Rural roads in many of South Africa's provinces are in a dangerous state of disrepair Farmers are stepping in to fix roads that threaten lives and livelihoods Image: Food For Mzansi from supplied photos It cannot be ignored anymore: in many parts of Mzansi maintenance on run-down rural roads is now a multimillion-rand burden carried by farmers After a recent meeting with provincial government officials food producers who are desperately trying to plug holes in their deteriorating roads network are convinced that waiting on government to do its job is futile For the sake of their own and their children’s survival farmers in the Free State are forced to take on the responsibility of fixing roads vice president of Free State Agriculture (FSA) The Free State is among the provinces in the country with notoriously poor roads infrastructure The floods and above-average rainfall that occurred in January and February only exacerbated the problem Countless engagements with the provincial government have yielded little to no results and a meeting two weeks ago was the final nail in the coffin for farmers’ hopes “After [the] disappointing meeting … to address the roads crisis … FSA was convinced that we will have to take action ourselves if the problems of the roads are to be overcome,” Von Maltitz says FSA commercial manager Jack Armour adds that following months of seeking an audience from government the Free State premier and MEC for finance decided not to pitch to the arranged meeting a delegation led by the MEC for cooperative governance was sent “The roads issue is a financial and management [one] so it was important that the finance MEC and premier should have been there Our roads MEC arrived 45 minutes late.” “We had a great opportunity to present a detailed report on roads and safety … and the response from the … MEC was disappointing because he said he knew all the problems we had.” Armour says some of the questions they raised remained unanswered These included how many road scrapers were working in the Free State and what the schedule was for scraping gravel roads in the province’s five districts They also left without an answer as to why R194 million was returned to Treasury unspent in the previous financial year as this allocation was meant for roads repairs FSA is also unclear on the final roads budget and action plan for gravel and tarred roads in the current financial year a Free State town about 60 km east of Bloemfontein fruit farmer Tsholofelo Motlhale says that the moment rain falls a truck carrying equipment to install a borehole on her farm got stuck for three days while travelling on a muddy Roads leading to farms need to be tended to because we are feeding the country A day wasted because of poor infrastructure is way too much and has many financial implications.” The Free State is not the only province with such problems Eastern Cape dairy farmer Siviwe Tikana tells Food For Mzansi that his family has resorted to using their own money to fix roads “It has been three years that the roads have been in this state and the department of public works never comes to fix [it] Trucks drive over it and it’s back to square one,” he explains Tikana says they have a community fund that allows locals to contribute from as little as R10 to the account so that roads can be fixed they depend on their agricultural workers to help filling potholes This ultimately leads to a loss in productivity for the farming business says the road from three villages close to the Borakalalo National Park has been in a bad state for over a decade “As a farmer I use this road on a daily basis It’s very frustrating because [when I] transport cattle to the abattoir they become very stressed [and this] may result in bad meat quality,” she says “Animal wellbeing is important and they don’t need to be stressed.” She says the road links farmers around Legonyane Jericho and Maboloka village to Brits for farmers to access vegetables markets and livestock auctions suspension damage and even damage to the body [of the vehicle] We spend most of [our] money on car service,” Kgwadi says Saamtrek Saamwerk coordinator Sehularo Sehularo says that rural roads particularly in the agricultural district of Kuruman are in a very poor state especially [during] rainy seasons?” he says Barkly West and Danielskuil is in a bad state Although government has closed the road to fix it The closure could have been avoided if they listened.” The department of roads and public works in the Northern Cape confirms that it is working on the R31 “Through its key performance indicators programme which is a contractor development initiative [the department] has various groups conducting vegetation control alongside the R31 provincial road “The one group is doing de-bushing and grass cutting from Barkly West towards Delportshoop Another group is building culverts at the Gong-Gong turn-off Rock pitching in front of the culvert prevents soil erosion,” the department says in a written response The MEC for public works and roads in North West tells Food For Mzansi that its R380-million road infrastructure allocation is not enough to meet all needs “As a province we have a huge backlog on the maintenance and upgrading of roads in line with our draft ten-year roads master plan suggest that we have a total of 19 783 km of road of which 5 125 are paved and the remaining 14 658 are gravel roads “The reality of the situation suggests that we will only be able to achieve 500 km at the end of the ten-year period if the allocations from the [national] equitable share