Hon Chair, the entire Ministry of Transport, hon members ...
... ndi madekwana. [... good evening.]
The EFF understands that transport is a critical component in ending racial and class inequality in South Africa and in promoting development. Twenty years after democracy, our transport system still has a class and racial bias. The EFF seeks to promote a pro-poor transport system, something that the government has not prioritised. We therefore understand that even though road transport remains the major carrier of our people, especially the poor black working class and the unemployed, not enough resources and capacity have been dedicated to the transformation and efficiency of road transport.
Road transport has been awarded 40% of the entire department's budget. However, 20 years into democracy, 60% of our roads are still in a very bad state, with permanent potholes on almost every road. For example, the roads in our rural areas such as Limpopo, the North West and Mpumalanga are in a very bad state, and most of the people who die on our roads die because of these potholes. How many people have lost their property because 60% of the roads are in a poor state? This is very disturbing because vehicle owners pay annual licence fees, which increase each and every year, and the very objective of the licence fees is to maintain our roads.
Our roads are full of potholes and are not marked adequately. There is a lack of relevant road signs and roads are not fenced to hinder stray animals. Some of the tarred roads constructed during the 20 years of democracy are in such a bad state that some of the gravel roads are better than the tarred roads. The EFF will make sure that each and every village has a tarred access road ... [Interjections.] ... to provide for the smooth running of taxis and buses to transport the poor. [Interjections.]
The road infrastructure grant transferred to the provinces and municipalities is not monitored enough or with keen enough interest. We are also concerned about our road oversight subprogrammes. Most of the huge budget of road transport is allocated to the three entities: the SA National Roads Agency Limited, Sanral, the Road Traffic Management Corporation, the RTMC, and the Road Traffic Infringement Agency, the RTIA. We think that the RTMC is not allocated enough because most of ...