The South African National Roads Agency Limited and National Roads Act, 1998 (Act No. 7 of 1998)Chapter 5 : Official Policies on, and Declaration, Use and Protection of, National Roads40. Declaration of national roads |
| (1) | Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the Minister may from time to time by notice in the Gazette— |
| (a) | declare any existing road, or any route of which the boundaries have been fixed by survey, to be a national road; and |
| (b) | amend or withdraw any declaration so made. |
| (2) | A national road may be declared under subsection (1) only on the recommendation of the Agency, and then only— |
| (a) | with the agreement of the Premier of each province in which the road is situated, in the case of an existing road that is to be declared a national road, subject to subsection (3); |
| (b) | in the case of a new road that will have a substantial impact on the traffic flows in any one or more provinces, after consultation with the Premier of the province or Premiers of the provinces in which the road is proposed to be situated (as the case may be). |
| (3) | For the purposes of obtaining the agreement of a Premier required by subsection (2)(a), the Minister and the Premier must act in a manner and spirit consistent with the principles of co-operative government prescribed by section 41 of the Constitution. Where the Premier’s agreement cannot be obtained after having made every reasonable effort to settle the dispute or difference and having exhausted all the mechanisms and procedures available for that purpose, the matter may be referred to the Constitutional Court in terms of section 167(4)(a) of the Constitution for decision. |
| (4) | Within a prescribed period after the date on which a national road was declared under subsection (1), the Agency in writing must request the Registrar of Deeds who has jurisdiction, to endorse the fact of that declaration on the title deeds of the land affected by the declaration. Such an endorsement may be made in any manner considered fit by that Registrar of Deeds. |
| (5) | Any road or route which under section 4(1)(a) of the previous Act had been declared a national road for the purposes of that Act and which, immediately before the incorporation date, exists as a national road under the previous Act, will be regarded and treated for all purposes as if it had been declared a national road under subsection (1) of this section. |