The Road Fund will celebrate 30 years of excellence in infrastructure development, during a ceremony scheduled to take place in Maseru on October 13, 2025.
Announcing the celebration during a Media Conference convened by the Road Fund on Wednesday, the Road Fund Chief Executive Officer Mrs. ‘Matšepang Sekhokoane said the theme for the celebration is “Thirty Years of Excellence: From Funding Roads to Fostering Road User Safety and Economic Growth.”
She explained that over the past three decades, the Road Fund has played a critical role in transforming national road networks, promoting economic growth, and enhancing road safety achieved through collaboration with both the revenue collecting agencies and the implementing agencies.
“We have been collecting road user charges which is our revenue, and turning it into safer and more sustainable roads, as we disbursed it to implementing agencies for infrastructure development,” she reiterated.
Mrs. Sekhokoane explained that ahead of the main celebration, the Road Fund will hand over a two-roomed house to a child-headed household in Ribaneng, Mafeteng, saying that this is in line with the Road Fund’s Corporate Social Responsibility and aligned to the spirit of giving back during the celebration of this milestone.
Established in 1995, the CEO said like many Road Funds in Africa, the aim was to shift the burden of financing maintenance of Lesotho’s road infrastructure from general taxes collected by the central government to road user charges, and to close the persistent financing gaps that characterised road maintenance prior to the establishment of the Road Fund.
According to Mrs. Sekhokoane, the Road Fund’s collections have grown significantly annually from M23 million at the Fund’s inception, to the current collections of approximately M300 million. She also mentioned that these are well documented and yearly reported in Audited Financial Statements.
She indicated that a lot has been achieved over the past 30 years, the Road Fund has been able to fund the maintenance and rehabilitation of urban and rural bitumen and gravel roads, reconstruction of bridges and funding of installation of traffic lights and streetlights as well as sponsoring road safety programmes.
However, Mrs. Sekhokoane acknowledged that despite the Road Fund’s successes, it has faced some challenges over the years, the most significant being insufficient funding as research shows that the Road Fund needs to collect at least M3 billion annually to adequately maintain roads across the entire country.
Mrs. Sekhokoane culminated the media conference by announcing that subsequent to the celebration, the Road Fund will further host the 2nd ARMFA Southern Africa Focal Group Meeting. She said at the meeting members will reflect on their past, present and future achievements and challenges that Road Funds face, while also devising solutions to same.
The Meeting will be attended by delegates from Angola, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho as the host.
Phumla Moleko (Mrs.)
Head of Corporate Communications
Road Fund
Tel: +266 22216036
Email: molekop@roadfund.org.ls
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