Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi has given assurances to communities located close to the R573 Moloto Road that local contractors and labour resources will be used during the upgrading of the road that links Gauteng to Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
According to Maswanganyi, an estimated total of 12 500 jobs will be created during the five-year project undertaken by SANRAL. Initial maintenance work has already begun and includes the clearing of stormwater pipes and culverts, the repairing of potholes and the fixing of road signs and markings.
Agreements between SANRAL and the main contractors on the road construction determine that training will be provided to all the people recruited to work on the project.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber was recently given a comprehensive overview on the progress made on the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Road.
This meeting formed part of SANRAL’s stakeholder relations programme to keep communities, organised business and labour and professional bodies informed about developments relating to the freeway in the Eastern Cape.
Craig McLachlan, the Project Manager and engineer, informed the chamber about the planned single-span bridges across the Msikaba and Mtentu River gorges, designed to be among the biggest bridges in Africa. He highlighted the impact the road will have on local economic development – especially tourism, agriculture and regional transportation – as well as SANRAL’s commitment to allocate important construction packages to local small and medium enterprises.
Small and medium enterprises in Limpopo will benefit greatly from the construction on the N1 ring road around Polokwane currently under way. The N1 is of great strategic importance to the country, as it serves as a gateway to the rest of Africa.
The ring road will improve traffic flows around Polokwane and the new roads and bridges will help to improve road safety, reduce crashes and shorten travel times.
Local small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) have been appointed as sub-contractors, creating job opportunities for the local communities. Contracts to the value of more than R85m were allocated to local SMMEs.
Construction of the Bokomo Street junction on the N7 freeway near Malmesbury is now expected to be completed by August 2018.
The N7 is the major economic artery that runs from Cape Town through the West Coast and Namaqualand region to the Namibian border.
The upgrading of the Bokomo junction forms part of the construction of a 4km double-lane highway between Abbotsdale and Malmesbury. A brand new bridge and off-ramps are built and the road is being widened. Provisions are made for pedestrians through the construction of strategically located walkways.
South Africa’s ambitious infrastructure programme is gaining momentum every day. Large public investment in ports, railways and roads will help alleviate supply-bottlenecks in the economy, while social infrastructure will improve the living conditions of the people.
This was the message from new Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi, when he delivered his first Budget speech in Parliament in May. The Budget, he said, is designed to transform the lives of people and finance important interventions in road, rail, aviation and maritime transport.
State-owned enterprises overseen by his department will be monitored to ensure issues such as procurement, equity and transformation remain aligned with the government’s economic transformation programme.
Minister Maswanganyi said national roads agency SANRAL is in the process of developing a long-term strategy (Horizon 2030) that is in line with the vision and objectives of the National Development Plan. Included in this strategy is a transformation policy, which will “radically transform SANRAL’s procurement system”.
The Minister highlighted SANRAL’s achievements in job creation, skills development and SMME support over the past financial year. It trained 4 120 people in road building and other skills and created 15 721 jobs through the fulfilment of contracts.
“Our contract participation goals saw the development of 1 004 black-owned companies, individually contracted to perform work to the value of about R1.9bn,” he said.
Contractors have been appointed to start construction on Moloto Road. More than 12 500 jobs will be created in the course of this project. Maswanganyi indicated that contracts for bus operators on the route will be unbundled to widen participation by small, localised and designated groups.
Other issues highlighted by the Minister:
The Department is finalising its Public Transport Subsidy Policy, in which the focus will be on subsidising the user, rather than the operator. The Minister will soon meet with the taxi industry, the rail sector and bus operators to discuss the policy.
Transformation Summits will be held to explore opportunities in the transport sector that will benefit women, youth and people with disabilities.
Working together with the Competition Commission and law enforcement agencies, the Department “will uproot the practice of widespread collusion in the construction industry”.
The adoption by Cabinet of the National Road Safety Strategy 2016-2030 will strengthen the country’s commitment to implementing a 365-day-a-year road safety plan.
