12 Feb 2014

Parliament has been informed that two road accidents had been recorded along the Mosolotshane/Moralane road since October, 2009.

Answering a question in Parliament on Monday, February 10, from the MP for Shoshong, Mr Phillip Makgalemele, the transport and communications minister, Mr Nonofo Molefhi said in all those accidents, there were three fatalities and 12 serious injuries.

The road was adopted by roads department from local government and rural development during the 2012/2013 financial year, he said.

Furthermore, Mr Molefhi said for any road to be considered for tarring, it should have undergone structure prioritising criteria that would determine if it was a deserving candidate or not.

The minister said even after taking into consideration the strategic location of the Mosolotshane/Moralane road to the communities and the farming industry, the road had up to now not warranted priority over other deserving road projects.

Parliament was informed that the road would be considered for tarring together with other deserving candidates for appropriate interventions in future. The intervention that was currently on-going on these roads, he said was dry grading which was done once every quarter.

This, he said was so because the grader that was engaged to grade those roads is grading other gravel roads with total length of 366 kilometres.

Mr Molefhi noted that due to the current torrential rains, the status of the road would likely not improve in short term. However, he said the Department has acquired new graders, and it would be considered to increase the dry grading frequency whenever possible.

“The said road was last graded in July/August, 2013. The next intervention is scheduled end of February/ early March, 2014,” he added.

Deterioration of any road, Mr Molefhi said depended on a number of factors such as traffic, material used, environment and intervention accorded the road.

“If a road is perennially bad due to any of the above, appropriate interventions are available such as upgrading the road, using appropriate material and/or increasing the number of frequency of interventions such as dry grading,” he said.

To date, Mr Molefhi said they have not dopted or experimented with any alternative technology for road maintenance.

“We are currently experimenting with interlocking pavers for short distance link roads, If found suitable, it will be adopted for use where appropriate,” he said.

The Shoshong legislator had asked the minister to state the number of accidents that occurred along the Mosolotshane/Moralane road since October 2009 and what he makes of the figures given the bad state of the road.

He asked whether given the strategic location of the road to the Mosolotshane/Moralane communities and the farming industry, the minister would consider prioritising the tarring of the road.

Mr Makgalemele also wanted to know whether the minister had ever undertaken any detailed analysis to ascertain why the road was continuously in a bad state and if there was any alternative technology to address perennial bad roads. ENDS