Discuss the role of transport referred to in the above article in facilitating trade.
Speaking at a road construction indaba on Thursday (24 February), Mbalula said that while the national government was not directly responsible for the backlog at a provincial level, it would still have a direct impact on all motorists. “Amongst the many challenges we seek to tackle, we remain burdened with the intractable challenge of the road maintenance backlog. “The total paved and gravelled network at the provincial level is 184,816 kilometres. 40% of this (provincial) network has reached the end of its design life, as approximately 80% of the (national) road network is now older than the 20-year design life.” While the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) is responsible for the primary network, provinces and municipalities are responsible for the secondary and tertiary networks, he said. Schedule 5 of the Constitution provides that provincial roads and traffic are an exclusive provincial competence, while municipal roads, traffic and parking are exclusive municipal functions. Despite this, Mbalula acknowledged that the national sphere of government has a responsibility to ensure that provincial and municipal roads are managed correctly due to their important role in the economy. “Most of the provincial road funding comes from the national budget in the form of the provincial road maintenance grant (PRMG). The provincial road network condition has been on a steady decline since the early 1990s due to several reasons that include a curtailed funding allocation and the shrinking project output by the road sector.”
Discuss the role of transport referred to in the above article in facilitating trade.
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