KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial roads are deteriorating at an alarming rate, inflicting mounting costs on farmers, freight operators, tourism businesses and rural communities. There are concerns about governance, oversight and infrastructure planning in one of South Africa’s most economically important provinces.
Provincial stakeholders and parliamentary records point to a pattern of neglected maintenance, failed contracts and community-led emergency fixes.
The latest flashpoint is a new sinkhole on the R74 Oliviershoek Pass — the only alternative to the N3 to the Free State — prompting renewed demands for urgent intervention and clarity on who should manage strategic corridors.
While routes managed by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) such as the N3 remain in generally good condition, thanks to toll revenue, large parts of the rural network are riddled with potholes, edge collapses, sinkholes, rutting and drainage failures. Motorists describe white-knuckle journeys, while freight operators factor in delays and damage as a cost of doing business.
Thys Janse van Rensburg, chair of the DA in the Uthukela district municipality, describes KZN’s roads as “past their lifespan, on the brink of full deterioration”.
The R74 through Oliviershoek Pass is a critical failure point.
“The pass is crumbling in real time. A new sinkhole has opened on a downhill sharp bend, a death trap waiting to happen. Sections of the road edge have collapsed, and the entire route is hazardous. This is no longer just inconvenient, it’s life-threatening for heavy vehicles, tourists and daily learner transport,” says Janse van Rensburg.
He has written to KZN MEC for transport Siboniso Duma and to parliament’s portfolio committee on transport, demanding action on the “critically deteriorating” R74 and clarity on when responsibility for it will be transferred to Sanral.
“More than 3½ years after parliament adopted the portfolio committee’s recommendations, which explicitly called for the transfer of certain provincial roads, including the R74, to Sanral, the KZN section remains under provincial control. In stark contrast, the Free State side was transferred and is now professionally managed by Sanral.”
Janse van Rensburg says the province has delayed the process of handing over the R74 to Sanral. “The MEC of transport needs to sign and hand it over to Sanral. But for some reason KZN is stalling.”
In February Sanral’s chief legal risk & compliance officer, Kaiser Khoza, told parliament’s select committee on public infrastructure that the agency has taken over 3,099km of provincial roads across the country, many in parlous condition, which it is now maintaining.
Janse van Rensburg says the R74 underpins tourism, agriculture, freight and local communities in the northern Drakensberg. Its condition is “devastating the local economy, undermining the Drakensberg world heritage site, destroying jobs in hospitality and farming, and forcing expensive detours that add hours and fuel costs”.
KZN Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) CEO Sandy La Marque says provincial road management is a “disaster”. She says the R74’s decline is imposing “significant costs to agricultural value chains” and losses for central and northern Drakensberg communities.
“Two contracts were issued. The first contractor came and tarred the road last year but didn’t complete the drainage. A blocked culvert was reported to the department and never dealt with, causing the collapse of the road on a blind corner. Continued nonaccountability and partly completed jobs persist.”
Moshoeshoe Road through Loskop collapsed three weeks ago, forcing detours without adequate signage. A poor access road has led to the closure of the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Injisuthi campsite.
The crisis extends beyond the Drakensberg. Roads around Ladysmith, Richards Bay, Vryheid and Pietermaritzburg are also deteriorating.
La Marque says the P326 to Entumeni (Eshowe) is in a “disastrous state” and the P104 in iLembe district on the north coast required major refurbishment after part of it washed away due to the province’s failure to clear a blocked culvert.
The R69 between Vryheid and Louwsburg is heavily potholed, affecting access to Ithala Game Reserve. Deteriorating routes to major heritage sites such as Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift are undermining tourism circuits.
This is despite the KZN department of transport spending R9.2bn on road maintenance over the past three years. The budget has dropped from R3.7bn in financial 2023 — spending was boosted that year due to the floods in April 2022 — to R2.3bn for financial 2027, raising concerns about whether allocations match maintenance backlogs.
Poor contractor performance compounds the problem. Stakeholders describe a recurring pattern: companies secure tenders, claim substantial “establishment” fees for site setup, then stall or abandon projects before completion.
Janse van Rensburg says this is “rampant”, with contractors disappearing after payment, only for the tender process to restart years later at additional cost.
One such case, on Oliviershoek Pass, involves a company called Madudla Contractors. According to a reply in parliament in 2023, the KZN department of transport paid R10.7m to the company for work on the R74 between June 2022 and August 2023. No amounts were withheld and total expenditure matched the payment. Yet none of the work has been done. The FM’s attempts to contact the sole director of Madudla Contractors, Sabelo Dlamini, who is based in Van Riebeeck Park, Ladysmith, were unsuccessful.
Duma’s spokesperson, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, says the department has requested reports from engineers on the matter.
Meanwhile, communities are resorting to self-help. Farmers fill potholes, extract stuck vehicles and manage drainage failures. Kwanalu says farmers pump “dams” formed by inadequate drainage and tow damaged vehicles from mud.
Drakensberg Experience chair Megan Bedingham and Uthukela-Drakensberg tourism cluster chair James Seymour say residents frequently fund temporary repairs. In Champagne Valley, the Central Drakensberg Ratepayers Association contributes to fixing local potholes.
Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly traces the crisis to a slow, cumulative decline. “The deterioration has been slow and almost invisible — until the last decade. The commodities boom, linked with the collapse of rail, played a major role,” he says. “There has not been decent maintenance at local and regional levels for almost 30 years. Roads looked good and seemed not to need repair. That has proved untrue.”
The freight sector is bearing heavy costs. Kelly says maintenance overall has risen from about 5% of operating costs to 8%-10%, sometimes 15%, due to tyre bursts, suspension damage, brake failures and electrical faults. Rough surfaces increase fuel consumption. Poor roads raise accident risks, insurance premiums and downtime.
La Marque warns of supply chain disruptions. One dairy farmer was told milk collection would stop unless a bridge on P601-1 was repaired. An emergency fix was undertaken but remains incomplete. “Roads are like veins. If they are critically damaged, economic life stops,” she says.
Tourism is suffering too. Brett Tungay, chair of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa, says roads in rural areas, particularly the Drakensberg and northern KZN/Zululand, are deteriorating, deterring caravanners and visitors who avoid secondary routes. Caravan parks in the northern and central Drakensberg report a drop in visitors.
Sibiya says the issues are receiving attention from Duma and newly appointed head of department Zibusiso Dlamini, who is “engaging chief directorates”. Further “regional consultation reports” are being compiled, and updates will follow “at the right time”.
Meanwhile, a potential model solution is emerging from the Free State.
National minister of public works & infrastructure Dean Macpherson recently signed a memorandum of co-operation with AgriSA, the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and the Free State provincial government to prioritise maintenance of high-volume agricultural corridors using data-driven modelling. The pilot aims to reduce logistics costs, strengthen food security and direct resources efficiently.
Umngeni municipality mayor Chris Pappas says his council has fixed some damaged provincial roads that run through the municipality. These include the R103, P141 and P147.
Pappas says corruption is the problem. “I have personally engaged with contractors who report that they are not paid for work completed unless they comply with demands that allegedly involve the payment of bribes amounting to millions of rands.”