Is SA’s rural economy on the road to ruin?
Roads link food to dining-room tables. The sick to hospitals. Children to schools.
Yet rural South Africans’ lives and livelihoods are under daily threat due to South Africa’s crumbling road infrastructure. This is according to the results of a survey conducted amongst 311 farming operations, all members of Agri SA or its provincial affiliates, which was delivered to Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza in April. “Roads are the arteries through which the economy pulses. We cannot afford to lock our rural people in cycles of poverty and inequality, ” says Lebogang Sethusha, labour and employment specialist at Agri SA.
“We can forget about discussions to accelerate economic growth and job creation when we haven’t invested substantially in the basic foundation of rural infrastructure.”
South Africa has
