Damage to roads caused by protests across WC costing millions - Sanral

Cape Town - The aftermath of some protests has caused significant damage to

infrastructure and roads across the province.

Sanral has in recent months had to invest in infrastructure repairs as a result of damage caused by public

protest action. Costs for road repairs on the N2 in Mossel Bay cost R16 333, George R 34 656, Knysna R 470 000 and Plettenberg Bay cost R609 000

(including street lights R1 129 989).

“In Cape Town on the N2 after the Swartklip Interchange, R56 835 has been spent on repairs directly linked to public protests,” said Randall

Cable, Western Cape region manager for Sanral.

Meanwhile, the city’s mayoral committee member for transport, Felicity Purchase said the city spent around R120 000 to repair two sets of traffic lights last month.

“This figure did not include the cost of the delays to commuters who were travelling along these roads; neither did it include the cost to clean the roads and the resurfacing of the damaged road surface,” said

Purchase.

Head of communication for the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works Jandré Bakker told the Weekend Argus that the Cape metro and Paarl areas had dedicated routine road maintenance teams that are responsible for dealing with these types of maintenance.

In terms of capital expenditure on roads construction projects undertaken by the department, protests may have a larger financial implication, in terms of their contractual agreement with civil engineering contractors.

“These delays and costs due to strike or protest action are seen as unforeseen, which means that the employer (province) can be held liable for proven standing time and extension of time costs resulting from these delays if the contractor is not at fault.

“This can easily be hundreds of thousands of rand per project, per incident, which far outweighs

typical costs associated with the repair of road infrastructure damaged through protest action,” added Bakker.

Weekend Argus