Small South African town losing thousands of jobs as its roads fall apart

Residents of the small town of Dullstroom have warned that it faces an impending economic crisis, potentially putting thousands of jobs at risk.

The town, situated in Mpumalanga, has become known as a popular tourist destination in South Africa, particularly for its fly-fishing industry.

However, Newzroom Afrika has reported that deteriorating roads and declining service delivery now threaten to completely collapse the town’s tourism sector.

The two main access roads into the town, the R36 and the R540, have fallen into disrepair due to an influx of heavy freight trucks transporting chrome from Limpopo.

According to the Dullstroom Business and Tourism Association (DBTA), these trucks have resorted to intentionally diverting along these routes to avoid toll fees along major highways.

However, because these routes were not engineered to support such heavy loads, this has accelerated structural deterioration in the road infrastructure.

The DBTA said this has made it increasingly difficult for tourists to access the town, which has already led to the closure of at least 17 guesthouses along the R36.

This has already resulted in significant job losses for the town’s tourism industry, which is estimated to directly support more than 4,000 Dullstroom residents.

Dullstroom business leaders have called for urgent repairs to these roads, warning that continued deterioration could cause tourists to stop visiting the town altogether.

The management of these two routes previously sat under the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, but was transferred to the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) in 2025.

Since then, efforts to repair and rebuild the roads have been continually outpaced by further damage caused by trucks travelling along these routes.

Residents of Dullstroom have now taken SANRAL to court to ensure a reduced speed limit is enforced on all trucks entering the town in future.

This comes after a number of traffic incidents involving these heavy freight trucks during a recent wine festival in the town.

Dullstroom residents take over maintenance

The continued collapse of service delivery has led residents of Dullstroom to take it upon themselves to maintain the town’s infrastructure.

Local organisations such as Drive Dullstroom Destiny (DDD) have actively worked to repair roads, clean stormwater drains, and install signage throughout the town.

Despite this, the residents and private organisations involved in these repairs have raised concerns that their efforts are unsustainable without municipal support.

“The challenge that we have in town is basically our road infrastructure, with organisations such as the DDD maintaining it,” one resident previously told Newzroom Afrika.

“Due to a lack of funds, it is obviously a little bit substandard and is not a long-term sustainable solution. It can be, but the municipality doesn’t contribute or help.”

Farmers in Dullstroom and its surrounding areas have expressed outrage over the high rates and taxes which the municipality expects them to pay while roads continue to go unmaintained.

Alongside deteriorating road infrastructure, the town has faced other issues, including water supply shortages and inconsistent waste removal.

Towards the beginning of last year, the town’s residents managed to raise R1.7 million in just 43 days during a severe drought.

The money went towards funding a potable water project and building a secondary pump station, preventing the town from running out of water completely.

According to one Dullstroom resident, the Emakhazeni Local Municipality did not even thank these residents for raising the funds to build the pump station.

Municipal officials have maintained that while the municipality is struggling financially, it has not completely abandoned Dullstroom and its residents.

“The roads that have become an outcry are those that do not belong to the municipality,” one official said. “They belong to SANRAL, and it is them that is dealing with the maintenance.”

“On our side, we do have problems with roads that are dilapidated because of the inflow of heavy vehicles around the mines, which are moving on our roads.”