The Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa has approved and given the go-ahead for the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Road, this after 10 years of consideration through government processes and public participation.
The Minister said that, in the light of extreme poverty and unemployment in the Wild Coast, a balance should be sought between strict preservation of the environment on one hand and the promotion of development on the other.
She added that the N2 Wild Coast Road is one of the priority projects that the Eastern Cape Cabinet approved in August 2010 for accelerated development of the province in the medium term and once completed this road will open up one of the most impoverished regions in South Africa with little access (11 kilometres of road/100 square kilometres as opposed to 49 kilometres/100 square kilometres for the rest of country).
According to the MEC for Transport, Roads and Public Works Thandiswa Marawu, the N2 Wild Coast was presented at the International Transport Investor Conference in Cape Town in June 2011 at an estimated capital cost of R8 billion to R10 billion, with nine new bridges envisaged on the new route which will effectively shorten the distance between East London and Durban by 85 kliometres.
The N2 Wild Coast Road is key to linking logistics platforms in the Eastern Cape with those in KwaZulu-Natal and the road will result in a new coastal route with a major detour from Mthatha, joining the current R61 towards Port St Johns and diverting before the town and thus creating a new road network which will make access easier to coastal reserves such as Mkambati Nature Reserve and Tourist attractions such as Mzamba Resorts.
The Eastern Cape province through the Departments of Transport and Economic Development are actively working together with South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), which is the tendering authority for this road and will ensure that preferential procurement policies are enforced whilst promoting local beneficiation for local contractors through joint ventures and consortia. Construction is expected to be done over 36 months and with job creation.
The Eastern Cape province, consistent with its vision of prioritising the rail network, is further actively pursuing a plan of moving freight from roads to rail by developing a rapid coast rail belt linking the two ports in KwaZulu-Natal (Durban and Richards Bay) with the Eastern Cape's key logistics platforms, which include but are not limited to the three ports (East London, Port Elizabeth and Ngqura) as well as key economic hubs such as Mthatha which are more inland.
