By Staff Writer
 
On the eve of the Presidential Imbizo visit to the Ekurhuleni, Minister Barbary Creecy, joined by her deputy Mkhuleko Hlengwa and Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport undertook a visit to maintenance work along the R21 (Albertina Sisulu Highway).
 
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to lead a Presidential Imbizo in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality at Tsakane Stadium, Gauteng on Friday, 23 August 2024. The Imbizo provides an opportunity to inspire new thinking, different ideas, and suggestions on how to fix the challenges in communities. 
 
The roads agency is undertaking two major construction activities including attending to the sinkhole, undertaking resurfacing and normal road maintenance in the municipality. Both projects are undertaken at a value of over R400 million and have created hundred and fifty job opportunities for local communities.
 
The R21 is a major freight corridor, adjacent the OR Tambo International Airport, and where loose surfaces and potholes have recently developed. This is seen as an important intervention.
 
SANRAL has announced the Gauteng network is overdue for period overall for routine maintenance as part of a four-year plan. These projects require highly advanced engineering works and undertaking routine road maintenance that involves resurfacing on regular basis. The agency, in partnership with the Department's maintenance teams, also undertook road maintenance work in Tsakane in Ekurhuleni. 
 
National Department of Transport indicated that every year it provides conditional grants for road maintenance and will have to provide oversight. Minister Creecy further said the department is working on a policy for the inclusion and empowerment of small and emerging contractors. 
 
Echoing the minister, Gauteng MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela said the provincial Department is working to assist local municipalities in attending to their road maintenance backlogs. However, she lamented shortage of funds granted through the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant. She indicated municipalities face major challenges that includes collapsing infrastructure such as development of potholes and bridges. This, the MEC highlighted, requires the Departments to have adequate funds to provide support to municipalities. 
 
She also made a call to municipalities to work with communities in the maintenance and protection of public assets and infrastructure. 
 
SANRAL is enhancing the rollout of the Vala Zonke programme, a labour-intensive programme to fix potholes throughout the country.