Chairperson, hon members and the MECs who have been able to come here, the MEC for transport in the Western Cape, hon Carlisle; the MEC for transport in KwaZulu-Natal, hon Willies Mchunu; and the MEC for transport in the Eastern Cape, Ms Barry, I thank you very much for gracing this debate.
It is now only 49 days to the start of the World Cup. This is an African World Cup. To begin with, all 53 African heads of state will be part of this World Cup. They have been formally invited.
Secondly, for the first time in the history of Fifa, six countries from Africa will be participating in the World Cup. Plans are already under way for the transportation of general spectators from Algeria, Cameroon, the Cte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria when they arrive in South Africa, and throughout the tournament. Already the six African Ministries of transport participating in the World Cup are co-ordinating plans on how all the spectators will be transported. This will be finalised in Ghana next month when we meet all the participating countries from Africa.
A number of participating teams will be using SADC member countries as base camps. This has vast transport implications and will culminate in an update at the SADC Ministers of transport meeting to be held in Maputo next month. Through the Local Organising Committee, we are co-ordinating with all the participating countries to ensure smooth and efficient transportation of fans.
As you know, Chairperson, the backbone of any World Cup is the massive participation of the host country. In this regard South Africa will not disappoint and transport will not disappoint.
A command centre based in Gauteng with co-ordinators in all the nine host cities will be operating by the end of May. Two days ago, President Zuma officially opened the O R Tambo International Airport upgrade. This is a R2,3 billion investment. Later that day, we launched the country's transport plan for the World Cup.
The transport plan is a statement of our readiness to transport fans to stadiums in all nine host cities and to all corners of our country, during and after the World Cup. After the World Cup, the infrastructure left behind must change forever the way we travel for leisure and business. After the World Cup, infrastructure and services left behind must benefit the rural and urban poor in urban and rural areas.
Notwithstanding the progress we have made over the the 15 years, we are facing challenges with regard to the maintenance of our secondary road network. Nothing best indicates a country's state of development than the condition of its roads. The following figures indicate how much we still need to do to become a fully developed country.
The numbers give a summary of schools which are without any road access in South Africa in 2010. In the Eastern Cape 859 out of 5 401 schools are not accessible by road. In the Free State 28 out of 2 472 are not accessible. In Gauteng - which of course is our developed province - out of 2 202 schools, only 2 are not accessible by road. In KwaZulu-Natal, out of 5 331 schools, 403 are not accessible by road. In Mpumalanga, out of 1 793 schools, 17 are not accessible. In the Northern Cape, out of 473, 9 are not accessible. Out of 4 131 in Limpopo, 129 are not accessible. In North West out of 2 257, 47 are not accessible. Lastly, out of 1 577 schools in the Western Cape, 16 are not accessible by road.
Add to these figures a total of 31 clinics in the country which do not have reliable access by road: 21 out of 695 in the Eastern Cape, five out of 485 in KwaZulu-Natal and some provinces have one or two clinics without access by road.
In addition to the lack of access roads, we have challenges with regard to maintenance backlogs. The total paved and gravel network at provincial level is 184 816 km. At least 40% of this network has reached a crisis point. The total paved and gravel network at municipal level is 339 849 km. We are developing a means to quantify the backlog at the municipal level so that we can have accurate localised numbers. What we know is that our country needs R75 billion over the next five years to arrest this decline.
This year we are addressing these challenges by implementing an integrated national maintenance programme and a rural transport strategy for South Africa. This is not a new programme. Successive Ministers of Transport from 1994 have spoken out for the increase of the budget for road maintenance. The absence of roads defines who we are, either as a developing country, a developed country or an underdeveloped country.
This leads me to the next intervention that we are making - the provision of road infrastructure in our rural areas. The rural access improvement programme is part of a comprehensive rural transport strategy for South Africa which aims to do the following: to build bridges and nonmotorised transport facilities; to develop and implement the integrated public transport networks for regular transport services; to develop and upgrade the airport network with a proper road-link infrastructure; and to revitalise rural railway operations by expanding rail passenger services and freight operations to the rural areas.
Furthermore, through the Expanded Public Works Programme, we will contribute to job creation through the implementation of labour-intensive projects. To kickstart this process, we have secured initial funding of R1 billion dedicated to rural road infrastructure. We will also be institutionalising our rural infrastructure and services portfolio through the establishment of a dedicated agency.
This, hon MECs, will be over and above what you have in your budgets. A project management team and unit have been appointed to drive this programme.
In many municipalities and provinces we have identified the lack of dedicated funding for road maintenance, poor asset management and capacity challenges as the causes of poor road conditions. Insufficient investment in maintenance of the road infrastructure is a huge challenge. To address this, we are planning to develop a ring-fencing mechanism through the creation of a maintenance fund. Road maintenance cannot happen by accident.
This strategy is not only about sourcing additional funding for maintenance, but also about ensuring that existing funds are used for the purpose they were intended for. The strategy is also about better management of our road assets. The advantage of this programme is not only that it will arrest the decline of our infrastructure, but that it will also create thousands of jobs in the process.
The Department of Transport has the responsibility to address access and mobility challenges facing learners who daily walk more than 3 km in a single trip to school. The primary project beneficiaries are learners in rural, semirural and peri-urban areas who have no access to public transport. Provinces are required to prepare business plans for the identification and selection of schools. They are also required to enter into agreements with municipalities to put control measures in place. The Department of Transport will procure and distribute bicycles to the provinces.
South Africa experienced a rail tragedy yesterday. On behalf of our government and our people, we would like to express our sincerest and heartfelt condolences to the families of the bereaved. Yesterday I was able to trace two of them and I spoke to the survivors. Personal safety remains a priority to ensure that rail continues to regain its market share in the public transport sector. So far, our co-operation agreement with the SA Police Service has seen the roll-out of more than 2 000 rail police officers in our provinces.
We have to come to terms with the fact that the passenger rolling stock fleet has reached the end of its economic life. The average age of the coaches is between 35 and 40 years, with a maximum economic life of 46 years. Ours is now far beyond this lifespan. Let us state this very clearly: If we do not act now, that is, to recapitalise our rail fleet, the urban passenger rail system could collapse in all our cities within the next decade.
An efficient, reliable and affordable public transport system is at the centre of our transformation agenda. Our role as government is derived from our belief that the provision of public transport is primarily a public responsibility, and not for gain.
We use various instruments: licensing, municipal transport planning and subsidies to ensure universal access for commuters. The operating license is the central instrument for government to ensure reliable, efficient and affordable public transport. This responsibility has been executed by provincial licensing authorities.
We have decided to restructure the licensing system such that our interprovincial operations are licensed through the national regulatory authority, the national transport regulator. Metro councils with capacity will be tasked with the licensing responsibilities within their cities.
With reference to the recent strikes by some taxi operators we must state the following. Whilst we acknowledge that taxis provide the public operator services for gain, we must emphasise that they provide an essential service. It is a contract between operators and the commuters. It is because of this principle that withdrawing services by operators without due consideration for commuters' interests is unacceptable. We want a pledge which commits all of us on procedures and instruments regulating our rights and responsibilities.
It is against this background that in March 2007 Cabinet approved the public transport strategy and action plan. It is this pledge that we will be finalising with my colleagues in the provinces. It will then be signed between us and the taxi industry.
If someone has a problem with some traffic officer, what has that got to do with Mrs Molefe who is travelling from Diepkloof to town? It has absolutely nothing to do with that person. We cannot use our people with disrespect. For example, a taxi operator cannot have a quarrel somewhere and then leave people stranded. That is totally unacceptable.
Phase 1 of the action plan targets 12 cities and six districts for initial implementation. Because the transformation of public transport is incomplete without taxis, a national joint working group has been established. The national joint working group has the mandate to address all matters of concern to the taxi industry.
Moving violations remain among the greatest threats to road safety. We all know drinking and driving, and speaking on the cellphone while driving are threats to road safety. However, to send an SMS while driving is more dangerous than speaking on the cellphone. Twenty-one per cent of crashes are due to this malady. An average of 40 people die on our roads every day and this cannot be treated as a normal situation. The Department of Transport and the Road Traffic Management Corporation, RTMC, will intensify efforts on tight and visible law enforcement.
