Speaking notes for the Minister of Transport, Mr Fikile Mbalula, on the occasion of the launch of the Valazonke campaign on Route 57, Sasolburg on 8 August 2022 at 10h00
This morning we are launching the national pothole campaign, to be known as Operation Valazonke in Nguni or Operation Kwala Kaofela in Sesotho. This campaign will change the face of our municipal and provincial roads from pothole-riddled to an acceptable state of repair. This launch will be replicated across the country with Premiers and MECs leading Provincial launches.
The words of former Cuban President, Fidel Castro, aptly capture the essence of this campaign when he said, “I would not vote for the mayor. It's not just because he didn't invite me to dinner, but because on my way into town from the airport there were such enormous potholes.”
When I undertook an inspection of the N12 national road in Wolmaransstad in the North-West earlier this year, as a follow-up on the Presidential Imbizo held in March, I was made aware of the severity of the pothole problem in the Province. This is the reality of many communities in all our Provinces. The bad roads, caused mainly by potholes, are one of the major hindrances to economic growth.
Our national policy on road infrastructure is anchored on the National Development Plan which enjoins us to invest in a strong network of economic infrastructure designed to support the country’s medium and long -term objectives if we are to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth by 2030. Achieving this vision requires targeted development of transport, as one of the sectors that make up the network industries.
Government’s infrastructure development plan is an important building block in revitalising South Africa’s economy and job creation.
This will, in turn, exponentially improve our efforts to ensure sustainable livelihoods for many of our people.
We are therefore collectively enjoined to ensure that the state of repair of our road network is in an acceptable condition across spheres of government. Addressing the maintenance challenges and backlog in our road network starts with putting in place measures that will halt the deterioration of our roads. Attending to potholes as soon as possible after the occur is the most effective way to arrest this this decline.
We have therefore engaged extensively with other spheres of government on the implementation of a campaign that will ensure a singular focus on the pothole challenge. Cabinet has equally endorsed this campaign which brings our collective capacity to bear to tackle potholes in our municipalities and Provinces.
We have designated SANRAL, our agency responsible for the national road network, to be the implementing agency for this campaign.
SANRAL will co-ordinate the effort working with Provinces and municipalities to ensure potholes are attended to speedily.
Potholes have been tormenting our people for many years, with a number of municipalities struggling to address this challenge due to capacity issues. The majority of these potholes are found on municipal and provincial roads.
In the main, our national roads remain pothole free, partly because of SANRAL’s proactive approach to fixing potholes. SANRAL has a policy of fixing any reported potholes within 48 hours. While national roads are overwhelmingly in a pristine condition, we recognise that provincial and municipal roads require a decisive strategy and active support to augment capacity gaps.
Potholes have remained a problem and have posed a danger to road users throughout the country. Potholes are particularly dangerous at night or in rainy weather.
We continue to appeal to motorists to drive safely on our roads, irrespective of whether there are potholes or not, and we will continue to design and build our roads in a way that is most safe for all road users.
Fixing the potholes on the country’s roads is an enormous task, which will take time, but we are confident that through the co-ordinated approach led by SANRAL we will be able to tackle this task and make a telling difference that our people can see and experience.
Complaints about potholes dominate social media and are a major contributor to negative sentiment towards the government and the country.
We are proud to announce that, as part of this campaign, we are launching a pothole reporting App, which the public will be able to use to report any potholes they might encounter.
The App will work in conjunction with the SANRAL pothole management App and will allow the public to raise any issues, upload pictures of potholes, provide real-time location of the road on an interactive map that will show the owners of the different roads. The app will also provide status updates on issues raised using a pothole ticketing system.
The information then gets assigned to the relevant authority, depending on where the road is, and the maintenance depot responsible for that road attends to fixing the pothole.
Over the next 6 moths, which is the duration of this campaign, we will closely monitor and assess the impact of the interventions. A monitoring and evaluation capability has been put in place. This will enable SANRAL to generate audit reports, which will form the basis for validation of the work undertaken and the turn- around time in attending to potholes. Through this intervention, we are raising the bar on service delivery by ensuring that the voice of the citizen is heard.
In conclusion, today we take an important step to give practical expression to effective co-operative governance aimed at improving service delivery across spheres of government.
This effort builds on the District Development Model which emphasises a seamlessly integrated approach to delivering services to the people.
If we are to succeed in eradicating potholes and improving the quality of our roads, we must create a multiplier effect to the initiative by inviting the participation of the private sector.
As part of our stakeholder engagements, we will reach out to private companies, communities and other stakeholders to play their part in supporting government efforts of preserving and improving our road infrastructure.
Through partnerships with institutions of learning and the sector education and training authorities, we will infuse a strong skills development methodology to the intervention. A skills revolution must become a pillar of this intervention at all levels of government.
It is therefore my singular honour to official launch Operation Valazonke, Operation Kwala Kaofela.
I thank you.
