MEDIA RELEASE
TRANSPORT MINISTER SINDISIWE CHIKUNGA RAMPS UP WAR ON POTHOLES AND OPENS R1 BILLION UPGRADE OF R23 IN MPUMALANGA

Standerton, Mpumalanga 6 February 2024 – Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga ramped up government’s war on potholes another notch yesterday as she inspected implementation of the Vala Zonke campaign and also inspected the world-class R1.1 billion upgrade of the R23 in Standerton, Mpumalanga.

Minister Chikunga said she was confident that the work which the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) did in upgrading the R23 would contribute to economic growth. “The R23 is a state-of-the-art road and I am very happy with the work done here, but you can’t then have roads that are riddled with potholes. As people leave the R23, they must then also find roads that are trafficable, so that investors will want to come to Standerton and set up businesses here and create jobs for our people,” she said.

Speaking after she helped workers to fix potholes in Standerton, Minister Chikunga said all levels of government needed to cooperate to ensure that potholes are fixed. “As government, we recognise that good roads help to grow the economy and that is why we are spending billions of rands to improve our infrastructure and build new roads to move people and goods. No investor will want to invest in a country which does not have good roads and that is why we have the Vala Zonke campaign, to ensure that our roads are repaired and maintained,” said Minister Chikunga.

“If taxis can’t transport people to work using good roads, then people won’t get to work and companies won’t be productive and the economy won’t grow. That is why we were fixing potholes here in Standerton today but also inspecting the R23, which was upgraded by SANRAL at a cost of no less than a billion rand.

“This shows what we are capable of, it showcases the talent of our engineers and in fact it tells the world and all South Africans about the engineering excellence that we have in our country. That is what we are celebrating today whilst we are also rising to the challenge of potholes,” said Minister Chikunga.

SANRAL is leading the Vala Zonke War Room with central management as well as technical support to eradicate potholes across the country. The use of nanotechnology as an international standard has aided improved road maintenance in the Vala Zonke campaign.

SANRAL CEO Reginald Demana said the implementation of the Vala Zonke campaign in Standerton was a pilot project which would be rolled out going forward. “This project is showing what we always intended with Operation Vala Zonke. It’s a collaborative effort between all the different levels of government and SANRAL is providing the necessary technical support with its skills and resources. Here in Standerton, it is a collaboration with the municipality and the provincial government. We are assisting with the bags of material to ensure that it is the right product and also making sure that the quality of the work that is done and the level of compaction and is up to the right standard to make sure that we are not coming back here when the first rains come, to make sure potholes don’t reopen. This shows what is possible if we work together to end this serious challenge we have with potholes across the country,” said Demana.