SPEECH DELIVERED BY MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, MS SINDISIWE CHIKUNGA (MP) DURING THE INAUGURATION OF THE VALA ZONKE WAR ROOM

I wish to thank the Department of Transport and the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) for not only establishing this War Room as timeously, but also for allowing us the opportunity today to participate at this auspicious launch. I must warmly welcome the Premier of the Gauteng Province, Honourable Panyaza Lesufi and his delegation for acceding to our invitation and begin to be officially a part of the launch of this War Room, the success of which will certainly depend on strong and healthy intergovernmental relations as regards road infrastructure provision and maintenance.

Our collaboration across spheres of government towards fixing transport generally will always have to be fed organically by programmes and projects on the ground, while strengthening joint planning and budgeting efforts. The establishment of this War Room is both a bold and honest attempt we are making to fix road transport challenges presented by the potholes we see.

It is a bold step on our part because of the enormity of the challenge and thus the vast coverage required for effective deployment of this resource. It is also a very honest acknowledgement of the fact that we can never truly attack this challenge without adequate and sufficient sight of the entire road network, including acting on reported challenges.

In addition colleagues, this War Room is also being established due to a serious recognition on our part of a disturbing inability to process the road data received, due to the some of the following reasons: missing information, wrong data received, or data received is sent in an unworkable format and t times no data is supplied. In response to implementing Cabinet Directives expressed to address the fixing of potholes as national progarmme, the National Pothole Repair Programme was therefore instituted in line with directives of the Presidential Economic Retreat Resolutions of 31 May – 1 June 2022.

The Transport MINMEC of 1 August 2022, adopted the intervention plan for the fight against potholes and general road refurbishment and improvement. The very recruitment of all provinces through MINMEC tells already of a need for effective planning and coordination. While the autonomy of each sphere of government remains critically important, the three spheres must plan together for the utilisation of scarce resources and to ensure achievement of government priorities.

In other words, despite Schedule 5 Constitutional provisions for separation of roles, the national sphere of government has a responsibility to ensure that these roads are managed within a framework of national norms and standards to maximise their role in enabling economic activity and access to social amenities. It is in affirmation of this national responsibility that Cabinet mandated us to roll out a national pothole programme under the stewardship of SANRAL.

Closing potholes before the road deteriorates further is a crucial intervention that must serve as a flagship of what is possible through effective intergovernmental cooperation especially with integrated planning and budgeting towards common goals. Where there have been bottlenecks in effectively rolling out this programme nationally there continues to be robust discussions to ensure that our pothole repair programme is a success considering the magnitude of the challenges posed by the pothole crisis.

The Premier is certainly aware of the provincial road shows we embarked upon to popularise the concept of a national pothole repair programme. This has now included concerted consultative meetings that we have already had with particular provinces in our national drive across all nine provinces to sit with Premiers and provincial executives as well with members of SALGA to formalise steps to be taken collectively across spheres of government,.

This is of course notwithstanding our understanding the differences in the dynamics across provinces.

Our mission as a Department is to lead the development of efficient integrated transport systems by creating a framework of sustainable policies and regulations and apply implementable models to support broader government strategies for socio-economic development.

What informs our commitment to fixing the problems on our roads is certainly our knowledge of the obligations we have to citizens who cannot be short-changed by our ineffective actions or inaction.

Many South Africans are aware that the South African Roads Authorities across the three spheres of government have been experiencing various challenges relating to the continuous deterioration in the condition of roads.

As a department we believe that targeted investments are needed to preserve mobility and accessibility of the traveling public and freight movements, because investment in maintaining, rehabilitating, upgrading and expanding infrastructure has not kept pace with growing needs of both society and the economy.

As a result, our roads, as much as other critical transport infrastructure across modes of transport face growing maintenance and modernisation needs. The failure to upgrade, refurbish and maintain our road infrastructure to keep up with a growing population and economy, and technological advances compromises the safety, capacity, and efficiency of South Africa’s transport network.

The DoT’s desired outcome is to reduce all transport-related incidences and accidents, which will ultimately lead to a significant reduction in injuries and fatalities. It can also not be disputed that the declining condition of our road infrastructure reduces our economic competitiveness and the quality of life of our citizens.

It is to the extent of these enormous challenges that we have concluded that the repair of road transport infrastructure must be a national priority to ensure continued economic growth, and to preserve freedom of movement and quality of life. The effects of under-investment are evident to all who depend on our transport system.

The very birth of this War Room remains a strong indication of the severity of the situation, especially expressed in the state of our road network and evidence of this is highlighted by worsening traffic congestions and dangerous driving conditions or other road uses in urban and peri-urban areas.

