Pretoria - The National Department of Transport has declared a number of roads in Limpopo as national roads.
According to the Government Gazette published on 10 July 2014 (Gazette 37815), the newly incorporated roads, which amount to 1 535.7 km, will now be under the management of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL).
SANRAL’s General Manager of Communications, Vusi Mona, explained that the term "national road" is frequently used to refer to a national route, but technically, a "national road" is any road maintained by SANRAL and need not necessarily form part of the national route.
Mona said that as a state owned entity, SANRAL’s mandate has always been the management, maintenance and development of South Africa's national road network.
“The incorporation of these roads serves as testament that SANRAL has been doing outstanding work in the 19 704 km of roads that we currently maintain. Of this, 84% are non-toll roads, 15% toll and 1% GFIP (otherwise known as e-toll). Ninety-nine percent of our portfolio is uncontested and all is well with it,” Mona said.
He said during the same reporting period, SANRAL spent more than R3.2 million directly on toll roads and almost R9.5 million on its non-toll network.
The provincial roads that have been declared as national roads include:
- Provincial road P19 Section 2, provincial road P19 Section 1, provincial road P18 Section 1, provincial road P134 Section 3, provincial district road D3612 and Provincial district road D4066 as National Road R518. They are in the districts of Ellisras, Potgietersrus, Mokerong 2, Mokerong 3 and Thabamoopo in Limpopo;
- Provincial road P55 Section 1, provincial road P84 Section 1 and provincial road P198 Section 1 as National Road R33 in the districts of Potgietersrus, Waterberg and Ellisras;
- Provincial road P110 Section 1 declared as National Road R511 in the district of Thabazimbi;
- Provincial road P20 Section 1 as National Road R516 in the districts of Thabazimbi and Bela Bela (formerly Warmbad);
- Provincial road P84 Section 1 as National Road R520 in the Waterberg and Ellisras Districts;
- Provincial road P1 Section 4 and provincial road P1 Section 5 as National Road R101 in Warmbad and Potgietersrus Districts;
- Provincial road P98 Section 1 as National Road R524 in the districts of Soutpansberg, Thohoyandou and Malamulele;
- Provincial road P99 Section 1 as National Road R578 in the districts of Soutpansberg, Vuvani 2, Hlanganani and Giyani;
- Provincial district road D1267 as National Road R529 in the districts of Letaba 1, Ratavi 1 and Giyani;
- Provincial road P112 Section 1 as National Road R71 in the districts of Phalaborwa and Namakgale;
- Provincial district road D3390 as National Road R567 in Seshego district;
- Provincial district road D726 as National Road R40 Section 7 in Phalaborwa district;
- Provincial road P8 section 2, provincial road P116 section 1, provincial road P181 section 1 and provincial road P17 section 3 as National road R36 in the districts of Lydenburg, Sekhukhune land, Naphuno 2, Letaba 2, Ritavi 2 and Letaba1;
- Provincial road P169 section 1 and provincial road 169 section 2as National road R555 in the districts of Middleburg and Lydenburg;
- Provincial road district road D1547, provincial district road D4295, provincial district road D2219 and provincial district road D4045 as National road R579 in the districts of Middleburg, Groblersdal, Nebo and Thabamoopo;
- Provincial road P194 section 1 as National road R531 in the Phalaborwa district;
- Provincial road P170 section 1 as National road R532 in Lydenburg district. – SAnews.gov.za
