Transport Minister S’busiso Ndebele launches S’hamba Sonke or We Are Going Together, an initiative worth R6.4 billion between 2011 and 2012. What exactly is it for? Basically to upgrade and in many cases, create new roads in the secondary sector. That means back-roads in everyday speak. Several freeways and highways have experienced upgrades over the past two years and now it’s time for the secondary roads.
S’hamba Sonke is also a job-creation vehicle (pun intended) in that lots and lots of tenders will be awarded to well-deserving companies (tsk tsk) who, in turn, will employ lots and lots of casual, non-permanent labourers for a few months. In the end the company CEO and his buddies will walk away satisfied they have applied meaningful change to the joblessness situation, and thus deserve million-rand pats on each other’s backs.
In addition, Zibambele, another plan to swell the ranks of employment, aims to use labour-intensive means to help maintain existing roads. Hopefully it means fewer potholes on the roads, more tar than gravel, more pavements for people to walk, less clogging of our roadside drains.
“Roads engineers and superintendents will be deployed all over the roads network with the responsibility to address potholes and infrastructure maintenance. They will be charged with driving through stretches of road every morning in order to determine the daily condition of the roads network thereby assisting with the early identification and repair of potholes” an official government statement says.
Tenderpreneurs are licking their lips once again at such an inviting carrot stick.
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