The decision to cut the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant by R31 million in the 2025-2026 financial year, and by R93 million across the medium-term expenditure framework, will further hinder the repair of Eastern Cape roads.
Last month’s floods in and around Mthatha destroyed key routes, leaving entire communities cut off. Engineers estimate the repair cost at R935 million. The Department of Transport has managed to reprioritise R102 million, yet an R832 million shortfall remains.
Until additional funds are secured, roads will stay unsafe and livelihoods will suffer. Failing roads have already become a human-rights violation. Emergency medical teams cannot reach patients in time, schoolchildren are forced to walk long distances, businesses lose income every day that they are unable to produce, and passengers cannot move freely.
The South African Human Rights Commission has confirmed the scale of the crisis. Its recent report found that only nine per cent of Eastern Cape roads are paved, far below the national average of twenty-five per cent. At current funding levels, no major upgrades are expected to take place until 2044, and this latest cut pushes that horizon even further away.
Rural communities remain stranded, and thousands of people are denied access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunity.
The funding cuts come as funding has been reprioritised from the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant to the S’hamba Sonke Programme within the National Department of Transport over the medium term, to augment the existing funds allocated for providing technical support services for monitoring road maintenance projects implemented by provinces.
Cutting funds meant for maintenance to monitor maintenance simply shrinks the amount of work that can be done and makes the monitoring exercise meaningless.
I will write to the Portfolio Chairperson for Roads and Transport, Sindile Toni, to request that he summon the MEC for Transport, Xolile Nqatha, to brief the committee on the recovery plan for the road network in Mthatha. This plan must list the worst-affected routes, set clear deadlines for repair, and explain how the province will secure extra money from the national fiscus or disaster funds.
The DA will submit a proposal to have the South African National Roads Agency assume responsibility for the province’s gravel-road network. Bringing SANRAL’s expertise and resources into rural Eastern Cape will unlock economic opportunities, especially for farming districts and small towns.
Safe and reliable roads are not a luxury that can be trimmed when budgets tighten. They are a constitutional duty owed to every resident of the Eastern Cape. If the provincial administration cannot meet that duty, the Democratic Alliance will continue to press for national intervention until the people of this province receive the infrastructure they deserve.