Department of roads faces claims of R316m

The department of roads and public works in Bhisho faces claims totalling more than R316-million on a range of legal disputes, including for damages to vehicles caused by potholes. 

This was revealed by MEC Thandiswa Marawu at the provincial legislature, in response to parliamentary questions from DA MPL Vicky Knoetze.

Marawu said this was the value of claims recorded as at May this year.

However, she said: “This refers to claims which are contested in court and have not been settled and is inclusive of claims for previous financial years. This does not refer to an amount that is to be paid by the department, as the cases are yet to be tested and decided by the court,” Marawu said.

She said the department had a budget of more than R9-million for claims in the current financial year.

The claims were a result of damages to motorists’ vehicles caused by potholes, as well as accidents, litigation from procurement processes and labour relations disputes.

Of settled claims, the department had paid:

R7409000 in 2013-2014;

R41845000 in 2014-2015; and

R3667000 in 2015-2016.

Knoetze said the department must take drastic action to address the rapidly deteriorating roads network to avoid a further influx of legal claims.

“More than R21-million of the R74-million was spent on outsourcing and defending legal matters. Just under R53-million was spent on judgments against the department.

“Approximately R9-million of the department’s annual budget was allocated to legal claims. It is clear that taxpayers are carrying this enormous financial burden because of the negligence and maladministration of the department; the department’s core mandate is to provide and maintain infrastructure,” Knoetze said.

She said the department had to take steps immediately to deal with the maintenance backlog in order to reduce legal claims.

Knoetze said the roads maintenance backlog in the province was estimated at a cost of R23-billion.

Provincial department spokesman Mphumzi Zuzile said more than R1.9-billion was set aside for the construction and maintenance of roads.

Zuzile said an additional R464-million was provided by the provincial treasury to deal with rural roads.

He said the South African National Roads Agency spent R5-billion on provincial and national roads in the province.

“This clearly shows the department is striving for maintenance of roads and to have a pothole-free road network. We have close to 70000km² provincial roads we are working on in the province. We are trying our best.”

Zuzile said the backlog was estimated at R102-billion.

“I do not know where the DA is getting their estimate from. I’m not going to go to the politics of the DA of thumb-sucking information.”

The spokesman would not comment on litigation against the department, saying these were in court and lodging a claim did not mean that a payout would be made without being challenged.