Pretoria: With the beginning of the new financial year from April 2011, Transport Minister S'busiso Ndebele will launch a massive job creation drive through the S'hamba Sonke - Moving Together roads infrastructure upgrade and maintenance programme.
The S'hamba Sonke - Moving Together programme will see the Department of Transport launching a new roads upgrade and maintenance initiative to fix and upgrade the entire secondary roads network of South Africa. The programme will create new opportunities for emerging contractors and jobs across the country.
"In partnership with all provinces we are going to improve access to schools, clinics and other social and economic opportunities by drastically upgrading our secondary roads network and fixing and repairing potholes throughout the country. In 2011, R6,4 billion will be spent on this initiative across the Republic.
The S'hamba Sonke - Moving Together programme is a new and innovative, nation-wide drive to focus on the maintenance of the secondary road infrastructure using labour intensive methods of construction and maintenance.
We have set aside R6.4 billion in 2011/12, R7.5 billion in 2012/13 and R8.2 billion for 2013/14, amounting to a total of R22.3 billion in the medium term.The programme is targeting the creation of 400 000 jobs by the year 2014, with 70 000 of these jobs anticipated to be created during 2011 as a target in relation to the routine maintenance of roads and infrastructure in line with the Zibambele initiative", Minister Ndebele said.
Zibambele, which means "doing it ourselves", is a form of routine road maintenance using labour intensive methods in which a family or household is contracted through a provincial Department to maintain a specific length of road on a part time basis. The national roll-out of the Zibambele initiative will form part of the S'hamba Sonke - Moving Together programme.
Historically, South Africa has invested mainly in the construction of roads without striking the balance between maintenance and construction, whilst the international benchmark is a 60/40 split between maintenance and construction. Through programmes such as S'hamba Sonke - Moving Together, South Africa will be able to match the international benchmark.
S'hamba Sonke includes a massive pothole patching programme that will be rolled out nationally with effect from the commencement of the new financial year. A national pothole hotline will also be launched for road users to report potholes in any area around the country. This will assist the programme to arrest the decline of infrastructure while creating thousands of much-needed jobs.
Roads engineers and superintendents will be deployed all over the roads network with the responsibility to address potholes and infrastructure maintenance. They will be charged with driving through stretches of road every morning in order to determine the daily condition of the roads network thereby assisting with the early identification and repair of potholes.
Enquiries:
Sam Monareng
Cell: 083 326 1521
