R10bn urgently needed to fix Joburg’s crumbling roads - Daily Maverick

With a R10bn budget and ringfenced financing, the city could overhaul its decaying road network and avoid harming the country’s economic heart, says Johannesburg Roads Agency CEO Zweli Nyathi.

Deteriorating roads and failing bridges across Johannesburg urgently require a R10-billion capital boost and ringfenced municipal budgeting for resurfacing and repairs. Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) CEO Zweli Nyathi warned that unchecked heavy freight and aging infrastructure threaten both public safety and the economic heart of the country.

With that budget, Nyathi said he would be able to resurface 100 roads, fix between 15 and 20 bridges, rehabilitate stormwater infrastructure on roads and resuscitate some of the city’s 13,500km of roads.

The JRA’s budget for this financial year is less than a quarter of the R10-billion that Nyathi needs, and the agency is battling a R144-billion infrastructure backlog. The agency’s capital expenditure budget – used to build new infrastructure – is only R570-million.

“Johannesburg’s infrastructure is old, between 25 and 50 years. Our engineers are doing their best to catch up, but the heavy congestion on our roads does not help,” he said. 

Nyathi was part of a pre-election dialogue organised by Our City News and Johannesburg Business School. Discovery Insure’s Precious Nduli and University of Johannesburg’s Transport Economics and Logistics lecturer Lunga Jacobs joined him in discussions aimed at finding solutions to the poor state of the city’s roads.

Nyathi said that an increasing number of heavy trucks on roads not designed for them adds further stress. Since South Africa’s (SA’s) rail network collapsed during the Covid pandemic, more and more heavy freight is being transported on roads.

“There is not a road in this city that was meant to carry a 36-wheeler truck. These are for small cars and residents. We have normalised it... 

“Industrial hubs should be outside the city. I don’t want to scare you, imagine if we have a good 15 trucks simultaneously, fully loaded on the double-decker bridge. What will happen? Trucks should have specific lanes, not come into town,” said Nyathi.

“Joburg is the economic hub, and we have heavy congestion on our roads, heavy congestion in townships, so you have more traffic volumes than you can expect on those narrow roads. It is doable to fix it, it just needs a budget, and we have to budget correctly,” he said.

Nyathi said he believes the JRA budget should be ringfenced, adding that it was “long overdue”. “We need to be judged on what we are given and what we are supposed to produce.”

Nduli, who oversees Discovery’s Pothole Patrol, said their efforts have resulted in fixes for more than 365,000 potholes in the city. Pothole Patrol works in partnership with the JRA.

“The cost of road accidents is 3% of GDP, roads are critical infrastructure, and it drives the economy. But it also costs lives, which impacts the economy. South Africa has the highest road fatality rate in the world, 22 people out of 100,000 die on our roads. Poor road conditions lead to accidents,” she said.

“The pothole initiative started in 2021 to augment the capacity of the JRA. We specifically look at smaller potholes, there are bigger ones we cannot do, but our efforts are meant to increase the capacity of the JRA rather than replace them,” she said.

UJ’s Jacobs said the importance of transport could not be underestimated. “If people and goods stop moving, it’s a mess… When the income of the country is dependent on the way we move, why are we doing it this way?” he asked.

Jacobs argued for the appointment of competent experts in the transport field. “The day municipalities were politicised, that is the day it went south,” he said. 

“There is political willingness, but the issue is: what enforcement is there? We are lacking. There are (traffic lights) not working on a daily or weekly basis. Who is charged with fixing them? 

“People have to be held accountable, it should apply from the highest to lowest levels,” he said.

This story was produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom that serves the people of Johannesburg.