This year we are implementing the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Bill which removes road offences from the court system, unless one chooses to have his or her matter considered by the court. Traffic offences will be dealt with administratively. This is already having an effect.
By the end of May we will have formed community road safety councils in all nine provinces. The community road safety councils will help us create safer environments through road design, enforcement and education.
Through partnerships with the Ministers of Basic and Higher Education, we are intensifying road safety education in our schools. All 18-year-olds in South Africa must have a driver's licence and help us introduce a new culture of driving on our roads.
In line with this, by July we will have appointed a new service provider for the tamper-proof card licence which will be integrated into the country's identification system. These developments in transport will in time move South Africa from being a developing to a developed country. I would like to thank the department, Deputy Minister Jeremy Cronin, the portfolio committee, and the select committee for the assistance and the co- operation we have received over the year.
I thank the director-general, Mr George Mahlalela, and his staff for their work and dedication in delivering transport infrastructure and services to our people. We also acknowledge the role played by the chief executives of our entities, the managing directors, chairpersons and boards of all our agencies in the delivery of our transport programme. I thank you. [Applause.]
Thank you, Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members of the NCOP and guests.
The way the Select Committee of Transport was treated by the Department of Transport during their presentation regarding the strategic plan is unacceptable. Neither the Minister nor the director-general was available when the committee was addressed. Fortunately the deputy director-general, DDG, did the presentation to the committee, and I must say she did well under the circumstances.
The statement made by Sake24 in Rapport last Sunday is horrific for any person who uses our roads in South Africa. An audit done by the SA National Roads Agency Ltd, Sanral, shows that 80% of South African roads are older than their lifespan of 20 years. It costs government - ie the taxpayers - more than R75 billion to maintain 300 000 km of roads in South Africa. According to the audit, gravel roads in South Africa are even worse than the tarred roads.
The time has come for local government and provincial authorities to take responsibility for roads in their areas and get the necessary skills to keep roads in a good condition.
The Deputy Minister, Mr Jeremy Cronin, also said that the information Sanral used in their audit was from the provincial and municipal authorities. He also mentioned that the money allocated for roads and maintenance from government to local authorities has not been used for these specific purposes, but for many other priorities.
The DA wants to know from the department: What happened to the responsibility and control mechanisms to allow the South African economy to slip to where it is now by sheer mismanagement of the maintenance of South African roads, caused by the loss of both financial and human skills? Any delays on road maintenance can cost up to six times more than the general cost when it is done timeously.
Despite this, Sanral is doing a good job in keeping our national roads in a reasonable condition, obviously at the cost of the motorist. There is no such thing as free roads, but for how much longer can we carry on delaying every time that a section of road reaches the end of its lifespan and needs reconstruction?
Hon Minister, the DA approves of what you and your department have been saying about the dedicated road fund. After all, this has been part of our DA policy proposal to your Ministry for a number of years now. The time has come to consolidate all fund streams into this fund. This, Minister, is the only way forward.
Sanral must do the necessary audit of road conditions and, as engineering skills at provincial and local government levels do not exist, Sanral with their higher skills based on experience would be able to optimise both scarce human and financial or capital skills required to keep our roads safe and pothole free.
The Minister and the Deputy Minister made mention in their forewords of the strategic plan and the role transport is playing in the economy of South Africa and how much money has been spent on roads, airports and other infrastructure and around cities hosting the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup event.
What about the roads in our rural areas? These are the places where we need sustainable growth to help our people who stay there to make a living. The economy is dying in the rural areas because contractors are not willing to get into the areas where the roads are in such a bad state. Public transport is not available and people must get to their workplaces on foot.
In provinces like Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West province, roads have totally disintegrated and it is better to travel next to the roads as opposed to on the roads. The whole road project budget for the North West province of R525 million for the year 2009-10 has been spent in three months! How is this possible? We are hardly touching the tip of the iceberg in this province.
The DA started a pothole campaign in the North West province recently, just to remind government how dangerous it is to use roads in such a bad condition and to tell government to do their job properly. I'm sure that those of you who travelled in those parts will love our beautiful DA warning signs.
The Taxi Recapitalisation Programme is definitely not on schedule. Many taxi owners are unhappy with the progress in this programme. With only 10 142 taxis being scrapped, it seems to the DA that this programme will never end, and that the budget for scrapping taxis is increasing year by year. Something new and innovative must be done, and the money rather put into a public transport programme such as the BRTs.
The DA believes that subsidising public transport is essential and happens in most countries in the world. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
I now call upon the hon member Carelse.
Thank you, Chair. No disrespect, but my name is "Carlisle".
It gives me great pleasure to follow on the previous speaker, and particularly to follow on my hon national Minister. I also recognise my MEC colleagues from KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
One of the earlier Ministers speaking here said one of the problems - he mentioned certain politicians, but I think it applies to most politicians - is that we don't listen. Now I wonder how many of you listened carefully to what the national Minister had to say, because that was one of the most serious and concerning speeches I have ever heard in politics.
He said a number of things, but he said two things specifically. He said that R75 billion was required to bring the maintenance backlog into some kind of manageable form and to that he could contribute an extra R1 million.
He went on to say - let us take it that this is very clearly with regard to Metrorail and our whole passenger community service - that if we do not act now, that is to recapitalise our rail fleet, the urban passenger rail system could collapse in all our cities within the next decade.
I cannot overstate to members in this Place how serious those two statements are. I happen to know that they are factually correct. I believe that they go far beyond the boundaries of party politics. There is no place here to score political points.
We listened earlier to debates on economic development. Let me tell members economic development is not worth a fig if your transport systems fall apart. Don't even waste your time with it. And what we are witnessing and what the hon national Minister of Transport is telling us is that our transport systems are falling apart.
Now the importance of this body, sir, is that it's a transversal body as far as the country is concerned; and I would hope that every member within this body will be asking himself or herself, "How do I work with my colleagues here regardless of their party affiliation to try and change the situation which the national Minister of Transport has put to us?"
How do we bring pressure to bear on the National Treasury to change the spending priorities? Because as any of my colleagues here who have been to parts of Africa and Central America, as I have, know, when transport goes, the economy goes and everything else goes with it. Let me just supplement certain of the things that the hon Minister said. He said he had inherited a gaggle of public entities and that his inheritance was in many cases chaos or corruption or both. His passion for road safety, which I share, is blunted and destroyed by the failure of the justice system to bring consequences to bear on the killers on our roads.
I want to concentrate, as in a sense he did, on the key area of public transport. Now, our apartheid cities make public transport a very difficult thing. They provide us with the longest commutes in the world. They make our cities upside down because whereas normal cities are highly concentrated in population terms at the centre and it declines outwards, ours go the other way. Therefore, in Johannesburg the dense concentrations of population are far out and they have to be brought in. Only public transport can bridge that apartheid divide.
However, if we look at patterns of mobility, and this is where I believe this House has a key role to play, what we are seeing is the use of private transport. This is largely restricted to the middle, upper middle and upper classes - largely white but also obviously including other population groups. That pattern is on the rise.
There is huge congestion. The hon Minister has spoken about maintenance. In fact, that's where the funding is going: on huge periphery roads, particularly in the Gauteng area. We are not prepared to have them here, okay.
So what we are doing is putting the money where the private transport is and yet the imperative of public transport is to provide mobility to those who do not have their own transport. And so we have to bring pressure to bear on National Treasury to begin to shift that priority from the creation of these massive periphery roads into the needs of Soweto and Khayelitsha and Mabopane's public transport. That's where the shift has to occur.
With regard to the situation with public transport, the hon Minister spoke of rail so I can speak about a few other things. The situation is such that the subsidy, the Dora, Division of Revenue Act, grants from Transport are effectively declining for the three areas that have a bus subsidy, and the department looks upon the subsidy as an expense when in fact it's an investment that grows the economy of this country. Bus transport is in decline in every single city in South Africa; in some it has virtually disappeared - like eThekwini.
Taxis will never be able to take up that total shortfall that is occurring in our public transport. They themselves are faced with overtrading, with overcompetitive attitudes, and congestion is killing them as surely as it is killing the bus trade.
Train and rail needs to be the backbone, sir. We have, certainly in the Western Cape, in the area of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, a very good rail network; no question about it, that can carry millions of people to work.
