One hundred and seventeen million rand.
That is how much the government paid to tar a 14km stretch of road on the outskirts of Somerset East which starts and ends in the middle of nowhere.
The road, which runs past six farms, is relatively quiet with only about three cars passing through every hour.
During a visit to the area by The Herald more than a week ago, the team saw only three vehicles over a period of two hours, one of which was delivering produce to a farmer.
Stock farmer Anthony Gowar, whose farm runs adjacent to the road, described it as an absolute waste of money as the gravel road was “perfectly” fine to travel on.
Gowar said the money used could have been used elsewhere or tarred a different section of the road which was used frequently.
“The unnecessariness of this road is unbelievable.
“When I see what’s happening on the road going to Addo (R335), there’s nowhere for people to drive.
“Two people will pass my house in a day.
“There’s no traffic on this road.
“If people want to go to Somerset East, they go via Longhope Road and get on the tarred road.
“This money wasn’t spent by the roads department, it was spent by the rural development department which makes me [angry] because rural affairs is supposed to be buying farms from farmers and giving them to black people.
“The road starts in the middle of nowhere and ends in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
Gowar, a former lecturer at the University of Cape Town, claimed the office of former minister of rural development & land reform Gugile Nkwinti tarred the road because he wanted to leave a legacy as his family was from the area.
“Nkwinti’s great-greatgrandfather was murdered by the Xhosas up in the mountains somewhere and he was busy constructing a monument for him.
“They’ve got no road to get to where the monument will be and Nkwinti’s been referred to another department and so I’m pretty sure they’ve got no money to complete the rest of that road,” Gowar said.
“From here to Somerset East is another 50km and from here to Addo is another 60km.
“I mean what is in Somerset? There’s nothing there,” he said.
Gowar said the department chose the best stretch of gravel road to tar, and if it wanted to tar a piece of road so badly, it could have tarred the R335 to Addo.
Nkwinti, who is now serving as the minister of water and sanitation, rubbished Gowar’s claims that he was constructing a monument to honour his relatives.
Nkwinti said Gowar was lying and that the 53ha farm was a historical landmark.
“The fourth war [4th Cape Frontier War] of the nine wars of dispossession was fought there [Zuurveld] and many Khoi and San and Xhosa people fought alongside each other against the whites,” he said.
Nkwinti said the government had acquired the piece of land Gowar was talking about because it was a significant piece of land for Xhosas and Khoi and San people.
Rural development & land reform spokesperson Linda Page confirmed the department had developed the road but said it was a joint operation with the department of roads and public works.
She said the contractor was paid R117,903m.
She said the road was parallel to the technical training division of the police in Zuurberg Road and that townships closer to the road would have an easier route to Somerset East.
“In addition to this, the route will encourage tourism development within the Addo Elephant National Park and Enon-Bersheba commonage which has approximately 9,000 dwellers,” Page said.
She said the road formed part of the Zuurberg High Impact Projects that included the construction of a heritage site at Zuurberg and a joint partnership with SANParks and the Addo Elephant Park and construction of Somerset East Airfield.
According to Page, a traffic assessment was done which found more vehicles would make use of the R335 if it was upgraded.
Page said there were plans to surface the entire stretch of gravel road from the Addo side to Somerset East – a distance of 113km.