Routes leading to Pilgrims Rest, Gods Window, the Bourke’s Luck Potholes, and the Kruger National Park in need of refurbishment.
Tourism is the province’s major potential job creator and roads that connect visitors to desired sites need maintenance. The new Mpumalanga Public Works, Roads and Transport, MEC Latchminarain, is being called upon to prioritize rehabilitation of all the roads which lead to major and all tourist destination sites.
Potholes are now deterrents for tourists wanting to visit the province, said Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Bosman Grobler in a statement.
Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane in the State of the Province Address (Sopa) mentioned upgrading of the tourist destinations in the province, however, what was not mentioned was how to deal with issues of the severely dilapidated roads that feed the sites. Provincial government is advised to devise strategies aimed at growing provincially the economy in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Grobler said.
“The roads are in need of attention and local government has to do something because roads reflect what our society is like to visitors,” said Skhumbuzo Buda, a self-employed tour operator who works along the Pilgrims Rest route. Mpumalanga’s tourism sector has been affected badly by the Covid-19 pandemic and the state of roads is becoming a deterrent for visiting tourists. Roads leading to prominent tourist destination sites are riddled with potholes for years now.
Matlatsi Tours owner in Mpumalanga said that his passengers from Europe mostly ask him of the roads if there were always this bad, “and I tell them no. It is very embarrassing and scaring away my customers. At the end of the day it takes away my business.”
Recent rains have exacerbated the state and condition of some of these tourist routes as the damage to infrastructure totalled R1.3 billion. On the road to the Kruger Gate in Hazyview there are deep potholes which pose a threat to motorists and a portion of the roads surface has been stripped away by the rains. The situation is the same in Graskop and in Mbombela which was ravaged by the recently torrential rains. Mike Mncube, a Tour Guide working at God’s Window, also called upon MEC Latchminarain to fix the roads. “People who visit these Mpumalanga scenic sites use roads to come to us and again, we use roads to travel to our site. So you see the state of the roads will influence a person’s need to visit again. MEC has to put it on top of his agenda to fix roads that feed us visitors who came here for tourism,” Mncube said.