We are, however, short of 8 000 coaches and motor coaches, and very few are being built. At the current rate of building it will take about 70 years to make those up, by which stage the whole situation will be out of control.
We cannot cope without rail in South Africa and the situation that is now being created by this is appalling. If you travel from Khayelitsha into Cape Town, which is the busiest commuter line and has the heaviest volume in South Africa, higher than Mabopane, then you have trains that are meant to carry 2 300 people that are carrying in excess of 4 200 passengers. And I must tell you, the conditions under which the commuters travel are an outrage to their human dignity and human rights. It is a situation that we have to change. As I say, it goes beyond petty party politics.
Virtually every commuter coming into Cape Town or into the employment areas - and not only in Cape Town, but also in the other metros - is almost inevitably late for work no matter what they do. Buses and trains in Cape Town run on average about 40 minutes late. In some of the other metros it's much worse than that.
It's pointless to talk about economic development and deregulating Eskom if we can't make our transport systems work. So, we are faced with this: There is no magic about a public transport system. It's not difficult to run. The legislation is there, the skills are there. We have the manufacturing capacity in South Africa to build what we need at Capital Park, but we do not have the money. But the money is there!
I don't want to talk about where some of the money went - the money is there, the country has the money to do it and it has no alternative but to spend money here.
What we have to do between ourselves is to establish how we change the spending patterns and the spending priorities so that the people may move and enjoy the freedom which they deserve.
Chairperson, hon Chief Whip, hon Minister of Transport and my hon fellow Members of Parliament, allow me to start by quoting a clause from the ANC manifesto which says -
... work together with the farming community to improve the living conditions of farm dwellers, including the provision of subsidised house and other basic services.
My entry point in this debate is rural development with a specific focus on the development of roads and public transport. It would be a disservice to our rural people if we fail to connect them with where the economic activity is located. Their linkage with the civilised world is through the provision of well-deserved infrastructure and the construction of good roads and bridges.
During our oversight visit to Mpumalanga, we visited Mbekeni, a village which is more than 30 km from Nelspruit. It is a remote area that is isolated from civilisation.
The only road that links them with Nelspruit is badly constructed and without a bridge. During the rainy season pupils cannot go to school. Teachers, who are commuting daily, can't reach their schools. When we asked them what their personal needs were, they responded by requesting us to provide them with a constructed road, a bridge and public transport that would link them with the civilised world, because all their other needs would be addressed by the first one.
From where I'm standing, I can hear their call and feel their desperation back at Mbekeni. It is against this background that we are making a humble request to the Minister to accede to their request.
We promised to be their voices and articulate their aspirations to Parliament to the best of our abilities. We hope that when we go back to Mbekeni village next year we will not be empty-handed. The Minister has said he has allocated R1 billion for road construction in rural areas. I think they will get their slice.
The youth is the future of this country. We cannot talk about any rural development that excludes them. We must be duty-bound to ensure that they are at school on time daily and learning.
Schools in many rural areas are still inaccessible to them. They have to walk from one farm to the other, from one village to the other in order to access education. As the ANC, we are therefore making a public clarion call that the Minister should provide them with scholar transport. It should not be left to the discretion of provinces to make choices.
National education allocations should be reinforced and the department should monitor the implementation of this service. The provision of scholar transport goes hand in hand with economic empowerment.
We hope most of the scholar transport owners who come from farms and villages will be afforded the opportunity to benefit from this economic activity. It would be rural economic empowerment in the true sense of the word.
Although the department came up with the Shova Kalula initiative, it has its own shortcomings, constraints, challenges and limitations. No audit has ever been made of the bicycles that were issued. There is no maintenance plan. The bicycles are of no assistance during the rainy and cold seasons. The intention was good, but has not achieved its desired results. The department needs to review this initiative.
We are approaching the Fifa World Cup in June. We are concerned about the safety of our people who are using the Airlink company for their flights.
We recently experienced a nasty incident at Limpopo airport during the period of Taking Parliament to the People when an Airlink plane failed to take off due to the failure of the ground power supply. This resulted in members missing their connecting flights.
The second incident also took place in Limpopo, still involving an Airlink plane which took off but immediately landed again due to a technical fault. We feel that its operation for the World Cup should be reviewed and their planes should be airworthy.
We have come far with the World Cup preparations and we cannot allow our country's name to be tarnished by one unscrupulous, irresponsible and greedy operator, whose intention is to destroy our dream of hosting a spectacular World Cup that will be remembered for many years to come. We call upon the Minister to review their licence because that will be a good thing to do.
Therefore, we support this Budget Vote. A o bokwe. [Let it be praised.] [Applause.]
Mr T W MCHUNU (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, on 13 April 2010, Minister Ndebele presented his budget speech in the National Assembly. He highlighted all the activities that government had initiated to ensure that our transport system provides a seamless, multimodel transport service throughout the duration of the World Cup to facilitate movements to all parts of the country.
Today, he has shared his views with this House. In KwaZulu-Natal we fully concur with the Minister. We certainly regard 2010 as a unique year in many ways. It will go down in history as yet another significant turning point for South Africa and the African continent.
We are also doing our part as the department in ensuring that this World Cup is a success, particularly with regard to public transport matters, road infrastructure development and safety initiatives on our roads, to mention but a few. However, Minister, we also agree with you that we must take cognisance of the fact that our planning must go beyond the World Cup.
Our department is operating in the midst of budgetary cuts and recessionary pressures on the national coffers. Notwithstanding that, we cannot shy away from discharging our duties and responsibilities.
Our budget seeks to strike a balance and we seriously want to share this with the House. We want to strike a balance between building new road infrastructure and the maintenance of the existing infrastructure. That is very important. There is nothing that you can overlook.
Those who have lived where roads are good will never think about expanding into new areas which have never had road infrastructure before; not through any fault of their own, not through the fault of this government, but through the fault of the history and the legacy of all the political parties before.
Therefore, there is no question of us not concentrating on building new roads in the rural areas. We would like to share with this House that our road infrastructure has been allocated R3,72 billion. Of this infrastructure budget, R1,9 billion is for the construction of new roads and R1,6 billion is for the maintenance thereof.
A serious challenge facing our department is the ongoing floods which can never be anticipated. Due to the budget constraints and the increase in volumes of traffic, the rehabilitation and periodic maintenance programme is falling behind. Our road network is deteriorating at a rapid pace and additional funding will be required to ensure that our road network is conserved in an acceptable manner.
To crown it all, more than 70% of our road network is also beyond its design life and if not attended to immediately, it will end up in a state of disrepair. In the long run, it will cost the government 18 times more to construct these roads if they are not attended to urgently.
The state of our roads combined with high traffic volumes, overloading of heavy vehicles, poor drainage and high levels of rainfall contribute to the high occurrence of potholes, especially in our province. Our department receives only R1,6 billion of the required annual funding of R3,2 billion for maintenance. This shortfall increases the backlog at a rapid rate.
It would require at least an additional R2 billion over a three-year period and R2 billion to bring the road network back to the required minimum level of service. Therefore on that score, Minister, we are extremely excited about your idea of forming a road maintenance fund. We are extremely excited, especially if it is designed to help us in the provinces and in the municipalities because that is where the backlogs are.
What I would like to say to my colleagues who have spoken before me is that instead of being negative, we should be applauding what the Minister is doing now. He is beginning to address all these issues that we are all complaining about. We should not present them in a negative manner at all times.
What I've also noticed is that one of my colleagues is beginning to remind me of what's happening in many legislatures - time and again the DA claims that it's been their policy all the time and, therefore, the ANC is now implementing it.
I regard that as a very clever way of trying to find answers where you do not have answers. You cannot have policies that are older than those of the ANC. The ANC is older than you. You are new. Your policies are just policies that are copied from the policies of the ANC. You do not have new answers. That's the story you must relate. You just don't have new answers. We have policies that are a foundation for democracy that have been introduced since 1994.
As I have indicated, Minister, this year is unique in many ways. It is also momentous in that it marks the 20th anniversary of former President Nelson Mandela's release from prison. We remain anchored in his principles of peacemaking as we, together with the leadership of the taxi industry, facilitate conflict resolution and peacekeeping within this industry.
