Farmers are going down rocky roads

All over the country the lack of attention to infrastructure maintenance is increasingly visible in a breakdown in infrastructure from road surfaces to water treatment plants.

"It's a huge problem for commercial farmers ... everywhere you travel it's bad. For the last 10-15 years there has been no maintenance on the tar roads, and on the gravel roads only maybe 30%," says Agri North West president Cor Jansen van Vuuren.

The poor quality of North West's roads - and a similar situation was visible in the Free State - has degenerated to the point that suppliers are refusing to deliver to retail stores in some towns, such as Piet Plessis, near Vryburg, "because the roads are nonexistent ... It's not even the vehicles any more, you can replace a tyre or fix an axle; you can't replace a life," says NWK spokesman Johan Bezuidenhout.

Mr van Vuuren says trucking companies' refusal to go on to farms to collect cattle and crop produce hurts medium-scale farmers most because they generally do not have trucks large enough to transport produce economically to the towns.

"We had one farmer who lost four trailers and two tractors, plus the grain that was on the trailers.... One farmer lost 23 tyres. That's R35,000," he says.

Agricultural Business Chamber economic intelligence and finance manager Lindie Stroebel says North West is not an isolated case.

"It's most definitely a wider problem, especially on secondary and rural roads.... The cost of vehicle maintenance is now more than the cost of (fixing) the road."

Road infrastructure and maintenance, except for national roads, is the responsibility of provincial and local government. Last week, auditor-general Terence Nombembe released the 2010-11 local government audit results. The picture is dismal: R11bn in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Last November, North West Premier Louisa Mabe suspended the acting head of the provincial roads department, who was also chief infrastructure director, the chief financial officer, the chief transport infrastructure director, the supply chain management director and the transport operations chief director, over corruption allegations. Public works, roads and transport department spokesman Matshube Mfoloe referred a request for an update to Ms Mabe's spokesman, Lesiba Kgwele, who did not respond.

South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice) president Martin van Veelen says it is "general knowledge" that many local authorities "have not even one civil engineering professional in (their) employ.... How can a municipality exert control over projects worth millions without such a person? It is just not possible."

The North West is an important farming area, and its capital, Rustenburg, is reported to be SA's fastest-growing city, feeding on platinum mining, although the industry is in a deepening slump.

In 2009-10, North West produced 2.8-million tons of SA's total 13.421-million-ton maize crop; 124-million tons of the 1,518-million-ton wheat crop; 13.2-million tons of the 226-million-ton grain sorghum crop; 22-million tons of the 100-million-ton peanut crop and 175.2-million tons of the 509-million-ton sunflower seed crop.

The public works, roads and transport department has spent billions on roadworks in recent years, and, says Mr Mfoloe, has 30 projects going on. It had an R835m budget for roads for 2009-12.

"The Koster-Lichtenburg road has seen at least four contractors start, and then stop. The money dries up and they disappear. It's been going on for four years," says Mr Jansen van Vuuren.

Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge