THE Johannesburg Roads Agency yesterday said budget cuts had forced it to scale back some road projects and “reprioritise” others in the country’s richest city, which is battling with backlogs on capital projects and maintenance.

Spokesman Thulani Makhubela said the City of Johannesburg, agency’s sole shareholder, had slashed its capital expenditure allocation to R119m for the financial year 2009- 10 from R162m the previous year. The maintenance budget was reduced R26m to R482 this year.

The budget cuts come at a critical time for the agency, which faces complaints over its failure to attend to potholes, trenches and faulty traffic lights that are now commonplace in some parts of the city, contributing to worsening congestion and deteriorating road maintenance.

Questions have been asked about whether the city’s roads will be up to standard when the Soccer World Cup kicks off in June next year. The agency has yet to upgrade 1654 guidance signs on main roads such as Beyers Naude Drive, install 122 tourism signs, and erect 1000 street and suburb name signs.

Makhubela said the budget cuts had no bearing on Johannesburg’s preparations for the World Cup — the city will be hosting the opening and closing ceremonies. “We will never cut down on anything to do with the World Cup,” he said.

The agency’s latest visual condition index, a study it conducts every fifth year, showed that resurfacing of roads alone cost up to R284m. For the current financial year, the agency had a total budget of about R527m.

The roads agency had been forced to “reprioritise” some of its projects and take others off its “wish list”, Makhubela said.

But the Democratic Alliance (DA) recently said the budget cuts were a direct result of poor planning, inefficiency and mismanagement of the city’s resources.

It said the agency’s capital projects such as the upgrading of gravel roads would be reduced by 31%, while the budget for storm-water management had been reduced from R30m to R22m.

One of the consequences of the city council’s “appalling revenue collection rate of around 62%” was that the city would not be able to meet its budget promises to the people of Johannesburg, the DA said.

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