remains the same There are competing interests between rural roads and the economic urban infrastructure.” roads and transport and the Eastern Cape public works and infrastructure departments had not responded to questions from Food For Mzansi This article will be update once these departments’ responses are received ALSO READ: ‘Dear government, please get your house in order’ Sign up for Mzansi Today: Your daily take on the news and happenings from the agriculture value chain Just one important aspect of joining the South African hospitality industry on taking up a food and beverage job, is doing your.. With 21 global awards in the first six years of its existence Food For Mzansi is much more than an agriculture publication unashamedly saluting the unsung heroes of South African agriculture We believe in the power of agriculture to promote nation building and social cohesion by telling stories that are often overlooked by broader society Contact usOffice: +27 21 879 1824News: info@foodformzansi.co.zaAdvertising: sales@foodformzansi.co.za Please check your email and enter your one time pin below:   Open in Gmail Sorry there was an error loading the audio Ward 2 in Nala (Wesselsbron Monyakeng) in the Free State Nala municipality is an ANC controlled municipality in the maize belt of the Free State. Its principal towns are Bothaville and Wesselsbron.advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Ward 2 is centred around the town of Wesselsbron and includes the township of Monyakeng and a tiny rural voting district Even though the ANC won the ward by over 400 votes in 2016 it was still deemed a competitive ward as the ruling party was not able to win more than 50% of the vote The VF+ came third here with 16% of the vote in 2016 and they decided to not contest here this time If one had to simply add the DA’s percentage vote share of 28% to the 16% of the VF+ and that was to convert as many of the VF+ from 2016 as possible and at the same time increase their vote share in Monyakeng township where the majority of the voters in the ward reside The results were similar at the smaller voting district of the Baptist Church The ANC’s percentage vote share went from 77% to 70% receiving 264 votes as opposed to 271 in the previous election compared to the 42 they received here in 2016 The VF+ got 40% of the vote at the Wesselsbron Public Library in 2016 The DA got 59% of the vote at the Library in 2016 On Wednesday the DA got 610 votes at the Library This was the only district where the ANC’s vote share went up Turn-out in the by-election was an impressive 59% The ANC lose a seat on the Nala council. They now have 14 (15) out of the 24 seats. The EFF remain the official opposition here with five seats, but the DA now have four (three) councillors. The Vryheids Front + have one seat. advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads Ward 37 in Tshwane (Soshanguve South) in Gauteng The Tshwane council had much media focus last week with the DA Mayor Solly Msimanga dodging a vote of no confidence bullet Msimanga and the DA took over Tshwane from the ANC in 2016 by forming a coalition with smaller opposition parties and getting outside support from the EFF Soshanguve is an ANC stronghold in Tshwane There was much interest in this by-election but the actual voters in the ward did not share the interest of those election watchers and political analysts who do not reside in the ward Ward 12 in Ngwathe (Parys Tumahole) in the Free State DA 62% (72%) VF+ 19% (7%) ANC 17% (19%) EFF 3% (2%) Ngwathe municipality is an ANC controlled municipality in the Free State Ward 12 includes a large chunk of Parys and a part of the Tumahole township The DA lost ground to the VF+ in the DA strongholds on Wednesday. In 2016, the DA got between 88-89% of the vote in the two Parys voting districts. This fell to 74%-76% on Wednesday, with the VF+ percentage vote share increasing from 7-9% to 21-25%. The VF+ will be most encouraged by these returns. advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove ads While the DA’s percentage vote share went down its traditional strongholds it leapfrogged the EFF for second place in the Tumahole voting district The two Free State results show some fluidity with regards to conservative white voters approximately 70% of the VF+ voters were willing to vote for the DA candidate voters were willing to lend their vote to the VF+ instead of the DA in a ward deemed safe from ANC control Ward 7 in Lekwa-Teemane (Utlawanang Geluksoord) next to Christiana in the North West Both the ANC and the EFF had a fair chance to increase their percentage support in the ward as there were only two parties contesting The EFF more than doubled their vote tally and their percentage share of the vote went from 9% to 26% The ANC were unable to capitalise on the small field and lost some ground here This is best illustrated by the Utlawanang Community Hall voting district where the ANC’s percentage vote share went from 79% in 2016 to 62% while the EFF’s percentage vote share went from 9% up to 38% ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " Home | South Africa Workers at LFC Milling Company at Wesselsbron in the Free State have called on their bosses to dismiss employees who discriminate against Black staff. They allege that there’s an employee, who abuses workers and frequently uses the “K” word. They also complained about low wages and victimisation. The workers, led by Neawusa, marched and handed over a memorandum of demands to the company. They say they’ve worked over a decade with no salary