R110 million Mpumalanga road upgrade leads nowhere

The R110-million project for the tarring of a rural Mpumalanga main dirt road started in earnest in February last year – but it all turned out to be a pie in the sky.

The Katjibane community in Mpumalanga appears to have been the victims of incompetence with government infrastructure projects and, just like promises of a fancy new police station, those of having the main road tarred also simply evaporated.

The Mpumalanga provincial government unveiled plans for the R110-million project to tar the local main road in February last year, but there is little to show.

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Residents say work on the asphalt upgrade of the 9.5km stretch of the D935 dirt road, which connects Nokaneng and Limpopo, started in earnest after the project was announced by then public works, roads and transport MEC Gillion Mashego.

In a letter sent to the then mayor of DR JS Moroka municipality, Thulare Madileng, dated April 2020, which The Citizen has seen, Mashego said consulting engineering reports for the asphalt upgrading had been concluded.

But in December last year, according to Pungutsha traditional council headman Thomas Maluleke, they received a letter from the department informing them only 1.5km of the road would be surfaced using interlocking bricks.

“A project steering committee was appointed, soil testing and road design completed. We were shocked when we were told that only 1.5km of the road would now be upgraded using bricks for R17 million. What happened to the R110 million?” Maluleke asked.

The R17 million was not part of the R110 million budget, but had been taken from the Presidential Stimulus Fund allocated to the department for rural road upgrading programmes, he claimed.

The community has since refused to allow the contractor to lay the bricks. But the provincial public works, roads and transport department said there was a misconception when the engineers made reference to the “estimate” of R110 million as the actual budget for the project.

Spokesperson Frederick Dhlamini said the upgrading of the road from gravel to tar had not been budgeted for.

“There was no construction budget allocated… it was the engineer’s project cost estimate.”

The R17 million allocated for the paving was re-allocated to road D2091 in Marapyane. – siphom@citizen.co.za