Chairman, my thanks to the hon De Freitas. I am not sure if insurance companies and farmers fit under the category of civil society. Sometimes I think they are under uncivil society.
But the point is noted. It is true that nongovernmental entities are stepping in. There is nothing wrong with that. Nongovernmental entities are also responsible for considerable damage, very often, and not insurance companies, but it is in their interest to ensure that ...
I spent time with the Road Freight Association at the beginning of this week. I spent quite a lot of time talking to them about their responsibilities, to ensure that we work together to find ways of maintaining our road infrastructure. It is in their long-term self- interest.
Indeed, Minister Ndebele has a good track record of looking at Expanded Public Works Programmes to ensure that there is maintenance of roads. When he was the MEC of KwaZulu-Natal he had a wonderful programme - which is still running - of households on stretches of road looking after particular stretches. It is a wonderful model which we have replicated in a number of other provinces. Certainly Expanded Public Works Programmes are the way to go. These should not just be 60 days programmes, but a continuous maintenance of stretches of roads all year round. This is a very good approach because a lot of potholes are the result of the failure to do basic maintenance along the verges of roads, for instance. We need to clear road verges. We need to empty sewers, gutters and rainwater drains. If we do not do that, water gets under the surface and causes a lot of the damage. Those are basic things that do not require high levels of skill, but they are absolutely important.
On the question of funding road maintenance, we are in discussion with the National Treasury and the Minister of Finance around the matter. Minister Ndebele has proposed some kind of ring-fenced road maintenance fund so that money allocated to that is ring-fenced and does the job. That is a complicated area; it is not straightforward. But we are certainly looking energetically at some way of addressing it financially. Thank you.