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.
Loskop Dam Nature Reserve is a major tourist attraction in the Mpumalanga region.
An important route towards Loskop Dam, a major attraction in Mpumalanga, is being rehabilitated. It is due to be completed on time.
The South African National Roads Agency (SOC) Limited (SANRAL) led the project and it is expected to be finished in August, at an investment of R404-million.
This road is an important link to Loskop Dam Nature Reserve, a major tourist attraction in the region. It is home to more than 70 species of wildlife – including buffalo, leopard, and white rhino.
It is also strategically important because it links Middelburg with other key mining centres, namely Witbank and Burgersfort, so there is a high volume of commercial and abnormal truck traffic.
Residents of Groblersdal in Mpumalanga will finally have some peace, following months of frustration as a section of the N11, between Middelburg and Loskop Dam, was rehabilitated.
Construction on section 10 started in February 2015 and there have been no delays on the project.
SANRAL project manager Riaan Oerlemans said: “About 90 blasts have been conducted successfully. Thirty-six were for subsoil – found below the top soil, it consists of minerals such as sand, clay, gravel and rock, depending on the location.”
The project has employed more than 165 locals and a total of 22 subcontractors were used in the project as part of SANRAL’s community development initiative.
The R100-million project was prioritised to alleviate congestion and the frustration endured by thousands of motorists in Kuils River, Brackenfell, and surrounds.
In March, the South African National Roads Agency (SOC) Limited officially opened the new Bottelary/R300 interchange, a year after breaking ground.
This was done in partnership with the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town.
The R100-million project was prioritised to alleviate congestion and the frustration endured by thousands of motorists in Kuils River, Brackenfell, and surrounds.
The City, province, and SANRAL, who purchased the land for the construction, each contributed one third of the project value. SANRAL will maintain the road going forward.
Cape Town executive mayor Patricia De Lille said: “I would like to say thank you to our partners, the Western Cape department of transport and public works and SANRAL Western Cape, for working with us to deliver this massive project in such a short space of time.
“This project has confirmed how partnerships are vital to achieving progress and responding to the needs of our citizens in ways that benefit and connect them to economic opportunities.”
Western Cape minister of transport and public works Donald Grant also praised the team for completing the project on schedule and within budget.
Alternatives to alleviate congestion
Cape Town is the most congested city in South Africa, which is why the government has developed an extensive congestion strategy that promotes the adoption of flexible working hours for people making their daily commute from the suburbs to the Cape Town CBD, the use of reliable public transport alternatives like the BRT system, carpooling and working from home, where possible.
The city and the province are leading by example – piloting the flexible working hours with their staff, in a bid to reduce congestion.
SANRAL western region manager Kobus van der Walt commended this progressive approach.
“Building roads is core to what we do at SANRAL. However, there’s so much more to it. If our road infrastructure is to fit into the concept of smart cities, citizens must take some of the responsibility,” he said. “Travel demand management needs to enter the discussion.
“To really get maximum value from our road network, we as citizens need to manage the demand on our resources. The solution to congestion needs a change in mindset and a willingness to compromise and contribute, share resources and be open to alternatives.”
SANRAL remains committed to ongoing engagement and collaboration with the provincial and local governments to ensure that the infrastructure it rolls out enables citizens to access economic opportunities in our cities.
The National Development Plan (NDP)
SANRAL enhances South Africa’s National Development Plan’s (NDP) ambition to have an efficient, competitive and responsive infrastructure network.
The NDP, also known as Vision 2030, seeks to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. According to the plan, South Africa can realise these goals by drawing on the energies of its people, growing an inclusive economy, building capabilities, enhancing the capacity of the state, and promoting leadership and partnerships throughout society.
With the NDP in mind, the construction of the new Bottelary Road/R300 interchange in Kuils River, will make it easier to travel to and from Stellenbosch, the N1, N2 and the airport.