Like you, Minister, we hold the view that the taxi industry depicts black economic empowerment at its best. Therefore it's closer to our hearts as government. It is on that score that the issues of instability in the industry have been elevated to the level of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster so as to ensure that a comprehensive and an integrated strategy of dealing with taxi violence is achieved.
We can also share with this House that to support the transformation and development of the taxi industry within the province, we have allocated R6,5 million which will be controlled by the government. The R6,5 million will be run through the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, and so we don't suspect any wrongdoing at that end.
To this end, we are also prepared to support you, Minister, and the department to deal with the subsidies of buses, because all of these are legacies. When we deal with the buses, you must remember how these bus subsidies were allocated in the past.
They were never allocated by the ANC government. Before that they had excluded millions of people in South Africa. When we deal with these legacies within the context of the shortage of funds, people must appreciate that. The best that you have done we applaud and we cherish it, Minister.
Regarding road safety, again, it is our concern and view that government has over the years embarked on a number of road safety initiatives; yet road accidents, crashes and fatalities continue. Our department plans to take road safety initiatives a step further by opening a platform for a symposium where communities and ordinary people will share with us what their ideas are in trying to curb this ongoing saga.
I want to say that in keeping with the government's response to unemployment, we also continue to create job opportunities through the implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme. This programme emphasises the need to focus on our investment in social infrastructure in a manner that addresses severe conditions of underdevelopment and entrenched poverty.
That is why we have programmes such as Zibambele, which has been instrumental in creating a number of jobs within the tight economic environment, focusing especially on youth and women. Our Zibambele programme is still the key to eradicating poverty. Thanks go to you, Minister, for the introduction of such a good programme during your time as MEC in the province.
The Vukuzakhe programme is one of those that are designed to help emerging contractors, to provide opportunities and to empower them through the transfer of skills to all historically disadvantaged communities.
In conclusion, in the light of the budget constraints mentioned above, we continue to provide access to and advocate the safety of all our road users. We firmly believe in working together with our communities to realise our departmental vision of prosperity through mobility. I thank you.
Chairperson, hon Minister, hon MECs, hon members, good afternoon. I greet you in this august and honourable House which always demands equal respect with any other House of Parliament. I'm happy that the Minister is here in person, unlike on the 14th when we saw the Select Committee on Public Services being undermined by his department.
I greet you today, the 22nd of April, the day which marks a year after the people of South Africa endorsed, through their votes, that there needs to be a patriotic, nonreactionary opposition party which will not deviate from the principles of the Freedom Charter and the Constitution of this country. Hence I stand here today representing that political party, Cope. [Interjections.]
On a more serious note, it was on this day last year that Comrade Gerald Yona was gunned down in Port Elizabeth. May his soul rest in peace. Comrade Ntandazo Gewu suffered stray bullet injuries in Mount Frere. All this was a process of intimidating people because of the victory of Cope.
Njengenkwenkwe yasezilalini, andizokuthetha zinto zasezidolophini. [As a rural boy, I will not talk about urban issues.] As a rural boy I want to see an integrated rural road development programme in action. This would include, but not be limited to, the declassification and reclassification of roads as informed by municipal integrated development plans, IDPs, the Provincial Growth and Development Plan, PGDP, the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme, ISRDP, and the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme.
The consideration of road construction and maintenance - I agree with you, Minister - should be high on our agenda. Through that we will see rural economic development and improved rural access in action. A well- constituted and integrated public transport system, eg the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, and scholar transport, is the answer if you want to deal with the ills of our nation. Hence Cope agrees with the Minister in calling for the upgrading of the existing infrastructure and promoting the use of rail for freight and passenger services.
Cope advises that the scholar transport function should be implemented uniformly. There should also be a tailor-made overarching national policy on scholar transport. The scholar transport function should in its totality reside within your department as your department has the capacity in terms of all operations.
In conclusion, I have deliberately left out some issues, particularly those that relate to accidents on our roads because, as the Minister would know, I have taken the matter up with him. So, I will follow up on my question to which he has replied.
I don't want to be seen here as someone who is posturing as if we do not interact. The same with hon Barry; I have deliberately left out issues around the Eastern Cape because it is not that we don't interact. I have time and I know where to interact. I thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Mudzulatshidulo, Minisi?a, Vho Sbu Ndebele, vhalangamavun?u vho?he vhane vha vha hone fhano ?amusi, dzi MEC dzine dza vha hone, vhatatisei vha NCOP, vhashumeli na vhaeni vho?he vhane vha vha ngeo n?ha vho ?aho u ri thetshelesa ?amusi, ndi khou vha losha. Ndo vha na mashudu mavhi vhukuma ngauri ndi vho tou nga ndo vha ndi na Minisi?a mulovha musi vha tshi khou ?wala tshipitshi tshavho ngauri vho tou kanda henefha?a he nda vha ndi tshi khou ?o?a u kanda hone. Zwine nda nga amba zwone ndi zwauri vho tou mvala mulomo nga gu?uu. Ndi ?o tou kanda henefhala he vha kanda hone, ndi tshi khou ?u?uwedza. (Translation of Tshiven?a paragraph follows.)
[Ms L MABIJA: Chairperson, Minister Sbu Ndebele, all the premiers present today, MECs who are here, hon members of the NCOP, staff members and all the visitors sitting in the gallery who came to listen to us today, I greet you. I am very unfortunate as it looks as if I was with the Minister yesterday when he wrote his speech, because he has mentioned exactly what I am going to say. All I can say is that he has taken the words out of my mouth. I will just anchor and motivate what he has said.]
Chairperson, the ANC promised a better life for all. That is why, following decades of neglect and racially skewed transport legislation, planning and development, South Africa has embarked on a process of improving the public transport infrastructure.
This initiative stems from the realisation that public transport has a significant role to play in enhancing rural and urban mobility, reducing road congestion, decreasing the impact on the environment through harmful emissions and serving the economy.
In line with its conception of transport as the heartbeat of South Africa's economic growth and social development, the ANC-led government, through its Medium-Term Strategic Framework, has committed the Department of Transport to revamp the public transport infrastructure to ensure that it is accessible, efficient, reliable and affordable.
Vho Minisi?a vho no ?i zwi sumbedzisa na u zwi ?an?avhudza nga vhu?alo zwauri vha khou ?o?a u ita mini. [The Minister has already indicated and explained in full what he intends to do.] Transportation systems in the country are characterised by and riddled with both intra- and intermodal inherited and acquired problems. To this effect, various transport components of the current transport systems are operated and regulated by different governmental agencies and private operators in all three spheres of the government.
In most cases there is little co-ordination amongst those responsible for the operation of various components of both rural and urban transportation systems. This has resulted in each agency and operator attempting to improve those elements under its jurisdiction without consideration of efficiency and effectiveness of the overall rural and urban transportation systems.
At times, this has been at the expense of other elements of the various modes of transport. It has also resulted in the exclusion of alternatives or modal system operations that do not have institutional sponsors.
A typical example is the lack of co-ordination in many urban areas between agencies responsible for providing operating infrastructure facilities and public passenger transport systems. Another example is the general inability of the taxi industry, Metrorail and bus operators to plan and operate their transport systems in an integrated manner, crippling South Africa's transportation systems. The hon Minister has already indicated how he is going to integrate the transportation systems.
Some communities live in remote areas where accessibility is almost impossible throughout all four seasons.
Ndi ?o fha tsumbo nga ha madalo e ra vha nao ngei ha Sekhukhune, he ra wana uri n?ila dza hone dzo?he dzi na matombo nahone dzo tshinyala vhukuma. U tshimbila n?ha ha matombo hu na uri u tshimbile badani. Ro dovha hafhu ra ya u dalela mu?we muvhundu une wa vha na mulambo muhulu. Masiani o?he a mulambo hu na tshiendedzi tshine tsha vhidzwa u pfi 'segwaigwai'. Vho Groenewald na Vho Tau vho ita na u tshi ?amela vha tshi khou ?o?a u pfa uri tshi tou itisa hani.
Sa izwi Minisi?a Vho Sbu vhe muthu ane a shuma lwa shishi, ndi khou ?o?a u vha humbela uri vha sedze-vho na shango ?a ha Sekhukhune. Zwi nga vha zwavhu?i arali hu tshi nga tshintshiwa 'segwaigwai' ha tou itiwa buroho ya vhukuma u itela uri vhathu vha kone u pfuka vha tshi bva kha sia ?i?we vha tshi ya kha ?i?we; vha tshi ya u vhona mashaka, u renga vhurotho, na zwi?we- vho.
