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TRANSPORT MINISTER BARBARA CREECY ASSESSES PROGRESS MADE ON R40 NATIONAL ROAD DAMAGED BY HEAVY RAINS IN MPUMALANGA PROVINCE
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy recently undertook a site inspection of the R40 national road that was damaged by floods in Mpumalanga Province
Mbombela, 13 April 2026 – Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, together with the Mpumalanga Province’s MEC for Public Works, Roads and Transport, Thulasizwe Thomo, and senior government officials, this week undertook a site inspection to assess progress made on the R40 national road that was damaged by heavy rains in January this year.
The Mpumalanga Province experienced heavy rainfall in January this year. This resulted in severe flooding, widespread infrastructure damage, displacement of communities, and disruption to economic and social activities. Key strategic roads such as the R40, R37, and the R36 were damaged during the floods. The R40, which connects Mpumalanga and Limpopo, was the most severely damaged route on the SANRAL’s Mpumalanga network.
Speaking at the site inspection, Minister Creecy said that the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) will spend approximately R265m for repair works on all its roads that were damaged by the Mpumalanga floods.
“On the R40 national road, SANRAL has five sites where the road was damaged due to embankment slippages, the extent of the slippage varies from site to site. Of those five sites, construction work has already started on three sites and the remaining two are in the final stages of procuring a contractor. A total of 11 sites on the R37 have already been repaired by SANRAL’s Routine Road Maintenance teams, the remaining five more sites are at the final stage of procuring a contractor. The damage on the R37 is not as severe as the damage on the R40,” said Minister Creecy.
Minister Creecy also said that SANRAL has also started works on the D518 and the D526 roads. These are important roads under the jurisdiction of the Mkhondo Local Municipality because they lead to the eSwatini boarder, facilitating movement of people and goods and services between the two countries of South Africa and eSwatini.
“We would also like to report that we have taken steps to ameliorate the frustration that has been caused to road users by the eight-kilometre road between Lydenburg and Bambi. We have managed to get into partnerships with the mining companies that work in the area, and they have indicated that they are prepared to spend between R60 and R100m to repair that road in the interim, while we finalise our plans for the permanent solution. Of course, that road carries a lot of trucks from the major mining towns in Mpumalanga,” added Minister Creecy.
SANRAL’s Provincial Head for Mpumalanga Province, Mabuyi Mhlanga, also added that SANRAL has made enormous investments in the province.
“One of the major roads that we are upgrading is the N2 national road, which traverses from the KwaZulu-Natal border towards Ermelo. This portion of the road will be upgraded and expanded to a dual carriageway with two to three lines in opposition directions. The upgrade of the Moloto Road is also underway. This is an important project from a road safety point of view as this road carries heavy traffic, and it has unfortunately claimed many lives in the past,” said Mhlanga.
SANRAL also continues to do construction work on the N11 national road between Hendrina and the N4. Additionally, SANRAL’s Routine Road Maintenance (RRM) work continues on the 937km of roads that were recently handed over to the roads agency by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government in December 2024.
To date, SANRAL manages a total of 4 700km in the Mpumalanga Province.
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