In addition to the Agency’s main powers and functions under section 25, the Agency is competent—
| (a) |
at the request of a municipality or the Premier of a province, and with the Minister’s approval, to perform any work in connection with any road (whether a national road or a road of which that municipality or province is the road authority), including the planning, design and construction of such a road, or to have it done under its supervision, for the account of that municipality or province. The Agency may charge a fee for any service rendered under this paragraph; |
| (b) |
to perform any of the functions mentioned in section 25(1), or work for the purposes of or in connection with functions of that nature, in any other country, in accordance with and subject to section 31 and the provisions of an operating agreement contemplated in section 31; |
| (c) |
to appoint any private person, institution or body, in terms of a contract concluded for that purpose, in order to perform any work on behalf of the Agency with regard to the planning or design of a national road or proposed national road or the construction, operation, management, control, maintenance or rehabilitation of a national road, or in order to perform any work in the execution of a project or in connection therewith, and to monitor the execution and the work performance; |
| (d) |
to participate with the Minister’s approval in ventures, involving national roads and other roads, jointly with the road authorities, or (as the case may be) any private persons or bodies, who have or will have ownership or control of the other roads; |
| (e) |
to provide, establish, erect and maintain facilities on national roads for the convenience and safety of road users; |
| (f) |
to operate any national road or part thereof as a toll road and levy a toll on the users of such a road as provided for in this Chapter, and to collect the toll or have it collected by any authorised person, and for those purposes to provide, establish, erect, operate and maintain toll plazas on a national road, subject to section 27 or 28; |
| (g) |
to charge a levy, fee or rent for any authorisation, approval or permission that may be granted or given by the Agency to any person from time to time in terms of section 44, 48, 50 or 52 for the provision, construction, erection, establishment, carrying on or operation on, over or underneath any national road, of anything provided for in the section concerned; |
| (h) |
to fence any national road; |
| (i) |
to plant trees, shrubs, other plants or grass, and protect or promote any vegetation, alongside the roadways of national roads, and to take any other steps or perform any other work considered desirable for the convenience of users of a national road or the appearance of a national road or in order to prevent soil erosion on a national road or to prevent it arising as a result of the construction of a national road; |
| (j) |
to establish and operate an information and management system concerning national roads; |
| (k) |
to use any portion of a national road that is not immediately required for traffic purposes, for any purposes which the Agency considers fit, subject to this Act; |
| (l) |
to exploit, for gain or reward, any immovable property owned by or under the control of the Agency (except roads), that is not used or immediately required for use in connection with the Agency’s organisation or administration or its functions, operations, projects or work in terms of this Act; |
| (m) |
to undertake or conduct any research, investigations or inquiries and collect any information in connection with roads, whether in the Republic or elsewhere; |
| (n) |
to advise the Minister about any matter relating to a particular national road or to national roads generally; |
| (o) |
to recommend to the Minister the introduction of legislation with regard to roads or road traffic; |
| (p) |
to advise the Minister, on request, on questions with regard to roads which may arise with the government of any other country; |
| (q) |
to take out insurance against any risk, loss or damage connected with the exercise of its powers or the performance of its functions or duties in terms of this Act; |
| (r) |
to liaise with bodies of professional persons performing work with regard to national roads in the Republic or similar roads elsewhere; |
| (s) |
to liaise and exchange information, knowledge and expertise with the official bodies or authorities entrusted with control over roads of a national or international character in other countries, and to participate in the conferences, seminars and workshops of those bodies or authorities and in the activities of any multinational or international association of those bodies or authorities; |
| (t) |
to purchase, hire or otherwise acquire, and hold, and to sell, exchange or let, or, with the Minister’s approval, to donate or otherwise dispose of or deal with, movable or immovable property for the purposes of this Act, including office accommodation for the Board and the Agency’s employees. However, immovable property of a value exceeding R2 000 000 or any higher amount that the Minister from time to time may determine by notice in the Gazette, may not be sold or otherwise alienated except with the approval of the Minister; |
| (u) |
to grant a bursary, loan or subsidy to any person for study or research in any subject or field in connection with roads, or grant a subsidy to any institution or body engaged in research of that nature, if the study or research, in the Agency’s opinion, will help it in achieving its objects and performing its functions in terms of this Act or will contribute to efficiency or economy within the Agency; |
| (v) |
to exercise any power and perform any function conferred or imposed on the Agency elsewhere by or in terms of this Act or by any other Act of Parliament; and |
| (w) |
to do anything else which is reasonably ancillary to any of its main functions and powers in terms of section 25. |
Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and
