Phiwokuhle Mothemela
The DA in the Eastern Cape handed over a memorandum of solutions to the South African Roads Agency offices on Thursday for the unsafe R75 road connecting Gqeberha and Kariega.
On Tuesday, the party's constituency leader Retief Odendaal, shadow MEC for roads and transport Kabelo Mogatosi and caucus leader Rano Kayser, and other leadership gathered in front of Sanral's offices in Gqeberha to do the handover.
Odendaal says the R75 has become the metro's most dangerous road and has claimed many lives over the years.
"In the past, I have written several letters to the CEO of SANRAL, Reginald Demana, highlighting the issues that have turned the R75 into NMB's "road of death." Through his replies, I have gained a better understanding of the challenges SANRAL faces in maintaining our national road network. However, there are many issues that SANRAL could have addressed with minimal effort", he said.
"The time for pointing fingers is in the past. We must now put all differences aside to ensure the safety of our residents is paramount."
According to Odendaal, SANRAL's biggest complaint is that they are being held hostage by criminal networks disguised as small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMME), and as a result, they are unable to complete the work on the road.
In return, the DA offered some solutions in the memorandum, including frequent roadblocks and a zero-tolerance to driving under the influence of alcohol.
SANRAL's acting general manager for transformation and stakeholder relations Siphiwo Mxhosa accepted the memorandum on behalf of the company.
"We note the memorandum submitted by the Democratic Alliance around the state of the R75 between Gqeberha and Kariega in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. We will study the contents of the memorandum and will communicate on a way forward once this internal process has been concluded", Mxhosa said.
