The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) is facing mounting pressure on its road network condition following the transfer of 3 099 km of provincial roads during the 2024/25 financial year, many handed over in poor condition without accompanying budgets.
Chairperson Themba Mhambi told the Select Committee on Public Infrastructure on 24 February 2026 that the agency had accepted these roads, often in a “paltry state,” to support national economic development.
“Up to a few years ago, the committee shall have seen that we had absolutely no challenge in terms of the condition of our roads,” he said.
“We have, in recent years, had a number of roads transferred from the provinces to Sanral and indeed those roads that we would inherit in quite a paltry state in many, many instances.”
He said the roads had not come with any relevant funds allocated to them.
Sanral chief legal risk and compliance officer, Kaiser Koza, who appeared before the committee as acting CEO, confirmed that 3 099 km of roads had been transferred to the agency. He said the agency had undertaken immediate routine maintenance interventions to make the roads drivable and safe.
The transfers contributed to shortfalls in key performance indicators, including smooth travel exposure (94.70% against 95%) and bridge condition exposure (89.10% against 90%), as well as the overall roads condition index of 64.45 against a target of 70.
Sanral’s non-toll portfolio, which constitutes 90% of its network and relies on government grants, recorded operating expenditure of R23 billion in 2024/25, with significant portions directed to maintenance.
For 2025/26, the agency anticipated reprioritisation within existing allocations to address transferred roads, as additional funding from National Treasury remains under discussion with the Minister and Department of Transport.
In response to concerns about heavy freight damaging roads – particularly those that should utilise rail – Sanral said it is exploring targeted measures.
Mhambi told the committee the board had directed management to examine “special toll roads for particularly heavy freight that might be too damaging to our network”.
He said focus would be on trucks that “ordinarily should not be on those roads” to protect ordinary motorists.
“We do not want ordinary members of the public to suffer as a result,” he said.
Mhambi said Transnet is “helping greatly with regards to this” because it has accelerated its focus on shifting freight transport from road to rail.
“The process is going very, very well as far as that is concerned,” he said.
Sanral said it would provide a full list of transferred roads to the committee.
