Public works, roads and infrastructure MEC in Limpopo Nkakareng Rakgoale says she will leave no stone unturned in dealing with maladministration at Road Agency Limpopo (RAL).
This follows calls by the DA for premier Stan Mathabatha’s administration to dissolve RAL.
RAL received an unqualified audit with adverse findings for five years and continues to fail to achieve a clean audit.
The entity incurred irregular expenditure of R5.3-billion, including the previous year’s expenditure that the provincial treasury refused to condone.
DA MPL Risham Maharaj said RAL was characterised by failure to meet its mandate, gross mismanagement and poor financial controls.
Roads are meant to play a critical role in the economic growth and development in the province but so far RAL has failed to address the demand for paved roads. Limpopo only has 31% paved roads and 69% of the province’s roads remain gravel.
It is estimated that RAL will need R138-billion to upgrade all gravel roads in the province and at current funding levels, it will take 115 years to address the backlog. This is largely due to neglecting maintenance over the years.
Maharaj said: “It is clear that RAL has proven itself to be a perennial poorly run entity that is an unnecessary expense and has failed to provide services to the people of Limpopo. It is the only provincial road agency and there is no need for it.
“Ridding the province of this expensive, wasteful and ineffective entity is the only way Limpopo will get road infrastructure that will drive the economic development.”
Responding to the DA, Rakgoale said: “We are going to zoom into the matter and leave no stone unturned. We will make sure that we remedy the situation without with fear or favour. Ours is to ensure that service delivery is accelerated to the people of Limpopo because that is our mandate.”
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
