The KwaShange community under uMsunduzi District Municipality will soon say goodbye to a muddy, gravel road when their main road P412, undergoes a major upgrade to a tar road next month.
This was announced earlier today by MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, during the official announcement which was received with great applause by thousands of community members.
The upgrade is part of the government’s service delivery programme of bridging the development gap between urban and rural areas by bringing critical roads, transport, water and electricity services.
A total investment of R85 million over a three-year period has been earmarked for this 6.6- kilometre upgrade, which is expected to create hundreds of direct and indirect jobs for local citizens.
MEC Mchunu was accompanied by the MEC for Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, who prior to the road construction announcement had opened the Philips Allura XPER FD 10/10Larc digital Fluroscopy, a Cardio equipment which cost approximately R13 million at Greys Hospital. This unit will benefit the cardiac patients as it will assist in diagnosing heart related problems. The joint community outreach by the two MECs is in line with Cabinet’s decision to provide a holistic approach to service delivery by clustering government departments.
Once the road has been completed, residents of KwaShange will gain easy access to town and social amenities such as clinics and schools.
Mchunu thanked the community for showing patience. He added that the project will create jobs and participating local citizens will benefit from skills development and transfer. However, he warned residents from abusing the road by driving recklessly and disobeying traffic rules that cause accidents.
“I would like to sincerely thank the community of KwaShange for waiting patiently to receive this development in the form of the upgrade of P412. KwaZulu-Natal has a large land area and a lot of roads that still need attention. In addition, we face ongoing challenges such as rains and floods, which disrupt our service delivery programme aimed at closing the backlogs. Notwithstanding these challenges, we have made great strides in building thousands of kilometres of roads as well as hundreds of vehicle and pedestrian bridges, and are still continuing,” said Mchunu.
Enquiries:
Kwanele Ncalane
Cell: 072 803 1462/ 079 699 5755
Nathi Sukazi
Cell: 081 018 0518/ 082 565 0205
