SA needs billions more to fix roads

More than 5 000km of the country's road network needs to be structurally strengthened within the next five years at an estimated cost of R30 billion.

This is according to the transport minister, Jeff Radebe, who says that only R13 billion has been allocated in the Medium Term Budgetary period.

This means no work will be done on more than half of the roads in need of major maintenance and upgrading.

In a reply to a parliamentary question, Radebe added that a total of 260km of new roads had been identified, predominantly in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. However, he says there is no funding for these roads in the current budgetary cycle.