Hon Chairperson, the Road Accident Fund currently has a financial hole of R32 billion. This debt became R1,6 billion worse in the last financial year, and government and the transport department have no plan to pay this debt or to pull the fund out of this black hole.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation, the RTMC, has a debt of R200 million as it has spent money that it was not entitled to, and this means that the RTMC is also bankrupt.
According to a report of the Department of Transport, South Africa's gravel roads and rural roads are collapsing as a result of decades of underinvestment and no maintenance of these roads. Finally, the Eastern Cape government has handed an additional 2 700 kilometres of road to the SA National Roads Agency, Sanral, as it is unable to maintain them. However, it has not provided Sanral with funding and has spent its road budget elsewhere. This amounts to an unfunded mandate for Sanral, and Sanral does not have the budget to service these roads. Where will they get the money? This is the state of transport in South Africa, without even mentioning the mess of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project and the collapsing of the train system. The DA will not support this budget. I thank you.