Parliament - The slow destruction of South Africa's roads network by heavily-laden trucks came under the spotlight at Parliament on Monday.
"A key problem on our roads is the massive migration of freight, very heavy freight, onto the road system. That's freight that should be on the rail system," Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin told journalists at an infrastructure development cluster media briefing.
Cronin said his department was working closely with public
enterprises on the matter.
"Because we've really got to improve, very significantly, the
Transnet freight rail system... We need to get much, much, much
more freight back onto rail. It's the main cause... for damage to our road systems," he said.
According to a briefing document distributed to journalists, the rail freight system is "fraught with serious performance
challenges".
It says the single-most important cause of these is "historical under-investment in infrastructure, rolling stock and operating equipment".
As a result, the system was unable to meet current freight
demand.
Transnet had embarked on "massive" infrastructure and
operational investments to improve service levels.
Problems at a provincial and municipal level
"Transnet will in the next five years invest about R93.4bn
into ports, rail and pipelines infrastructure and operations to
improve efficiencies in these areas of the freight logistics
sector," the document states.
Over the past five years - between 2005/06 and 2009/10 - it
had sunk R75.3bn into these areas.
Cronin said maintenance of South Africa's roads network posed a "major challenge", but the problem did not lie with the country's SA National Roads Agency-managed national roads.
"The problems tend to occur at a provincial and municipal
level," he said.
There were several reasons for this, including under-funding to the tune of about R60bn.
"That's steep, and as you fall back from one year to another,
the condition of the roads gets worse and they deteriorate quite
rapidly."
Cronin said that after the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the focus
would shift from roads infrastructure in the host cities, towards those in small towns and rural areas.
"Hopefully we can begin delivering some of the spend in that
direction, and... we can get a little bit more out of Treasury," he said.
According to the briefing document, South Africa's "estimated
total proclaimed road network" stretches 535 000km.
The document also acknowledges that the R18bn earmarked
for spending on roads this year - not including the R23bn to
be spent on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement scheme - is "not
enough".
Meanwhile, tyre manufacturer Continental on Monday warned
motorists to beware of potholes.
"The weather over recent months has caused potholes of all sizes on many roads, including motorways, so motorists need to take extra care when driving to avoid damage to their own car," it said in a statement.
Road repairs were not likely to be made soon.
"Local councils will probably not be able to carry out all the road repairs straight away - so motorists might need to get used to the idea of living with potholes for a while," it said.
- Sapa