(MENAFN- The Post)
'Mahlompho Akhosi's job as a car spares salesperson used to be simple.
She would sell the same parts all day. The majority of customers who came to her counter at Unity Tip Top, a spares shop, wanted oil, spark plugs, fuses or oil filters.
In other words, they were looking for basic vehicle maintenance parts.
Those service parts are still top sellers but another group of parts is also selling faster than before.
Akhosi says more customers are coming in to buy suspension parts like shock absorbers, CV joints, tie rods, control arms, ball joints and springs.
Spares shops across the country have also seen a similar uptick in demand for suspension parts. Tyre traders are also reporting an increase in sales volumes.
The reason is simple: Lesotho's messy roads are chewing both suspension parts and tyres in huge numbers.
And it doesn't matter what road you use because almost all have potholes.
A drive to a nearby shopping centre could leave your car with a damaged shock absorber, a burst tyre or a cracked rim.
You could drive a perfect car to work and come back with it bouncing like a tennis ball.
A simple five-kilometre trip from Koalabata to town could cost you a M2 000 shock absorber or a M1 000 tyre.
Akhosi says those who drive smaller cars are bleeding cash because of the bad roads.
“We usually see drivers of small cars such as Honda Fit coming to us,” Akhosi says.
“Bad roads are what make drivers visit our shop.”
The anguish is shared by drivers across the country.
Lesotho's road network of about 12 000 kilometres has collapsed due to years of underfunding and neglect.
Engineers blame the crisis on two main things.
The first is poor workmanship by corrupt or underqualified contractors who cut corners. The second is years of neglect due to lack of funding.
The impact of the shoddy work and lack of maintenance is made worse by the storms that have hit Lesotho in recent years.
“So the weather elements are hitting roads that have been poorly built and maintained,” says a civil engineer who has worked for several construction companies over the past 20 years.
He says he has seen the government paying companies for roads he knew would not last two rainy seasons.
“You know that they have cheated to get the tender and they will cheat again to get paid for their work approved,” he says.
“The system is rotten and there is no will to fix it.”
“Contractors don't have the incentive to do a good job because that cuts into their profits and there are no real consequences for doing the wrong things.”
“They do a bad job, get paid in full and move on to another contract to do another bad job”.
But the bill is now due and it's eye-watering.
The Roads Directorate says it needs about M14 billion to fix the country's network of paved and gravel roads. That is about 60 percent of this year's budget.
Nozesolo Matela, the directorate's public relations manager, says at least M9 billion is needed to address the maintenance backlog for gravel roads and about M4.5 billion to repair paved roads.
It doesn't appear that drivers will get any respite soon.
The government doesn't have the M14 billion in its coffers. Tax revenues have either been sluggish or sliding in recent years. The revenue share from the Southern African Customs Union, which used to beef up Lesotho's budget, has declined in recent years.
Local tax revenues have also slumped due to poor economic performance, company closures and job losses.
Meanwhile, the government's expenditure has continued to gallop as the wage bill balloons and more problems eat into the shrinking budget. This has left little for capital projects like road repairs.
Matela says the directorate has been allocated M1.2 billion for road construction and maintenance in this current fiscal year. That is a measly 8.5 percent of the M14 billion needed for the entire road network.
Matela says this year's allocation would be used to repair the A1 road between Ha 'Malesaoana and Butha-Buthe, Moshoeshoe Road, Kofi Annan as well as Masianokeng to St Michaels.
In the meantime, the directorate has resorted to a stopgap measure to do with the little it has. It recently launched Operation Kata-kata (Mokoari Project) which uses in-house teams to repair varisections on the main roads in Maseru, Berea, Leribe, Btha-Buthe and Mokhotlong.
The Roads Directorate says the operation will continue in Mafeteng, Mohale's Hoek and Quthing in the following weeks.
With an allocated budget of M18 879 600 and an estimated duration of two to six months, the Roads Directorate says this in-house routine maintenance operation will cover a total of 956.87 kilometres, divided into 47 sections, ensuring ease of supervision throughout the country.
Activities under the project include filling potholes as well as clearing side drains and other waterways to prevent waterlogging.
There will be erosion control scour checks to protect roads from environmental impact. Culverts will be unblocked and road signs restored.
Drivers are however sceptical that Operation Kata-kata will change much.
Lebohang Moea, the Maseru Regional and Taxi Operators (MRTO) spokesperson, wants the government to do much more.
He says the associations' members are facing huge vehicle maintenance costs at a time when the government forces them to charge uneconomic fares.
Moea says cars that used to be repaired once in three months are now in the garage every month.
“We are struggling now and experiencing bad cash flow in our businesses,” Moea says.
“If we were supposed to take three loads, now we take just two.”
The secretary of the national transport association for the northern, southern and central regions, Thulo Bataung, says their business is now sinking into seriproblems due to declining roads.
“Where we were supposed to take five minutes, we take 15,” Bataung says.
“Similarly, where we have to take 15 minutes, we take 30.”
Bataung says spares shops have also increased their prices because of demand.
He worries that the roads will get worse as the rainy season approaches.
Majara Molupe & Mpolai Makhetha