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Three provinces, two highways, one aim. The N2 along the Wild Coast and the R573 Moloto Road north of Pretoria are both catalysts for sustainable local, regional and national economic development.

Both highways will confirm that transport is one of the most important enablers of growth and prosperity in South Africa. Both will bring meaningful and measurable change.

Through empowerment, training and job creation, SANRAL improves the lives of ordinary people and communities living near these roads. But the roads are also arteries of economic life, changing the local and regional economies, as well as making a national impact.

In the Eastern Cape, the N2 Wild Coast Road will directly affect the high unemployment figures in the province. It is estimated that about 5% of the almost one million provincial unemployed could gain jobs directly through the project and its spin-offs, making it one of the single most important job-creation initiatives in the province.

SANRAL’s direct job creation forecast is for 8 000 full-time-equivalent jobs over the construction period of almost five years. These jobs will not be just for unskilled labour, but will include skilled and semi-skilled jobs as well. In addition, between 32 000 and 40 000 indirect jobs will be created by sub-contractors and suppliers during the same period.

SANRAL will implement and monitor strong enterprise and community development programmes, which will enable the SMMEs to continue their businesses beyond the actual construction period, including involvement in longer term road maintenance contracts.

The new route will promote local and regional economic growth in other areas – such as manufacturing, transport and logistics, hospitality, tourism and agri-processing.

Apart from private sector involvement, provincial and local government departments are ensuring that there is proper coordination of development initiatives. These are coordinated by the premier’s office and linked to agriculture and agri-processing in the Wild Coast Special Economic Zone, the ocean economy and other rural and local development initiatives.

Clearly this is not only about local job creation. It is a catalyst for sustainable local, regional and national economic development.

The upgrading on the Moloto Road will have further-reaching consequences than the usual SANRAL interventions – assisting local communities, road safety programmes, skills training, job creation, contracting SMMEs. It will help to unlock the economic potential of the mineral belt along the Waterberg.

The Moloto Road (the R573) carries 150 000 commuters daily and is a vital route for the local economy and for people travelling to and from work. When upgraded, this dangerous road will be safer for motorists, bus and taxi passengers as well as pedestrians. It will stimulate economic activity along the route, improve access to markets for small farmers and make it easier for tourists to get to the many popular game reserves.

The upgrade is part of the Moloto Road Development Corridor, which includes much-needed investment in passenger rail to make available safer, faster and more accessible connections between the three provinces through which the R573 runs: Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Because of the vastness of this developmental thrust (estimated at R34bn) the positive impact will be felt wider than just the immediate Moloto Road communities. The regional and national economies are bound to feel the direct impact of this enormous investment.

Along the Moloto Road itself, SANRAL will do what it always does – create jobs. The breakdown of estimated job opportunities over a five-year period across the three provinces is significant:

• Gauteng            6 250
• Mpumalanga     3 250
• Limpopo            3 000

That’s a total of 12 500 jobs just locally.

At a time when the economy has slowed down – making job creation and boosting SMMEs more difficult – the major SANRAL construction projects along the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape and the Moloto Road north of Pretoria will be making an impact way beyond the local and even regional economies.

They are nationally important, true enablers of economic growth.

Vusi Mona is SANRAL’s General Manager of Communications

The amount a road user is willing to pay for a toll is directly linked to their available budget and the value of what they are paying for.

Should the balance tip against the perceived value of travel time saved, a toll saturation level is reached, an Australian academic, Prof David Hensher, recently told the Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Prof Hensher, the Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney, was speaking at a Transport Forum organised by the Middelburg Chamber.

He said the value of travel time saved is used to endorse the cost of toll fees, compared with the time travelled on “free roads”. Once saturation levels are reached, commuters start to avoid a toll road which, in turn, increases the traffic on the alternative free roads.

SANRAL’s Manager: Toll and Traffic, Alex van Niekerk, told the Forum that SANRAL has implemented an international standard for the e-tag system instead of a particular system, thus ensuring the most cost-efficient scheme.

Responding to a question from the audience, Van Niekerk said local discounts should apply for e-tag users, as the toll concessionaire is in the process of discontinuing the toll card system. He undertook to refer local concerns about discounts to Trans Africa Concessions for action. The situation will be monitored to ensure local users receive the applicable discounts.

In his presentation, Prof Hensher said that many concessionaires expect a return on their investment within the first year. But in practice, it only starts yielding a return after 10.

Van Niekerk told participants that SANRAL was established in 1998 and that the SANRAL Act allows for electronic toll collection and the issuing of toll concessions. Subsequently, three public-private partnerships were implemented.

National interoperability was introduced to enable road users to use the same tags on the entire toll road network. All transactions are conducted through a central Transaction Clearing House. Interoperability has been available on the N4 – which links Gauteng to Mozambique, past Middelburg, since March 2017.

Van Niekerk said road funding is a major challenge facing South Africa, to finance existing maintenance backlogs and provide for the expansion of the road network. Roads compete with other basic infrastructure and social services for funding from the national treasury and if tolling is not available as an option, it will have a negative impact on the country’s potential growth.

South Africa’s new Road Freight Strategy will create a better environment for the transport and freight industries and contribute to the upward trajectory of the country’s economy.

The strategy was approved by Cabinet in May and unveiled by Minister of Transport Joe Maswanganyi.

Once implemented it will enable South Africa to achieve the best international standards of road-freight operations through an integrated regulatory and operational framework.

Speaking after Cabinet adopted the plan, Phumla Williams, the acting Director General of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), said the country has been integrated into the global economy and the volume of trade via road freight has grown substantially.

The transport industry plays a leading role in contributing to the country’s economy and is a significant factor in South Africa’s trade influence, domestically, in the region and internationally. “Freight logistics is a major factor and stimulus into how South Africa does business,” she said.

The implementation of the recommendations contained in the strategy will contribute to:

• More efficient enforcement
• Higher levels of road safety
• Improved protection of infrastructure, and
• A reduced impact on the environment

It will also introduce an integrated framework of quality-regulated competition, which will enable the road-freight sector to better serve the needs of the South African economy.

The strategy will ensure that the transport and logistic sectors support effective regional integration and the development of trade within the Southern African region. It responds to the need for the harmonisation of standards and the liberalisation of transport that will promote effective cross-border trade.

South Africa is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and is party to the drive for the liberalisation of interstate transport and the promotion of regional trade. SADC contributes to a tripartite initiative with two other regional bodies – the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community – to harmonise quality regulation in the road-freight sector.

Promotion of regional trade

The strategy highlights the urgent need to introduce an Operator Registration System that will address problems such as substandard operators, unlicensed and unroadworthy vehicles that are the major contributors to pollution and high accident rates.

Williams said the strategy creates a better environment for the transport and freight industry to thrive in and contributes to the upward trajectory of the country’s economy. “Our national competitiveness will be enhanced through the promotion of regional trade integration and improved cross-border transport efficiency.”

Transport economist Andrew Marsay told the publication Freight and Trading Weekly that the strategy was “a positive development”. He noted that it tended to focus more on the “negative externalities” of road freight – such as accidents, pollution and road damage – rather than on positive externalities, such as the facilitation of business and the flexibility of response to market needs.