Note to Broadcasters: Find linked soundbites in English and Sesotho by Freddy Sonakile MPL
Yesterday, South Africans watched as North West Premier, Bushy Maape, boasted about the great condition provincial roads are in during the State of the Nation Address debate in Parliament. For the millions of residents in North West, and those who regularly travel through the province, this was a sad moment – watching Premier Maape behave like a clown and lie under oath in Parliament.
The truth is that North West roads are a death trap. The provincial road network is approximately 19 783 kilometres in length, while only 5 419 kilometres are paved (tarred roads) and 14 197 kilometres unpaved (gravel roads). It is a terrible situation when only a quarter of the road network is paved, yet it carries over 80% of provincial traffic.
Last year, during the Premier’s budget speech, we warned Premier Maape that he is out of touch with the lived realities of North West residents. His speech yesterday proved exactly that, where he not only spewed lies, but also made light of the serious problems communities face due to his ANC government’s inability to govern in their interest of the people and deliver quality services.
Premier Maape made a promise to establish a Rural Roads Unit in his office to attend to the disastrous state of the provincial roads, but like many of his other promises, this one remains unfulfilled.
The DA would like to assist Premier Maape, so that he could understand what workers, farmers, scholars, emergency services personnel, police, truck drivers, and the public, in general, go through daily on these death-trap provincial roads.
Seeing that Premier Maape uses a helicopter to move around the province, I invite him to travel these roads with me, I am available anytime.
Some of the worst roads are:
• Geysdorp to Delareyville – See images here and here.
• R52 from Lichtenburg to Koster
• R509 From Koster to Magaliesberg
• Lichtenburg P183/1 (Nooitgedacht/Deelpan connector road) – See images here and here.
• Matsheng to Molelema
• R507 Ottosdal/Delareyville
• Lehurutshe
• Motswedi
• R556 from Bapong Village to Sun City resort
• Bray Road from Makgobistad towards Makgori
• R503 between Wolmaransstad and Schweizer-Reneke – See images here and here.
This is just a handful of the horrendous roads in the North West, and these exclude internal roads in and around the stretch of communities in the province. Throughout every town, from the capital city Mahikeng (see images here, here, and here) to Potchefstroom, roads are riddled with massive potholes, risking the lives of motorists every single day.
We hope that Premier Maape will stop clowning around like he did in parliament yesterday and take his State of the Province Address seriously next week Friday. We cannot begin to solve the province’s problems if he continues to live in denial.