Pretoria, 17 June 2026 – The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) remains committed to advancing good governance through its effective management of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) across its operations, projects, and stakeholder engagement programmes.
“As a state-owned entity entrusted with developing, maintaining, and managing South Africa’s national road network, SANRAL recognises that sound governance extends beyond financial and operational performance, and it also includes creating safe, healthy, and compliant working environments for employees, contractors and service providers.”
“SANRAL’s approach to OHS is guided by proactive risk management, legal compliance, continuous improvement, and shared responsibility. This includes ensuring alignment with applicable South African legislation, standards, and internal policies designed to protect people and strengthen operational resilience,” said Dumisani Nkabinde, SANRAL’s Chief Construction Operations and Maintenance Engineer.
Occupational Health and Safety support the organisation’s broader commitment to risk management, and sustainable infrastructure delivery.
Through its project Occupational Health and Safety oversight mechanisms, SANRAL promotes:
• Leadership accountability for health and safety outcomes;
• Compliance and assurance processes to support adherence to occupational health and safety requirements;
• Risk-based decision-making to identify, assess, and manage workplace and project-related hazards;
• Contractor oversight to reinforce safe work practices across construction and maintenance activities;
• Training and awareness initiatives that strengthen employee capability and embed a safety-conscious culture; and
• Monitoring and continuous improvement through reporting, audits, corrective actions, and performance evaluation.
During the 2025/2026 financial year, SANRAL recorded zero construction-related fatalities across its projects. This outcome reflects the organisation’s continued emphasis on contractor management, supervision, and preventative health and safety controls across construction activities.
However, SANRAL recorded the tragic loss of five workers who were fatally injured by public vehicles travelling through active construction zones. While these incidents did not arise from construction operations themselves, they underscore the significant risks associated with vehicle interactions in work zones and reinforce the importance of road user compliance with temporary traffic management measures.
“SANRAL’s commitment to Occupational Health and Safety is also demonstrated through ongoing work on our major road infrastructure projects. The Msikaba Bridge and Mtentu Bridge projects on the N2 Wild Coast Road Project, for example, have continued to demonstrate strong occupational health and safety performance despite the complexity and high-risk nature of large bridge construction activities.”
“These landmark projects have maintained strong safety controls through structured risk management, robust engineering and OHS oversight, workforce engagement and continuous monitoring of critical activities. Their safety performance reflects the effectiveness of embedding OHS principles into project execution and demonstrates that world-class infrastructure can be delivered while maintaining a strong focus on protecting workers,” added Nkabinde.
Effective occupational health and safety contribute directly to project efficiency, workforce wellbeing, public confidence, and long-term infrastructure sustainability.
The absence of construction-related fatalities reflects the value of disciplined safety management; however, the loss of workers to passing traffic is a sobering reminder that protecting lives in road construction environments requires collective responsibility from all stakeholders, including road users.
SANRAL remains committed to strengthening health and safety governance and implementing measures that protect workers and road users while delivering infrastructure responsibly and sustainably.
ENDS-
Issued by the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL). For editorial content or additional information contact pressoffice@nra.co.za