Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Jacques van Rensburg and Sesotho soundbite by David Masoeu MPL. See attached pictures here, here, and here.
The DA in the Xhariep District Municipality calls attention to the dire and worsening state of the district’s secondary road network, which is placing an unsustainable financial burden on farmers, transport operators, taxi operators, business owners and residents across the Southern Free State.
Roads such as the S459 and S353, travelled daily by residents, have deteriorated to the point where even slightly adverse weather renders them impassable. Across the district, gravel roads that should form the backbone of local economic activity have become a daily hazard, costing road users significant amounts of money in tyre damage and vehicle breakdowns.
These are not isolated potholes or occasional inconveniences. This is a systemic collapse of basic infrastructure that Xhariep residents depend on to get their children to school, their produce to market, and their businesses running.
When agricultural stakeholders and community members have engaged the relevant structures on the state of the roads, the responses received point to a department that is simply not functioning:
- A grader has been out of service for eleven months, awaiting repair of an engine top gasket.
- Brake repairs on another vehicle have taken seven months.
- Roads that should be graded monthly are fortunate to be graded once a year.
- The Roads Department faces a critical shortage of qualified grader operators, forcing desperate farmers to pay retired operators out of pocket simply to keep local roads passable.
No coherent maintenance plan appears to be in place. When basic equipment repairs take the better part of a year, and roads go untouched for twelve months at a time, it is clear that planning and accountability have broken down.
Monitoring of community WhatsApp groups used to communicate directly with the Department confirms that the crisis is district-wide, with some of the worst-affected areas being the stretch from Rouxville through Smithfield to Bethulie. This region continues to suffer the consequences of storm damage from heavy rains more than a year ago, with repairs still incomplete.
The DA will petition the department responsible for road infrastructure to conduct an internal assessment of the systemic failures within its operations.
Key questions that must be answered include:
- Is there an oversupply of senior management relative to the operational capacity of the department?
- Is an insufficient proportion of the budget being directed toward actual road repair and maintenance?
- What accountability measures are in place to ensure equipment is repaired and roads are graded within reasonable timeframes?
The DA will not allow this crisis to be met with silence. Residents of Xhariep deserve a functioning, accountable local government that prioritises the basic infrastructure their livelihoods depend on.