They may have produced one of the greatest sons of the soil, but the people of Sabalele Village in Cofimvaba have always felt left out when it comes to development.
The birthplace of revered struggle hero Chris Hani – who was murdered in 1993 – is no different from most rural villages in the province, with poverty and lack of infrastructure being the primary concerns.
But now that is set to change with the construction of an 18km stretch of road that links the village to Cofimvaba.
It is fitting that one of the beneficiaries of the R169-million project is Mawethu Hani, the nephew of the late firebrand leader, who works for one of the construction companies building the road.
He is one of the 129 locals who have been employed in the project, with 45 of them being women.
His cousin Cleopatra Hani – Hani’s daughter from a previous relationship – told the Daily Dispatch that construction of the new road had restored the community’s dignity.
“That road has brought us dignity as a village … now we are able to see buses coming in to pick up those going to work.
“That is the most beautiful development to Kwa-Sabelele.
“Small businesses and also the locals have benefited – even Mawethu is among them,” she said.
The village, she added, had come a long way.
“People have died on that road.
“A little while ago a pregnant woman lost her life when the car she was travelling in was swept away at one of the old bridges during heavy rain.
“This road will help us a lot,” said Cleopatra.
Construction started in March 2015 and it will be completed in October this year. It is one of the roads being built by the provincial department of roads and public works in the new financial year.
Construction of new roads, sealing, patching, regravelling, and bridge-building are reaching an unprecedented level, says provincial roads and public works MEC Thandiswa Marawu.
lThe provincial roads and public works department’s budget for tarring gravel roads is rising steadily, from R896.4-million for the year ending next June, when it will grow by R85-million to R981.3-million for 2017-18.
lBudgeted expenditure on road maintenance tips over the billion rand mark from R942.3-million this financial year to R1.05-billion to be spent on rehabilitation, resealing and patching in 2016-17. It hits R1.12-billion in 2017-18.
The figures were released in Marawu’s policy speech delivered to the Bhisho Legislature yesterday.
Included in these amounts are:
lR600-million to be spent in three years from July last year on the Umtamvuna-Mbizana-Namlacu stretch of the R61, including Nkantolo road. This expenditure covers the call by Premier Phumulo Masualle in his state of the province address earlier this year for a rural roads intervention; and
lExpenditure on repair of rural roads damaged by floods since 2013.
By this month, the department had regravelled 748km of road, which was 156km more than its current annual target of 592km.
The annual target for blacktop (tar) patching of 68839m² had been overtaken, with 106846m² patched so far, 38000m² more than the annual target.
It is the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) that will be the big spender in the province.
In this financial year, Sanral spent R2.3-billion on provincial roads and will spend a massive R5-billion on Eastern Cape roads in 2016-17, said department spokesman Mphumzi Zuzile.
Sanral received a R218-million chunk of Eastern Cape smaller road maintenance contracts allocated for the years from 2014 to June this year.
Marawu said a “significant amount” of Sanral’s budget was dedicated to involving SMMEs in road programmes while the department itself had, to date, spent R176.2-million on road construction and maintenance carried out by 140 SMME contractors.