the full interview with Armour in the video below.

One of the main problems is the Free State’s so-called ‘yellow fleet’ of heavy vehicles and graders.

“In the Free State, we have 30 graders in that yellow fleet, 26 of which have had pistons through the engine block. So that means those grader operators either abused those graders because they want to sit at home and not work while the grader gets fixed or else they’re just incompetent.” – Dr Jack Armour 

In Armour’s presentation at the release of the report, he said the likelihood of accidents that could result in the loss of life is high.

“You’ve got people trapped in rural areas who just don’t get access to basic medicines. That’s how dire the situation is. Besides the economic impacts, the socio-economic impacts are huge. School children are often stuck on farms when it rains,” said Armour.

Inevitably, the question of the total cost to fix all tar and gravel roads across South Africa came up at the press conference. Agri SA’s executive director Christo van der Rheede said they have simply not been able to determine that quantum. Armour, however, did put up a figure that was Free State specific. He said the 2020 estimation from the firm, Proper Consulting Engineers, pinned the cost at R23.5bn at least, to fix the Free State’s roads.

In a presentation by the SA Cane Growers Association, Dr Muhammad Kadwa said fuels, lubricants and transport expenditure account for at least 17% of operating costs. Kadwa predicts that at least 19 million tonnes of sugarcane will be produced in the 2022/23 season. About 95% of that harvest will be transported by road, representing an annual road usage of 25 million kilometres travelled from farms to mills divided between roughly 22,000 small and large-scale cane growers. He added that a paltry 1% of cane is transported on rail, with the remaining 4% by tram.

Van der Rheede said the findings of its report will be shared with the Investment and Infrastructure Office within the Presidency as a matter of urgency. Rheede says the problem isn’t that too little money is being spent on roads but that consistent road maintenance by competent teams just does not happen.

In February’s Budget Speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told the country that spending on roads will increase from R50.4bn in 2021/22 to almost R73bn in 2024/25. The vast majority of this will go to the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) to maintain the 22,000 km of roads across South Africa. However, various provinces are responsible for about 11,200 km of road through grant allocations.

In Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s Transport Budget Vote in May last year, he explained: “The maintenance of provincial roads is largely funded through the provincial roads maintenance grant, with an allocation of R37.5bn over the medium term. Funds from the grant are expected to be used for resealing 17,842 lane kilometres, rehabilitating 6,806 lane kilometres, and blacktop-patching 4.5 million square kilometres.”

Indulge me for a second as I tell you a quick story relayed by EFF leader Julius Malema about roads in the North West. It was prior to the local government elections in 2021. He told a crowd it is easy to spot a drunk driver in the North West … just look for the only person driving straight on the road while the rest look like drunk drivers swerving to avoid all the potholes.

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