• Portfolio committee must urgently implement its oversight responsibilities.
• Lack of timely and substantive responses by DoT deeply concerning.
• DA’s GPU role will not stop us from holding DoT to account.
(Please note Riona Gokool, MPL sound bite in English)
The Democratic Alliance has called on KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Transport portfolio committee Chairperson, MC Maphisa, to urgently implement committee oversight responsibilities. This, as the number of complaints regarding road conditions grows amid a lack of real response by the Department of Transport (DoT).
The DA has formally raised these concerns (view here) with the Chairperson, KZN’s Transport MEC and his Head of Department.
Across KZN, DA public representatives are receiving numerous complaints regarding potholes, deteriorating road surfaces, damaged drainage infrastructure, failing bridges and roads affected by flooding and inadequate maintenance. In many instances, these concerns have been referred to the department, yet public representatives continue to struggle to obtain timely and substantive feedback.
The situation has left many communities frustrated and is hampering public representatives’ ability to provide residents with meaningful answers. Critically, poor road infrastructure also undermines local economic activity, makes it harder for businesses to operate and limits opportunities for job creation.
The DA has called on Chairperson Maphisa to convene an urgent portfolio committee meeting and to utilise KZN Legislature oversight mechanisms, which require the DoT to account on these outstanding matters.
We further call on the portfolio committee to;
• Require the DoT to present a province-wide assessment of provincial road conditions, along with a prioritised maintenance and rehabilitation programme;
• Obtain a comprehensive report on outstanding public complaints, including how long each complaint has remained unresolved;
• Establish clear reporting and response timeframes for complaints raised by public representatives and communities;
• Require regular reports on road maintenance, rehabilitation projects and roads requiring urgent intervention;
• Convene regular engagements between the department, public representatives, municipalities and affected stakeholders; and
As a Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) partner, the DA remains committed to constructive engagement. However, participation within the GPU cannot mean that legitimate community concerns are ignored.
The Chairperson must ensure that the committee does the job it was established to do – exercise meaningful oversight, demand answers from the DoT and ensure that residents’ complaints result in action.