Hangei ha Sekhukhune hu na mimaini ine ya swika henefha kha 40 na mi?we miswa ye ra pfa uri i khou ya u thomiwa, ine ya nga swika henefha kha ?ahe. Nga fulufhelo ?ine nda vha na?o kha Minisi?a, ndi khou humbela uri vha ite zwauri havhala vhathu vha songo sokou bwa lupfumo fhasi mavuni, vhathu vhane vha dzula henefho tsini vha si na na dzibada, zwa u ?imvumvusa, dziburoho na dzin?ila, ngeno lupfumo lu tshi khou bva lu tshi ya nn?a ha Afurika Tshipembe. Vhathu vhane vha khou dzula henefha?a u mona na Sekhukhune, ho lalaho lupfumo, vha sa khou vhuelwa nga tshithu. Vhathu vha ha Sekhukhune vho sinyuwa vhukuma. Mu?we na mu?we o zwi vhona zwauri vhathu vha khou sinyuswa nga zwi pfalaho. Ndi khou humbela Minisita uri he?i fhungo vha ?i sedzese nahone vha ?i dzhiele ntha.
Ndido dovha hafhu nda amba nga bada ya N1 ire henengei Limpopo. Vhuponi ha Levubu, hu na buroho yo waho. Zwino ri tshi khou amba, zwo no vha na mi?waha mivhili yo wa. Vhathu a vha khou pfesesa uri a i lugiswi ngani ngauri muvhuso u na tshelede. Vha tshi ita mugaganyagwama zwi amba zwauri vha tea u lugisela nayo. Ndi khou tou sumbedzisa-vho uri kha vha zwi dzhiela n?ha zwauri hu na hou?a muratho wo waho, nahone zwino wo no fhirelwa nga tshifhinga.
Hu na i?we hafhu yo waho ine ya vha vhuponi ha Khalavha. Na yone yo no fhirelwa nga tshifhinga. Zwine wa nga amba zwone ndi zwauri mushumo une muvhuso wa khou ita kha sia ?a vhuendi ndi muhulwane. Ndi nga si vhuye nda ?wa ndi tshi khou ambesa nga hazwo sa i zwi Minisi?a vho no ?i zwi sumbedzisa zwo?he. A hu na ane a nga hanedza uri zwi nga si itee ngauri vha tshi vhuya vha zwi pulana; zwi amba zwauri vha ?o zwi ita, nahone vho no ?i thomisa. Musi vha tshi vhewa sa Minisi?a, vho tenda uri vha ?o zwi kona. Ndi na fulufhelo ?a uri vha ?o zwi kona.
Ndi khou ?o?a u humbela Minisi?a uri vhu?ifari ha vhareili vhashu, na ... [Tshifhinga tsho fhela.] [U vhanda zwan?a.] (Translation of Tshiven?a paragraphs follows.)
[I will give an example from our visit to Sekhukhune, where we found that all the roads have rocks and are in bad condition. You drive on rocks instead of the roads. We also visited another area where there is a very big river. On both sides of the river, there is a form of transport called "segwaigwai". Mr Groenewald and Mr Tau even rode on it just to test how it is.
Since Minister Sbu is a hard worker, I appeal to him to also focus on the Sekhukhune area. It will be good if "segwaigwai" can be replaced by a real bridge so that people will be able to cross from one area to another, to visit relatives, to buy bread and other things.
There are more or less 40 mines in Sekhukhune and we have heard that another nine new mines are going to start operating. With the confidence I have in the Minister, I request you to make sure that those people do not only dig the wealth from the ground when people who live near these areas have no roads, entertainment facilities, bridges and paths, while wealth is being taken out of South Africa. People who live around Sekhukhune where wealth is abundant are gaining nothing. The Sekhukhune community is very angry. Everyone knows they have valid reasons to be angry. I appeal to the Minister to look into this matter seriously and give it first preference.
I will also speak about the N1 highway in Limpopo. In the Levubu area, there is a collapsed bridge. As we speak, it is two years since it collapsed. People don't understand why it has not been repaired, because the government has money. Please include it also in your budget. I'm just trying to bring to your attention that there is a bridge that collapsed a long time ago and has not yet been repaired.
There is another one that collapsed in the Khalavha area. It too needs to be repaired. One can only say that the government is doing a great job with regard to transport. I won't say much since the Minister has already explained everything. Nobody can say this is impossible, since you have planned it; it means you will do it and you have already started. When you were sworn in as Minister, you agreed that you will deliver. I am confident that you will deliver.
I want to request the Minister that the behaviour of our drivers, and ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]]
Thank you, hon Mabija. I must state that I found it quite interesting that when the hon member started speaking in Tshivenda, it was only the hon Mofokeng and I who did not go for the interpretation - taking into account that it was the Free State and the Northern Cape. Everybody else went for the interpretation! [Laughter.]
Ndo tshi guda hangei Limpopo. [I learnt it in Limpopo.]
We hope that all members will do the same when participating in debates in this House.
Chairperson, hon Minister of Transport, hon MECs present, all hon members of the NCOP, government officials, distinguished quests, ladies and gentlemen, today we are going to bring the hon Minister good news from the Eastern Cape regarding the integrated public transport system that the hon Minister spoke about previously.
The debate takes place a few days after a historic agreement was concluded between government, the bus and taxi industries and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, which marks the turning point in the provision of public transport services to our people.
Taxi operators and operations, as we know it, will be phased out because they will become part of an integrated public transport system which will be operated on specific timetables and will make use of a variety of vehicle sizes from articulated and standard buses to minibuses, as part of the ANC-led government's effort to provide a safe, reliable and affordable transport system.
They will form five co-operatives and, as the Eastern Cape government, we will be supporting them in sourcing funding for these co-operatives as well as with any administrative services that they would need in order to run these five co-operatives.
On behalf of the Eastern Cape provincial government, I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation for the Dora, Division of Revenue Act, allocation of R148 million from the Department of Transport for the Algoa Bus Company in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. But I would like to reiterate the words of the MEC of KwaZulu-Natal to the hon Minister, to seriously consider the extension of the allocations to bus passenger services in rural areas, because it is in provinces like the Eastern Cape where the majority of our people who really need this service reside.
Already on the other side, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa is currently implementing a coach refurbishment programme to improve its rolling stock fleet in the Eastern Cape. A total of 17 coaches have been targeted for refurbishment. Ten coaches will be destined for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to be used during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup. Special train services will be made available between Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth on match days. And renovations at North End station, which is closer to the new stadium, will have been completed by then.
Hon Chairperson, we have successfully implemented the national Department of Transport's special regulations for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, in terms of the National Land Transport Act, Act 5 of 2009. Public transport operators were advised to visit the district offices of the Department of Transport to apply for the special operating licences for this event.
Through our Blue Skyway Aviation Strategy, we have been able to commence with the first phase of the upgrade of the Mthatha Airport in order to ensure that this airport adds value to local economic development and improves access to the Wild Coast, which is an internationally renowned tourism destination.
This upgrade will further enable the airport to receive more flights, including evening flights. These developments have prompted Airlink to introduce a flight service on the route between Port Elizabeth and Mthatha on Fridays as from 26 February 2010. This means that three of our airports, ie East London, Mthatha and Port Elizabeth, are now ready to contribute to the provincial growth and development plan of our province and our 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup plans. The remaining challenge is to make sure that all four airports, including Bhisho Airport, complement each other. Our main intention is to have an Air link between Cape Town and Mthatha via Bisho. An important goal is to link Port Elizabeth to Mthatha via Bhisho with the service geared for faster movement between these three areas.
Port Alfred-based 43 Air School continues to train student pilots at the Bhisho Airport and we are now challenged to build more accommodation complexes for this airport. Chairperson, it is gratifying to bring to the attention of this House that the airport is fast becoming the top training airport for pilots in Africa.
Regarding rural development, the award-winning Kei Rail project continues to inspire our efforts of "Moving Back to Rail". Due to our high safety standards, the Department of Transport has been granted a rail safety permit by the Railway Safety Regulator for the next three years from 2009 to 2012.
