Is SA's rural economy on the road to ruin?

Dilapidated country roads are a direct threat to South Africa's agricultural and rural economies, yet farmers and communities have largely encountered a wall of indifference from government. In an attempt to be heard, Agri SA and its affiliates conducted a countrywide survey amongst 311 primary production units, many of which expressed frustration over the authorities' lack of action. Susan Marais reports.

- Susan Marais

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 the 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 reached a new low, with its unemployment rate at an all-time high. During the fourth quarter of 2021, a staggering 7,9 million South Africans (35,3%) were unemployed. This is the highest unemployment rate since Statistics South Africa started monitoring unemployment rates quarterly in 2008. However, Sethusha says South Africa cannot truly address the unemployment crisis before the country’s Achilles heel, its dilapidated road infrastructure has been sorted out. “Roads […] bring life and prosperity to rural communities,” she stresses.

Kulani Siweya, Agri SA’s chief economist, says the survey highlighted that 94% of all agricultural produce is moved by road. “Last year, the average commercial farmer transported around R23 million worth of agricultural produce by road, which comes to a combined total of more than R7,1 billion for South Africa.”