As South Africa marks October as Transport Month, farmers across Mzansi are voicing serious concerns about inadequate investment in road infrastructure. Rural farming communities are struggling with deteriorating roads, which many describe as nearly impossible to navigate, highlighting a growing crisis that threatens agricultural productivity and economic stability.

Limpopo macadamia nut farmer Lutendo Maumela, who travels frequently to the Western Cape to deliver her products, said although national roads are taken care of, local roads are not maintained.

“The route I use frequently is the N1 road which I believe is being maintained from Polokwane to Western Cape, however, from Polokwane to Musina the road is not well taken care of,” Maumela said.

“I want to believe that the funds government pumps up for infrastructure are enough; just the people getting the tenders are not doing their job or utilising the government money accordingly, which in many cases results in our roads not being in a proper state,” she said.

Slow progress and huge backlogs

Dr Jack Armour, the commercial manager at Free State Agriculture, said there is very slow progress for funded paved road projects.

“They are so slow that in terms of the overall picture, we are actually going backwards. In terms of gravel roads, we are also going backwards, the yellow fleet is not being sorted out and farmers are still paying the retired grader operators.

“There is good progress where Sanral has taken over. Funding is definitely not nearly enough, but also management capacity in terms of monitoring and evaluation and quality control,” he said.

Armour added that challenges include the 30% local procurement causing huge backlogs. “Not sure if the construction mafia is involved here or just local political bigwigs. Sanral, however, seems to be getting it right, so it must then be management or political will,” he said.

The Free State department of community safety, roads and transport’s report to the national council of provinces on the state of road projects painted a bleak future of having proper roads in the foreseeable future.

Armour said the worst routes for farmers in the province are Marquard Clocolan Road and Colocan Excelsior, and the R103 Warden to Vrede, which is a life-threatening route to use.

The report further highlighted incomplete, abandoned or delayed roads such as R76 between Kroonstad and Steinsrust, and R709 between Tweespruit and Excelsior.

The report stated that the R76 project that started in August 2019 was abandoned due to poor performance resulting in contract termination. Meanwhile, the project on the R709 road also came to a halt because of poor workmanship.