LIMPOPO – These are the words uttered by President Jacob Zuma during the official opening of three Botlokwa bridges on the N1 freeway in Botlokwa last Tuesday.
Delivering a keynote address at the event after the official handover, Zuma praised the provincial government under the stewardship of Premier Stanley Mathabatha and Transport Minister, Joe Maswanganyi, for prioritising the construction of the road which, he added, will help immensely in curbing the ever-escalating road accidents that have already claimed the lives of many people in Botlokwa.
Zuma said the project also demonstrates how all three spheres of government, state owned companies and traditional authorities can work together in improving the lives of our people, and to solve issues that are obstacles in the way of communities who want to grow and progress.
“The N1 road on which this beautiful bridge is built on is part of the 22 000 km of roads in the country beautifully built by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral). This road stretches from the Musina Border Post from Zimbabwe and serves as a gateway to countries of North Africa such as DRC Congo, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria. It is the road that is expected to help stimulate economic growth through the so called Trans-Limpopo Special Initiative as the future of South Africa depends on well-built roads such as this one together with its bridges.
“But we must make sure that in an effort to achieve all these, we need to maintain all our road infrastructures,” he explained to the delighted crowd.
He said the roads have to be maintained once they’ve been built to unlock their true economic value for the country.
“A diversion of the road would not have provided a long-term solution. Our only alternative was to construct a main vehicle bridge and build two pedestrian bridges at both ends of the village,” he said.
Minister of Transport, Joe Maswanganyi, urged the communities to work with the South African Police Service, local government and with agencies such as Sanral to look after and care for this infrastructure and to report to the authorities incidents of vandalism and theft.
“We appeal to the community to report any acts of vandalism to the police, local traditional leadership and to the local, district and provincial government.
“We have a responsibility to safeguard this infrastructure so that it remains usable in the next few decades,” pleaded Maswanganyi.
A local community leader and ward councillor from the Polokwane Municipality, Jara Masubele, said between 2005 and 2014, before the commencement of the construction of the bridge, a total of 49 people lost their lives to accidents that occured on this road.
He said most were young people trying to cross the road at night after drinking in the many taverns on either side of the road.
The Chief Executive of Sanral, Skhumbudzo Macozoma, said the project consists of one main state of the art bridge for vehicles and two smaller pedestrian bridges.
“We commenced with safety training and designs in 2007. The actual construction started in 2014 and finished early 2017. We have planned to spend R50 billion country wide in the next three years in an effort to improve our road infrastructure.
“We currently have 780 000 road networks in the country and are at the number 10 spot in the world in terms of good road infrastructure,” said Macozoma.