Today we are running a daily service between AmaBhele and Mthatha with an average of 12 000 passengers per month. In the last financial year this project has already created 370 employment opportunities in activities such as track maintenance, train operations, traffic management and other general maintenance of coaches and station buildings.
In an effort to improve the mobility and accessibility of our communities in the eastern part of our province, we have allocated R23,675 million for Africa's Best 350 Ltd Bus Operations. It is worth noting that this allocation is insufficient considering the challenge of access to public transport experienced by our rural communities, especially when they want to access government services like hospitals, clinics, schools and pension points.
This year we expect 24 new buses to commence operations in Butterworth and 15 additional buses to operate in the Lusikisiki area. We have allocated R39,209 million for the Mayibuye Transport Corporation, and its operations are 90% rural. There is a dire need for a greater injection of funds into this corporation in order to enhance its capacity through the refurbishment of its fleet and to ensure that its services reach more rural communities. May I just add that this corporation may go under if there is no additional intervention by government.
With regard to nonmotorised transportation, currently we have 18 containers that were converted into bicycle shops and distributed in all districts to service bicycles that were distributed through our Shova Kalula Bicycle Project.
The communities themselves have identified suitable candidates, who were trained to become sustainable bicycle shop owners or managers. Through our community-based transportation programme, we have been able to create 21 451 work opportunities for the poorest of the poor and exceeded our target of 18 000 work opportunities.
This achievement puts the department in the lead nationally in creating jobs through the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, in the 2009-10 financial year. In recognition of this achievement, the department is in line to receive an amount of R17 million in terms of the EPWP Incentive Grant for exceeding performance targets.
Our community-based transportation programme was recognised by the national Department of Public Works and was the recipient of the Komoso Award for developing and implementing the best innovative project in using labour- intensive methods in the entire country.
In the new financial year, because of the transfer of the roads, we will only create 801 work opportunities in the construction of pedestrian paths. We will increase our road rangers from 240 to 450, we will concentrate on the maintenance of our junior traffic training centres and we will also be concentrating on the maintenance of public resting places.
I think it is worth noting that the Eastern Cape was the first province to establish the provincial road safety council, which is a structure that seeks to make road safety everybody's responsibility, and this year we are going to ensure that 507 500 children and 7 829 adults are reached through the road safety education programme. With the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup around the corner we have increased our number of provincial traffic officers to 719 and they include a 187-member roving special operations task team that will be specifically focusing on tournament traffic enforcement operations. And in partnership with South African Breweries, SAB, we are going to launch the Eastern Cape's first alcohol testing centre in Port Elizabeth shortly before the start of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup tournament. [Applause.]
Chairperson, hon Minister of Transport, members of the NCOP, ladies and gentlemen, today, in this House, I am speaking on behalf of the MEC for roads and transport in Gauteng.
The Gauteng government heralds the plan that our government will execute in the current Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period. These plans have been carefully laid out to meet the national outcomes highlighted by our President in his state of the nation address.
We are, therefore, confident that the plans brought to this House today will not only be the signposts of what we will achieve, but also of what we have done and still intend improving upon in our service delivery models.
The Minister in his Budget Vote elaborates extensively on the preparations for the 2010 Fifa World Cup soccer tournament. As the transport fraternity, we will concern ourselves with the mobility of both local and international fans and spectators. As the Gauteng province we welcome the Minister's budget speech and assure you that we have developed a transport plan for 2010 that is aligned to the plans tabled by the Minister. We have developed a transport plan that identifies the core network relevant to provincial transport operations and which considers the main internal and external linkages in and out of the province.
We have also taken into consideration that it had to be relevant to land- based transportation movement. The conception of our plans is based on three levels of transportation networks. These are as follows.
The interprovincial services which we envisage will be provided by the national Department of Transport, but the Gauteng province will do the planning for the services that will be provided to ensure integration with provincial and intercity services in the province.
The intercity services will be provided by the province itself. Local or intracity services will be provided by the cities at two levels, namely high frequency services that will operate from a primary network, and a feeder and distribution system to be provided either by buses or accredited minibus taxis, thereby maximising coverage.
Unlike the 2009 Confederations Cup, our concept for the 2010 World Cup will be different given that the profile of the spectators is that of international visitors with prebooked travel packages and direct access to the stadium's precinct. We intend to provide less of the Park and Rides than we did previously during the Confederations Cup.
Our concept largely focuses on a strong rail backbone system supported by services rendered through the other three spheres of government. Hence the formation of institutional structures called the 2010 transport provincial forum to play a co-ordination and alignment role, so as to ensure a seamless delivery of transport through the province during this World Cup.
We have classified routes into categories that will cater for our citizens, our visitors and spectators. The most important routes are the protocol routes that will cater mainly for our VIPs and teams. The tourist routes will be focusing on our main tourist destinations in Gauteng, such as the prestigious Dinokeng and Cradle of Humankind, including the world-renowned Vilakazi Street and other destinations or offerings.
Despite the Gautrain project, which is not specifically meant to service the 2010 soccer tournament, we will be opening the O R Tambo International Airport route to Sandton in order to give transport services to the visitors from the airport to Sandton. On public transport, the Minister reiterated the importance of public transport and, therefore, I wish to endorse the statement by highlighting some of the programmes that the department has been engaging on in order to integrate land transport functions with land use and economic planning. These programmes ensure that transport demand is managed and our investments used effectively.
Because of the importance of transport in the economy of the country, we have decided to advocate for the promotion, regulation and development of an integrated public transport system. This system seeks to incorporate the transformation of the bus and taxi industries, as well as the integration of the Gautrain, into a public transport network and commuter rail system.
The transfer of the bus services functions from the North West province into Gauteng, after the demarcation process, has enhanced our bus transportation services because this has not only resulted in increased subsidies, but has actually promoted transportation services offered in those areas.
Regarding the taxi industry, we support the engagements that have taken place in the National Joint Working Group and the minibus-taxi industry. These have made positive contributions and inspired new initiatives that aim to grow the industry. This process will result in the growth and empowerment of those who were previously excluded from the broader public transport offerings, especially as they relate to other supported modes.
This Ministry has the responsibility to ensure road safety. That actually means that all spheres of government involved in carrying out transport functions are required to act upon the Minister's initiatives, like working with the Minister of Basic Education to intensify road safety education in our schools.
The department has come up with a plan aligned to the national call of providing every learner in high school with the opportunity to matriculate with a valid South African driving licence. Our proposed concept will concern itself mainly with all learners in high schools situated within our 20 Priority Township Programme in Gauteng.
We intend employing and training approximately 100 driving instructors on a permanent basis, thereby ensuring the sustainability of this programme while also creating job opportunities that are long-term based. In assuming this huge responsibility we will ensure that all the intended objectives, as indicated by the Minister, are realised, especially regarding the bookings and testing backlogs.
Regarding road infrastructure, the Minister and broader society's concerns about the backlog of road maintenance is noted. I must indicate that we are now working on strategies to overcome this challenge in a cost-effective and sustainable way.
The capital project programme of the Gauteng department of roads and transport has, in the period 2009-10, completed three of the major projects namely Phase 2 of K29, Malibongwe Drive, P174, and Phase 2 of the K15 route. Beyers Naude, Cayman Road and Voortrekker will continue and be carried over to the 2010-11 financial year.
All projects concluded by the department are Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, compliant. Five hundred and fifteen jobs were created and 20 subcontractors were given the opportunity to work on the projects in line with the promotion of SMMEs. They targeted 60% of the projects on women, 40% on youth and 2% for people with disabilities.
The issue of corruption is a concern in all spheres of government because it does not only hinder service delivery, but also slows the responsiveness of government to its citizens. A draft strategy on risk and anticorruption in Gauteng has been prepared, mainly to deal with the corruption at the driving licence testing centres, DLTCs, in Gauteng, a situation that has been viewed as spiralling out of control.
As interventions, we have planned to increase random inspections at DLTCs by the compliance unit from the community safety department; conduct monthly audits at these centres; randomly take tests over from examiners; and randomly make changes to the booking schedules and the deployment of the department's representative for daily observations and report writing at the call centre.
We also envisage electing a policy management committee that will address all legislative policies, procedures and administrative gaps that exist within the business unit following the above-mentioned principles. These are some of the areas that the strategy will cover and this will be forwarded to the national department as it is soon as it is finalised.
