Chairperson, this report, as you know, deals with provincial and rural roads in South Africa which are in a state of collapse. The S'hamba Sonke programme is designed to address the backlog in road maintenance and this oversight report from the committee shows the flaws in the system.
Firstly, some money is available for this programme, but the uptake of provinces is just not there. The North West and the Northern Cape are particularly bad. They are just not spending the money. They are not doing road maintenance, and the intervention of the national department is constantly required to pressurise provinces to do their job and spend this money. That is unacceptable.
Secondly, skills are not available locally to conduct the maintenance in the provinces and in the cities. The urban provinces seem to be getting on with the job, whereas the rural provinces are collapsing because they just don't have the skills to maintain the roads. The wrong methods are used to maintain the roads. I quote from the report:
During its site visit the committee discovered that the provincial department contracted a service provider to repair potholes with cement on a tar road.
That is ridiculous!
Thirdly, the parliamentary oversight by this committee is not helping. We need a new road-to-rail policy urgently. On page seven, the report itself says, and I quote again: No progress has been made in repairing potholes on the roads since the initial visit by the committee in July 2011.
The committee went there, it went back, there has been no change, and there is no progress. The report speaks of returning in three months' time. Well, the committee never went back in three months' time. The committee has performed - listen to me now - zero ... no oversight visits from January 2012 until today, 19 March 2013. Why? [Interjections.] Nobody knows. Drastic action is required by government if our provincial and rural roads are to be saved.
There is not enough money, and this programme is not working because there are no skills to implement it. Government must take drastic action now if it does not want our provincial and rural roads to collapse completely. It's a crisis! [Applause.]
Question agreed to.
Report on Oversight Visit to South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) accordingly adopted.
Report on Oversight Visit to KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape in relation to S'hamba Sonke accordingly adopted.
Report on Oversight Visit to North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape accordingly adopted.