increase. Those who were injured on duty are still waiting to be compensated. Frans Gasengake says he has been working for LFC Milling for 14 years without any promotion. He got injured on duty in 2016, but to date, he has not been compensated. “I have been working here since 2007 and I got injured in 2016 until today I have never received any compensation so it is very bad, very bad because now the company is improving but their employees are very poor,” explains Gasengake. Workers also accuse LFC Milling of failing to address work-related issues, such as appointments and overtime payments. “Most of the people who are working here, they are not being compensated well as they get injured at work but now we are very fortunate  to have a union such as this because now they are fighting for us so that we work in a good working environment.” “I was held hostage, I was praying for my life as they were trying to kill me. But the next day I was told to come to work.” Neawusa is calling for equal work and equal pay to apply to all workers. The union’s Secretary-General, Tsiliso Lenepa, says they have given the management seven days to respond to the demands. “The demands is wages worth R6 500 to the lowest, we have been talking with the employers since last year….whereby we deadlocked and we have been trying to talk to the employer in a way that he must understand all the issues. As well as the provident fund that must be transferred from the Sacawu fund to the hospitality fund. And the other thing is the discrimination that is in here whereby black workers are treated in a very bad manner.” The management of the LFC Milling Company has declined to comment. Neawusa members protest against LFC Milling company:  Trump has somehow seized upon one affecting white people It long ago ceased being an argument that can be made in good faith In identifying America’s interests with those of white South Africans He’s reviving a tradition on the American right He’s speaking about South Africa in the way many prominent Republicans did in those prelapsarian pre-Obama decades when America was “great.” For most of the cold war, the United States and apartheid South Africa were de facto allies. In 1962, the CIA even tipped off Pretoria to Nelson Mandela’s whereabouts as the anti-apartheid movement challenged this cozy arrangement the American debate over South Africa split along ideological lines It was Trump’s predecessors in the conservative movement and the Republican Party who insisted most vociferously that America should prefer the apartheid government to its most prominent black foes Racism, Ta-Nehisi Coates has noted creates hierarchies of compassion: “Broad sympathy for some; broader skepticism for others.” The ANC was And white fears are not per se illegitimate conservative Republicans expressed unwarranted sympathy for South Africa’s white government and unwarranted skepticism of its black opponents Trump is expressing unwarranted skepticism of its black government and unwarranted sympathy for its white opponents He’s reviving traditions that America never fully buried or renounced thesouthafrican.com is a division of Blue Sky Publications Ltd Reproduction without permission prohibited Home » Wesselsbron protesters wreak havoc over service delivery Free State police say tuck shops have been looted and protesters are burning tyres The Public Order Policing (POP) unit has been deployed at Wesselsbron, in the Free State after protesters from the Monyakeng community burnt tyres and looted tuck shops over a lack of service delivery.  Angered by the municipality and its lack of action to provide basic services to community members protesters took the streets of Wesselsbron at 6:00 on Wednesday Wesselsbron is a small maize farming town 75km south of Bothaville in the Free State.  Police confirmed in a statement that tuck shops were looted during the protest leading to the arrest of six people aged between 29 and 42.  arrested for displays of public violence and resisting arrest.  Sergeant Joseph Rasello from the Wesselsbron police station confirmed that the community is not happy with the municipality burning tyres and destroying property on the road.  Rasello said police are still trying to get the situation under control Roads to Makwassie and Wesselsbron near Bothaville have since been barricaded.  In a separate incident that took place just last month, disgruntled residents of Magabeni, a township located in Umkomaas south of Durban took their frustration with poor service delivery out on motorists using the N2 Highway to connect to Amanzimtoti.  According to police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele burning tyres and rubble were used to block the highway Before POP arrived on the scene to confront the protesters eThekwini Fire Department South Divisional Commander Justin Bateman said the truck driver was attempting to turn away from the scene of the burning tyres when he was hit by a petrol bomb “The driver and his assistance fled the scene… Once the area was stabilised by the Public Order Police and we moved in and extinguished the fire,” Bateman said It is believed that the truck and its cargo suffered extensive damage Mbele was able to confirm that the truck driver sustained some injuries in the fiery confrontation but was in a stable condition He was rushed to the hospital for medical attention Members are still at the scene to monitor the situation,” Mbele said Follow us on Facebook for the latest breaking news, polls - and more! 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