We, therefore, endorse the budget tabled by the Minister of Transport in the National Assembly and express our appreciation for the ongoing support that we receive from the national Department of Transport. We would also like to use this platform to assure the National Assembly, the NCOP and the people of South Africa of our continuous effort to provide transport infrastructure and services that are not only effective and efficient, but also advance the agenda of enhancing Gauteng City Region's global competitiveness. I thank you very much. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson, hon Manzankosi and hon members, all protocol observed.
Ayahlokoma amahlokohloko inhlokomo ebangelwa ubunyoninco bomkenenezo wemvelo. Ayajangaza ayatanasa kuhle kwamaqembu aphikisayo ngenxa yamathuba enziwa uKhongolose wabantu ngempela i-ANC. Baxakekile oxamu amathe abuyele kwasifuba ngenxa yesivinini umkhumbi kaNoah,i-ANC belu, ogijima ngaso ukuletha izinguquko ikakhulukazi ezimpilweni zabantu abampisholo. Phezu kokuba bona ogombela kwesabo behlulekile ukuletha izinguquko eminyakeni engama-342 eyedlule. Ngingakhohlwa ukudlulisa umyalezo ophuthumayo kulamabhoxongwana azelwe ngonyaka owedlule ukuthi bezalwa nje sebekwazi ukukhaphela okaMsholozi ngoba sebezibona bewumbimbi ohlelweni lokuthi uMsholozi abukeke njengendoda okungafanele siyethembe.
Ngizothanda ukwazisa lemisheshelengwana ukuthi imizamo yabo yezinkomba zokungamethembi uMsholozi ibhuntshile. Umyalezo wami uthi: badlala ngegeja kuziliwe. Abogawula babheke ngoba bayinyathele emsileni. Ngizothanda nokukhumbuza iNdlu yesiShayamthetho ukuthi kulo nyaka ka-2010 enyangeni kaMbasa ziyodela izimfamona futhi ziyohlala zibhocobele ngokuba bonke abantu baseNingizimu Afrika nomhlaba wonke wonke jikelele usahlonipha futhi usalugubha usuku lokukhumbula umholi wabantu uThembisile Chris Hani, sohlala simukhumbula njalo nje kuze kubuye indodana. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[The yellow weaver birds are making a noise because of the din caused by the sound of nature. They are boastful and walk in a contemptuous manner like the opposition party on account of the real Congress of the People, the ANC. The traitors are desperate and disappointed because of the speed at which Noah's ark, the ANC, is moving, fast in bringing changes to the people's lives - mostly black people. These capitalists failed to bring about change in people's lives in the past 342 years. Let me not forget to pass an urgent message to these scoundrels who formed a party last year, who have the guts to betray Msholozi because they see themselves as an alliance in the move to show a vote of no confidence in him.
I would like to tell these informers that their efforts in displaying their distrust of Msholozi have failed. My message is: They are playing with fire. They must be careful because they have angered him. I would like to remind the National Assembly that this year, in April 2010, the jealous people will remain lethargic because all the people of South Africa and the whole world will still commemorate the day of Thembisile Chris Hani, the people's leader; we will commemorate his death until the second coming of Christ.]
The apartheid transport policy deprived the majority of people of South Africa in transport matters and has led to the payment of huge transport subsidies; exposed commuters to vast walking distances; failed to regulate the kombi taxi industry adequately; largely ignored the country's outrageous road safety records; paid little attention to the environmental impact of transport projects; and facilitated transport decision-making bodies that were unwilling, unfocused, unaccountable and bureaucratic.
An effective publicly owned passenger transport system is what the ANC is promoting, which includes integrating road, rail and air transportation. Privately controlled passenger transport must be effectively regulated and controlled.
The ANC transport policy ensures that ...
Kukhona oke wakhuluma ngenqubomgomo yenye inhlangano, nansi-ke eye ANC. [There is someone who talked about a certain party's policy - here is the one for the ANC.]
... it promotes co-ordinated, safe, affordable public transport as a social service, to ensure that the system is flexible enough to take into account local conditions, in order to make the best use of the available transport infrastructure as far as possible.
We promote accountability for the service that is provided: We provide a transport system that takes into account the transport needs of disabled people; clearly defines the responsibility of the various authorities and ensures comprehensive land use and transport planning; promotes road safety; revives subsidies for both operating and capital costs and provides funds for long-term planning; as well as facilitating high-density development to ensure efficient use of public transport.
Ngingakadluli lapho ngizothanda ukukhumbuza uMnu Ngoqngqoshe we-DA ukuthi ... [Before going further I would like to remind the DA MEC that ...]
... he said that economic development in this country is worth nothing. That does not surprise us because some of them were part of collapsing our economy.
The majority of our people are unable to afford private transport and are dependent on public transport. Given the need for increased mobility costs and the environmental impact of accommodating the private motorists, the future emphasis must be on the provision of safe, convenient and affordable public transport.
Commuters are being encouraged to use public transport and should be actively discouraged from using cars. The revenue raised by way of a dedicated tax levy must continue to be used to direct the benefits of the provision of public transport.
Rail transport must be extended, not in the urban areas, but in rural areas in particular, where our people are most vulnerable and do not have the financial ability to pay for other forms of transport, thereby locking them into a geographically defined area. Rural areas require more frequent public transport and improved facilities at affordable costs.
Bese ngiyabuya futhi kubaba uMlenzana. Uyabona, okuningi kwenu akusethusi thina ngoba i-Cope yenza lokhu edume ngakho iyaphuma ihambe. EPolokwane naphuma nahamba, makumele kukhulunywe niphuma nihambe, eNdlini Yesishayamthetho naphuma nahamba, ngesonto eledlule kunomhlangano naphuma nahamba. Nezingane zenu mazingazalwa kusukela manje zizoba ophuma bahambe. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Let me come back to the issue of Mr Mlenzana. You see, most of what you do does not scare us because Cope is doing what it is famous for - it stages walkouts. You staged a walkout in Polokwane; when we ought to talk you stage a walkout; in the National Assembly you staged a walkout; last week in the meeting you staged a walkout. You must not give birth to any children from now on because they will stage walkouts.]
Lines must act as feeders to rail service as prime movers if rail is not available. Taxis must act as feeders to bus and rail services, as prime movers if neither rail nor bus services are available. The subsidisation ...
It's just a point of clarity; I don't understand the member when he's talking about "march out", maybe he can explain.
Hon member, you just want to stand up and talk.
Wenze kahle. Awuthi ngidlulise nakhu futhi okunye. [Well done. Let me mention this again.]
During our oversight visit to Gauteng and Mpumalanga and Taking Parliament to the People in Limpopo, as well as the visit by Parliament to host cities, the following recommendations by the people were raised.
Isiphakamiso sokuqala, abantu bacela ukuthi eMpumalanga kunomgwaqo ohlanganisa iPienaar neKwanyamazane ibhuloho lakhona seliyoqeda unyaka akucaci kahle ukuthi ubani omelwe ukulilungisa, ingabe uhulumeni kazwelonke, wesifundazwe noma wasekhaya. Esikhundleni sokuthi balungise umgwaqo kunaleyo nkulumo-mpikiswano.
Okunye futhi ukuthi kunendlela eya eMpakeni edlula ngaseMthethomusha iyadabukisa, uma ngabe imvula ina akungeneki kanti futhi nakwi-Bus Rapid Transit, i-BRT, abantu be-BRT bamatekisi abayali futhi abayivumi kodwa bacela kube nokuqguqguzelana ukuthi sisebenzisane kakhulu. Okunye abakucelayo kwi-BRT ukuthi bacela ukuthi kunamagatsha amaningi phakathi, abaxhumanisi, nokuyinto edla imali eningi kakhulu uma sekukhulunywa ngalabo bantu. Ngalokho bacela ukuthi sengathi singabona ukuthi kungenziwani ngalezo zindaba. Bese ngiyabuya ngiyaqhubeka ngithi ... (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[The first proposal from the people is that there should be a road in Mpumalanga that connects Pienaar and Kanyamazane. The bridge has been left incomplete for about a year and it is not clear who is supposed to fix it - whether it is national government, provincial government or local government. There is debate around the issues instead of attending to the problem.