The transport sector is rapidly evolving into one of the most innovative and dynamic areas of the economy. Innovative technologies and practices are also key drivers for improving the safety and performance of the transport system. Emerging technologies can offer benefits and advance DoT’s mission of providing safe, clean, accessible, and efficient transport.

To achieve this goal, the DoT continues to support the development and deployment of these innovative technologies by investing in targeted research, facilitating coordination and information sharing.

We are also collaborating with industry and other stakeholders, assessing existing regulatory approaches to address potential barriers, and providing opportunities to expedite the testing and adoption of these beneficial technologies.

New NANO material technologies

Such innovation can now be seen in the development of more resilient and yet cost effective materials for road construction. The surfacing of roads using conventional technologies is estimated to cost R10 million per km, translating into R100 billion budget need. The use of nano technologies on the other hand has the potential to reduce the surfacing costs by 50 %, from R10m to R3 million per km, which is a major reduction to R100 billion required.

Nano technology has been adopted by the Committee of Transport Officials (COTO) as a standard for “Upgrading of Unpaved Roads” and released in December 2022. To date, 695 practitioners participated in awareness workshops on TRH 24. To accelerate the use of Nano Technologies, authorities were requested to identify projects suitable for piloting on this technology, especially on projects funded through PRMG. It is to the aid of these technologies we have now turned as we throw everything to resolving the challenges on our roads. SANRAL has approved seven (7) projects, with a total length of 180 km, to be implemented during the 2023/24 financial year, using the TRH 24 design.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The programme “Operation Vala Zonke” was launched on 8 August 2022 in Gauteng with all other eight ( provinces simultaneously launching their own rollout programmes. During the unfolding of this process, the Transport Integrated Information System (ITIS) was availed to all Road Authorities for the provision of Centralized Repository and Asset Management Services.  A centralised Mobile Pothole Reporting APP that enables the public to report potholes wherever they encounter it on any road was developed.

The National Department of Transport has thus been hard at work and intensifying interventions aimed at addressing challenges relating to road infrastructure and to the extent of the urgency in resolving road quality challenges, we launched a comprehensive plan to address potholes across all spheres of government. The said Plan envisaged to have a central platform, using an automated system to: (a) allocate a complaint, (b) track progress, (c) identify and resolve delays, (d) intervene or provide support to address service delivery challenges and (e) provide feedback to the public using the APP.

Operation Vala Zonke is therefore an integrated and comprehensive plan that drives multiple interventions to ensure that the overall condition of roads is in a safe and driveable state.

The Vala Zonke War Room is a key component in addressing national government’s infrastructure development programme given the stated challenges. As government we are confident that through this coordinated and seamless approach provided by this War Room, we will be able to tackle pothole challenges and make an important difference that our people can witness and experience.

Colleagues, Most of the South African road network has reached their twenty (20) year design life with the maintenance backlog estimated to be R197 billion. It is also important to note that insufficient budget for roads at both provincial and municipal levels continue to hinder the sector hence most of these roads are riddled with potholes.

The rollout plan has both the short and long-term interventions presented to National Treasury for funding support, which includes amongst others:

The roll-out plan places SANRAL at the centre in coordinating all pothole fixing programmes with both provinces and municipalities jointly working together. The key features of National Government’s new approach is centred around a more hands-on approach by the National Department of Transport, using SANRAL as its coordinating agency to step in and address the challenges of fixing potholes and resurfacing of roads where necessary.

The location of the War Room at the SANRAL Central Operations Centre (COC), which already has the existing appropriate infrastructure, technology, and personnel, will ensure effective monitoring and coordination of intervention programmes for road operations, maintenance and other road-related activities.

The basic principle of a War Room is to bring everyone responsible for carrying out the intervention by the Department of Transport, as directed by Cabinet, for the Road Maintenance, Refurbishment and National Pothole Programme, in one room where they can communicate easier and gather thoughts together.

Creating a single portal for the public Because there are over 250 road authorities in the country, there is a need to create a single portal for the public to report potholes and for this system to automatically redirect the complaint to the correct roads authority down to the correct maintenance depot level and to have a monitoring, tracking and feedback system in place. As part of this programme and as mentioned earlier a new pothole web app was launched which the public can use to report potholes in their vicinity.

Images can be uploaded, details of the problem, as well as real-time location of the road where the issue is raised on an interactive map that will show the owners of the different roads, as well as get status updates on issues raised using a pothole ticketing system. The app will work in conjunction with the operations at the War Room. Once information is received at the War Room, this information is then assigned to the relevant authority, depending on where the road is, and the maintenance depot responsible for that road attends to fixing the pothole.

As National Government we therefore call on the South African public, local authorities and all road users to utilise the services of the Vala Zonke War Room thereby ensuring that our roads are properly maintained and making them safer for all road users.

We encourage the public to report potholes on municipal and provincial roads by engaging with the War Room via the app.