A vital tar road connecting Douglas and Hopetown has deteriorated so badly that farmers can no longer use it safely. They are now forced to take a detour of 100km, which results in significant extra costs.
By Charné Kemp
District road R3112 between Hopetown and Douglas, also known as the R325/R385 link, was built less than two decades ago to serve the region’s maize and wheat producers. With great fanfare, then Northern Cape MEC for Roads and Public Works Dawid Rooi officially opened the road in November 2013.
Now, the road is so riddled with deep and hazardous potholes that it is “practically unusable for normal vehicles”, local farmers say. Essential services such as school buses, the police and community health nurses can no longer use the route safely.
Local residents say the cause is the Northern Cape provincial government’s failure to carry out essential maintenance and provide road signage on provincial roads, made worse by municipalities’ “heedlessness”. Added to this is the lack of traffic authorities to ensure that heavily loaded ore trucks do not use the road illegally on their way to Eastern Cape ports.
The Douglas Farmers’ Association and other stakeholders have formed a dedicated road committee to resolve the crisis.
Also read: Farmers need good roads
Road Committee Demands Answers
Philip de Jager, a representative of the road committee, says farmers have to take a detour via Prieska and Britstown to transport their crops to silos and markets.
“The road is our lifeline,” he says. “Without it we are being economically strangled. And we pay our municipal and other taxes, but get no benefit from them.
“We have already sent a lawyer’s letter to officials, threatening legal action to compel the Department of Roads and Public Works to meet its maintenance responsibilities.”
In the letter, the committee says that before bringing an interdict application to force the department to repair, reseal and upgrade the road surface between Douglas, Campbell and Hopetown, it will first pursue all available avenues to resolve the problem.
The lawyer attempted to contact the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality and the local municipalities of Siyancuma and Thembelihle to obtain their budgets, integrated development plans and town planning documents, but was unsuccessful because phone calls were not answered and emails were ignored.
The documents that were obtained were incomplete. In the Pixley ka Seme budget, the section on refurbishing, repairing and maintaining existing assets – specifically roads – was left blank. The Siyancuma budget exists only as a draft and is incomplete.
Eastern Cape Precedent
The lawyer refers to a recent court case in June 2025 in the Eastern Cape where residents brought a similar application against the Department of Transport and Community Safety. The court found that the deplorable road conditions violated residents’ rights “not only to the freedom of movement but also to access essential services including healthcare and education”. It further found that no alternative remedy was available. The court ordered the department to repair the road within 120 days, despite the department’s claims of budget constraints.
Also read: Agri Northern Cape congress: ‘Roads are a disaster’
Allegations of Mismanagement and Faulty Construction
De Jager further alleges that the Northern Cape Department of Transport and Community Safety has wrongly issued “illegal” permits for heavy vehicles without proper knowledge of the road’s engineering limitations.
The road was originally designed for light agricultural traffic, he says, but it is being destroyed by heavy manganese-ore trucks that use it as an unauthorised short cut to avoid national routes, accelerating its deterioration.
An interdict obtained by the committee to have the permits declared invalid has not progressed further due to a lack of funds.
“The problem is worsened by a construction defect,” De Jager says. “A section of the road was reportedly built with inferior 14mm stone instead of the standard 16mm due to budget cuts.”
Another allegation is that one of the department’s vehicles is being unlawfully used by workers to transport people.
“When we ask workers why the road is not being fixed, we are told the budget has been cut and, for example, they don’t even have fuel. But then we see the bakkie on our security cameras driving all over the district, even at night. We don’t believe the trips are always for work purposes.
“When the department offers help, we receive bags of tar that are useless for repairing potholes in the winter cold. Even our pleas to municipal and departmental officials and directors have fallen on deaf ears.”
There is reportedly also a complete absence of traffic officers to check permits and enforce route restrictions.
Also read: Transport authorities ‘will assist’ with large machinery on public roads
The Department’s Response
Zandisile Luphahla, spokesperson for the Department of Roads and Public Works, acknowledged the road’s poor condition. He says a comprehensive assessment has been completed and funding has been secured for rehabilitation, which will begin early next year.
“The Class 3 road was built with 13,2mm aggregate, which complies with engineering specifications and therefore is not a design flaw,” he says.
“Routine maintenance does not always require full resealing. Engineers determine which specific rehabilitation needs are required for each segment.”
Regarding allegations of vehicle misuse, Luphahla says all vehicles are equipped with tracking devices and fuel is managed through cards programmed to detect irregularities. “The vehicle in question, mentioned in community concerns, is allocated for operations in Hopetown, Douglas and surrounding areas.”
The Department of Transport and Community Safety did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations regarding the incorrect issuing of permits and the absence of traffic enforcement on the route.
