SANRAL

We thought that it would go a long way in stimulating employment.

That when Sanral rolls out infrastructure projects, the same with DBSA, the same with ESCOM and others, The projects will be labor-intensive so that we are able to create more opportunities for young people.

And as I've said, we believe that the role of the private sector, labor, should be emphasized.

It is not only government that plays a role in the economic development, but social contract is very important between labor, private sector, and government.

They said, no, we can't investigate those things.

All of the syndicates that happened in ESCOM, in Transnet, in Sanral, in Prasa, and everywhere else where state money is being used in billions.

South Africans will not have known because the ANC had gotten used to a way of silencing political parties that were in parliament, were critical.

Now, and before you know it, they left that issue.

South Africa ranks 10th globally by total road length and 18th by paved road network, ahead of many wealthier and even larger nations.

Sanral, South Africa's national roads agency, manages 21,400 kilometers of that network.

The nine provinces handle around 273,000 kilometers of combined paved and gravel roads, while municipalities and the metros, they cover a further 323,000 kilometers.

Sitting on top of all of that is a replacement cost, what it would actually cost to build this entire system from scratch, and that figure is 1.7 trillion rand.

That figure alone should reframe how we all think about this ground, the ground that we drive on every single day.

Sanral's own net asset value for the year of 2024, 2025 financial year came in at 783 billion rand just for the 24,000 kilometers of national roads that it manages.

Those are world-class assets sitting in a country that often struggles to articulate its own strengths.

The road network is one of the clearest examples of infrastructure-led competitive advantage that South Africa holds, and it deserves to be understood a little bit better.

The city has mentioned in, in their responses to us in some of the letters we wrote to them.

So in the letters that we sent, we were asking them, um, questions pertaining to, uh, the approval of the grant as to which department approved it, um, which, uh, uh, authority will be brought in, which service providers, how far is the process, uh, engagements with Sanral, uh, where can we find official documents, um, regarding this proposed development? And I think that's the major issue, that there is no public record enough to inform how the decision was made.

That's one.

The second is that the communities that live next to the N2 do not have basic services.

It will also standardise and strengthen governance practices, improve monitoring, and facilitate and coordinate the rationalisation and restructuring of the entities to eliminate duplication and improve efficiency, she added.

South Africa has scores of state entities, including power utility ESCOM, logistics company Transnet, and South African National Roads Agency.

A number of them have been dogged by mismanagement and financial problems, leaving them reliant on government funding to survive, which has spurred calls for improved oversight.

Some of those biggest firms fell under the Department of Public Enterprises, but it was disbanded in March 2025 and control was transferred to the relevant line ministries.

Hi, Jimmy, and nice to be with you.

Well, I think that the direct parallel or example is in fact SANRAL.

SANRAL provides the roads.

ATNS provides, if you like, the roads for this, for the, for the airplanes, which are the paths, the routes, the navigation systems that guide them to get from A to B.

So it, it plays an absolutely essential role.

Because Joe has given us one of the most fascinating definitions of local content I've heard in a very long time.

Now, according to evidence presented at the commission, Sebanyoni told investigators that he entered into partnership with businessman Dr. Tengan Ntuli because Ntuli needed to satisfy a 30% local content requirement to secure a Sanral-related tender.

And Sebanyoni's argument was essentially, "I'm local.

Hey, local is lekker.