Breaking the regravelling trap: A fiscal-federalism contract for upgrading South Africa’s unpaved roads

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dc.contributor.authorRoss, Don
dc.contributor.authorTownshend, Matthew
dc.contributor.authorvan der Westhuizen, Vincent
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-24T15:50:02Z
dc.date.available2026-06-24T15:50:02Z
dc.date.issued2026-06-08
dc.description.abstractSouth Africa’s provincial and municipal road networks are dominated by low-volume gravel roads that are essential for service delivery and market access but are chronically under-upgraded. This paper argues that the persistence of repeated regravelling, reactive repairs, and post-disaster reinstatement is not primarily an engineering failure; it is an intergovernmental public investment problem. Responsibilities are decentralised across multiple principals and agents, benefits from upgrading are partly non-excludable and spill across jurisdictions, and budget holders face short-horizon fiscal constraints. The resulting wedge between national welfare and sub-national private incentives generates an underinvestment equilibrium in which economically justified upgrades are deferred and recurrent maintenance liabilities compound.en
dc.description.versionPublished Version
dc.format.extent35
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidRoss, Don§0000-0003-1813-3111
dc.identifier.authororcidTownshend, Matthew
dc.identifier.authororcidvan der Westhuizen, Vincent
dc.identifier.citationRoss, D, Townshend, M & van der Westhuizen, V 2026 'Breaking the regravelling trap: A fiscal-federalism contract for upgrading South Africa’s unpaved roads' Policy Papers, vol. 2026, Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) , pp. 1-35. https://doi.org/10.71587/zwa9am73
dc.identifier.doi10.71587/zwa9am73
dc.identifier.endpage35
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0003-1813-3111/work/218711781
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18970
dc.identifier.volume2026
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherEconomic Research Southern Africa (ERSA)
dc.publisherEconomic Research Southern Africa (ERSA)
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Papers
dc.rights© 2026, the Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
dc.rights.accessrightsopen access
dc.rights.licensenameAttribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject[SocietyPoliticsEthics]
dc.subjectPublic investment management
dc.subjectIntergovernmental fiscal relations
dc.subjectConditional grants
dc.subjectPerformance-based financing
dc.subjectLow-volume sealed roads
dc.titleBreaking the regravelling trap: A fiscal-federalism contract for upgrading South Africa’s unpaved roadsen
dc.typeWorking paper
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