Free State yet to see improved roads, impact of Vala Zonke: farming group

The farming community in the Free State says provincial road users are yet to see real improvements, despite the Operation Vala Zonke campaign. 

Launched by the then-minister of transport Fikile Mbalula in 2022, the national campaign was meant to repair potholes on South African roads and was delegated to the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) to implement.

Sanral has a 48-hour deadline for pothole repairs on the national road network, but liaises with local and provincial entities for secondary roads. 

Free State Agriculture's commercial manager, Dr Jack Armour, said: “FSA mobilised our members as the eyes on the ground to log potholes on the [Sanral] app, but the [provincial roads] department never came to the party to address the hotspots on the 'heat map' created on the app.”

Armour said he reported more than eight pothole issues in March but those issues had never been closed. One of the issues at the root of the problem, he said, is the department's contractor development programme, using inexperienced contractors.

“Furthermore, the cumbersome public procurement process takes well over six months from advertising an emergency road repair contract till the contract is awarded. By then the budget term is overrun.” 

In one instance, he said, it took the provincial department about two years to repair a 300m section of the R30 road.

The national department of transport said minister Sindisiwe Chikunga remains committed to the eradication of potholes on all South African roads and will continue to work with relevant stakeholders to achieve this objective.

As the co-ordinating agent for the Vala Zonke campaign, Sanral said it is working with provinces and municipalities to address the technical challenges that are experienced particularly by municipalities in submitting accurate data to the Vala Zonke “war room”.

Chikunga launched the war room in July to monitor and manage pothole repairs.

Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona said the success of Vala Zonke relies on accurate data collection that municipalities submit via a road asset data electronic exchange tool.

“Currently, the quality of data collected from municipalities is poor and incomplete, which hampers the war room’s ability to channel information to the relevant municipal authority,”  said Mona.

“Several attempts have been made to engage municipalities, whereafter the municipal road networks can be uploaded. This allows the system to correctly allocate a reported pothole to the specific road authority responsible for its repairs.”  

He said since the launch of the Vala Zonke campaign in August 2022, 2,257 potholes have been reported on the Sanral network. The number of potholes per region is:

• Eastern Region (KwaZulu-Natal and Free State) — 246;
• Northern Region (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West) — 1,789;
• Southern Region (Eastern Cape) — 97; and
• Western Region (Western Cape and Northern Cape) — 125.

“Sanral has in the last year incorporated several routes from provincial governments in the Eastern, Southern and Western Regions, of which the roads were in poor condition, requiring significant emergency maintenance and pothole repairs,” he said. 

Mona acknowledged that many municipalities and provinces have in the interim fixed potholes on their networks, but the data management to record and measure progress is absent from the process.

“The initial efforts to establish the correct communication and reporting channels, collect and collate the roads data and manage processes under way, though taking a bit of time, once established will ensure a level of accountability to the road using public and will result in continuous and consistent monitoring of the extent and repair of potholes.”

Armour said Sanral's track record is good on major routes.

“One success/highlight is that the R34 (east-west corridor over Free State from Bloemhof to Newcastle used by Northern Cape manganese trucks) and dreadful R27 from N8 Ladybrand to N5 Bethlehem have been handed over to Sanral after constant pressure from Free State Agriculture,” he said.

TimesLIVE contacted the Free State roads department to inquire about the progress of the campaign in the province. The department has yet to respond.

Sanral on Friday announced it will in the next six months issue tenders worth about R28bn aimed at stimulating economic growth across all provinces. The funds have been allocated according to the four regions, with the Eastern Region (Free State and KZN) given contracts worth R2.1bn.

A TrafficSA post on X (formerly Twitter), meanwhile, has seen social media users commenting on the state of potholes in their areas:

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