The route that goes to Mpakeni which goes past Mthethomusha is heartbreaking, since it is a no-go area when it rains. With regard to the bus rapid transit system, the BRT, the taxi people neither accept nor reject it but they request that the parties concerned should be encouraged to work together. What they also request from the BRT is that since there are many branches in between, envoys require a lot of money if you talk about those people. With that, they request that we should consider what to do with those issues. Let me continue and say that ...]
... the planning of transport in metropolitan and major urban areas must be in accordance with the urban and metropolitan growth management plan. This should guide the financing of infrastructure improvement and the payment of operating subsidies for public transport. Travel nodes should not compete against each other in urban areas, but rather transport provided must be integrated. In rural areas provincial government and district councils need to ensure that transport plans take into consideration the need for extensive road building and improvement.
The issues of road safety education, enforcement and road engineering are critical, and road safety must be given the priority it deserves. The transport authority must be charged with the task of reducing accidents and must be given funds to achieve that goal.
For all public transport services to be fully integrated, their functioning must be co-ordinated and/or regulated. These operations must be accountable to the public and responsible for the provision, co-ordination and funding of all public transport and infrastructure necessary for public transport. Policy development should be especially addressing the current problems such as unco-ordinated tariff structures, duplication of services and conflicts as a result of different forms of ownership.
With respect to other forms of transport, international conventions and treaties determine part of the legal framework for sea and air transport. Infrastructural development must, however, be extended through democratic consultation with various stakeholders.
The ongoing harmonisation of infrastructural, legal and operational aspects of the Southern African regional transport system must continue to be a priority and the work with cross-border transport has to be strengthened.
Ngingachithi isikhathi, siyikomidi loMkhandlu weziFundazwe siyaseseka isabelomali sakho futhi siyacela ukuthi sengathi abantu bamatekisi bangasebenzisana nathi futhi imihlangano le ehanjwa nabo yaziswe emphakathini ngoba abanye babantu bayabushintsha ubuso ngenkathi kuyibo bodwa. Nakubo abantu bamatekisi sithi abahloniphe, angeke sikuvumele ukuthi bakhiphe izimvume baphinde basebenzise izindlela okungezona ezabo ngoba zidala ingxabano.
Kodwa noma kunjalo, sicela ukuthi kuxoxiswane mhlawumbe uma kulokhu kuphenywa kuboniswane ukuthi kungenziwa liphi isu kungaze kulimaze iNdebe yomhlaba ka-2010 ezoba khona lapha eNingizimu Afrika. Ngalokho siyaseseka kakhulu isabelomali sakho. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Let me not waste time. As the committee of the National Council of Provinces, the NCOP, we support your Budget Vote. We also request that the taxi people work with us and that these meetings that are held with them should be announced to the community, because some of the people change their tune when they are alone. The taxi people must also show respect; we shall not allow them to issue permits and use routes that are not theirs, because that causes some wrangling.
In spite of that, we request that there should be some talks whilst there are investigations on what plans can be made so that it does not affect the 2010 World Cup which will be hosted in South Africa. With that we fully support the Budget Vote. [Applause.]]
Chairperson and hon members, thank you very much for a very stimulating debate, both in content and spirit. It is much appreciated.
Perhaps I should just start with housekeeping matters. To the hon member Mr Groenewald I would like to say that if he would just take the time, he would find out that we have been part of the struggle to create a democratic system of governance. We cannot be part of not respecting those structures.
With regard to the meeting that the hon member was talking about - that is why Mr Carlisle didn't talk about it - if he had just found out from the hon chairperson of the select committee, he would have known that it was set for a Wednesday.
Wednesdays are Cabinet days, and therefore particularly the Deputy Minister and I were both in Cabinet on that day. The DG, Mr George Mahlalela, was in Johannesburg, dealing with the taxi conflict. Had he not gone there, it would have disrupted so many other lives.
It was not because of disrespect to the committee. Why should we suddenly say that if you are sitting on this side, you will disrespect somebody sitting on the other side? There would be no need for that, and one doesn't operate in that way. So, let's put that one to rest.
Thank you very much, hon members, and I appreciate the input that Mr Carlisle made. We are encouraged that the member succinctly outlined the key challenges facing public transport, and we really appreciate particularly his understanding that there should be a meeting of minds on matters that deal with the reconstruction of our country.
It's quite a critical thing to do. Apartheid was one of the most successful experiments in human engineering. It separated people and communities and caused devastation in the lives of people. Our government now, and particularly Transport, must be able to overcome the ravages of apartheid, by saying that just as apartheid used transport to divide people, we must use transport to unite people. That is quite a critical point for all of us.
Let me then just outline the key issues that we have been presenting and which one appreciates that the members have supported. Firstly, we achieved our freedom in 1994, but for many of our people 1994 has not yet arrived, because they live in the back of beyond. School kids aged 8, 9, 10 and 11 years travel 9 km to 10 km per day.
It must be a matter of concern to all of us, and we should ask ourselves what we can do about it. Therefore, the provision, in the first instance, of roads is critical. We should be able to say that it is April 2010. Where should we be in April 2012, in terms of this table that you have presented here, which is far from being a complete picture of the backlogs that are there? Just to connect clinics and schools, if you look at the thousands that you were counting here for each province, it is a state of emergency for all of us.
Therefore, what do we do? That's why we say a dedicated fund, ringfenced to actually deal with that matter, is necessary. It won't affect competencies and powers of authorities, whether they be local, provincial or national, but we must work in a co-ordinated fashion to say that we should be at a specific point by 2012. We should have reached so many schools and so many clinics, so that it can be taken for granted that you can drive a car or go there by public transport and so forth, and that there will be no day when you cannot reach a school or a clinic.
That is a state of emergency for us, and it is something that we need to put on the table and say, together with the entire transport family, which is made up of MECs and all the people dealing with matters of transport, that this is where we are going to be doing what we will be doing in the next two years. We operate in terms of outcomes. We entered into an agreement with the President, hon Jacob Zuma. Each one of us said that we in Transport are going to do one, two, three. Up to now, one has not said things that one is not going to be able to do, and my colleague MEC Mchunu will know that we set ourselves tasks, and we then move.
If the tasks are higher than what you've set, then you go and strive further. We are going to do that. If we then say that this is what we are going to do, those bridges that you are talking about, those inaccessible clinics and schools that we are talking about, let's put them on a programme and say that this is what we are going to do within this time and mobilise all the necessary forces.
The fortunate part of it is that we in Transport don't just spend money. In spending every R1 000, R100 000, R100 million, we are creating jobs in the process. We create jobs in that people are employed as they build, but we also give out those contracts.
We are able to do that programme in a very transparent manner, in a manner that is envisaged by our policies. We say that that is a piece of road that we are going to do; we are doing 100 km here. You and you and you are forming a co-operative to do 10 km of that or 20 km of that; you, this group or community, are going to maintain those roads. And that is what we are going to do.
Secondly, the major issue that all of us should be united on is road safety. The carnage on our roads is just not acceptable. I saw that mudslide in Brazil. It is a natural phenomenon, and there were those clouds that happened and stopped the flights and so forth. These are natural phenomena.
However, you cannot have a situation where each day you are going to ask how many people have died and get the answer that there are 27, Minister. An hour later there might be 29, and two hours later, there might be 36. This happens each day, and it cannot be allowed. It is not a natural phenomenon.
It's a carry-over from apartheid days, from when we disregarded human life, and said, "I must show my macho side" and all that. What needs to happen is that now we say that it must stop. It will stop due to using enforcement.
As my colleague, Ms Barry, is doing in the Eastern Cape, as my colleague, MEC Mchunu, is doing famously in KwaZulu-Natal, we need to say that there is zero tolerance, and zero tolerance must be zero tolerance.
We will tighten that. Just the first six months is going to show it, because once you obey one set of laws, you will obey other laws as well. You might be troublesome somewhere else but on the road you are not going to be troublesome, because we are just going to lock you up. That is what is going to happen.
People are going to know that the licence that you have is now in our legislation - the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act is precisely meant to ensure that road offences are not part of the 11 000 traffic cases that are waiting here. It is going to be done in a manner that says there shall be consequences for not obeying the law.
Colleagues, I want to thank you very much for supporting this budget. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.