Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members and invited guests, the rapture should start on a lighter note, with Dr Mathole Motshekga and the chief executive officer of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Prasa, Lucky Montana. The rapture should start by congratulating you on your team's recent success stories. Though I am doing this under protest, I had no choice. I had to do this because the ANC Chief Whip nearly bit my head off when I was criticising Chiefs that other day.
Getting back to the business of the day, from where we are as Cope, the picture of public transport is not impressive at all. The public transport system faces many challenges, including lack of integration, information and poor infrastructure. The public transport system lacks community involvement, responsibility and accountability. [Interjections.] Louder, louder, hon member, louder, I can't hear you! The poorest are paying the most for transport through e-tolling, scholar transport, taxi industry and Shova Kalula, to name but a few. They are perfect examples of these challenges. With regard to e-tolling, Minister Ben Martins pulled an economic hare out of his hat last week during the debate on the Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Bill in the National Council of Provinces. NCOP members were told that the budget deficit is growing, the credit ratings of both government and South African National Road Agency Limited, Sanral, will be negatively affected and e-tolling is the only way out of the economic mess. This made the NCOP members of the ruling party adopt the Bill thinking that the South African economy would grow first thing tomorrow morning. They also denied the people's Parliament a say in the determination of the toll road fees, entrenching the culture of not putting people first.
While they were adopting the Bill, Cosatu, a member of the tripartite alliance, with the support of dozens of civil society organisations were busy preparing for the protest against e-tolling. The question is: Are Cosatu and civil society not concerned about the economy of the country?
The Western Cape High Court granted the City of Cape Town an interim interdict halting the proposed N1/N2 Winelands toll highway by Sanral. Is the judge therefore not concerned about the country's economy?
In Kwazulu-Natal, Sanral scrapped the plans to construct as similar toll road along the N2 Wild Coast highway. Was Sanral not concerned about the economy of the country when it arrived at that decision? It is not true that there are no other alternative sources to funding but e-tolling? We know the petrol levy is one such option. You know, in life some things can be factual and so logical, but still remain completely untrue. It is untrue that a motorist in Gauteng, just because he has a car, is financially able and flourishing. It is completely untrue. [Interjections.]
We as Cope find it totally disconcerting that the department have tasked the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency, CBRTA, to do the collection of tolls on behalf of Sanral when the CBRTA's objectives have nothing to do with this deployment, when a better placed entity would have been the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
On the issue of scholar transport, how is it that the department has not completed the Scholar Transport Policy in 2013, when we have only less than a year to go to wind up the five-year term? In 2010, I lamented the scholar transport situation, which is characterised by a series of fragmented guidelines that have yet to result in a co-ordinated and effective strategy to ensure a safe, efficient and affordable journey to school for the majority of the nation's scholars. We have less than a year to wind up our five-year term and the department is still singing the same song, that it is about to complete the Scholar Transport Policy.
In six out of seven provinces, the scholar transport is with the Department of Basic Education. In three provinces, there is no indication that they intend involving the Department of Transport to provide policy direction or to facilitate migration of the functions, and only in one province the functions of the scholar transport is with the Department of Transport.
As a result, transport continues to be one of the largest components of the cost of education and represents a serious obstacle to accessing basic education. [Interjections.] Only if you listen, S'bu, will you learn. The costs of transport are extremely high for poorer families, therefore rates of absenteeism from school are higher in poorer households. To quantify the problem, taxi expenditures range from R250 to R400 a month in the Western Cape alone for a learner to commute to school, without taking into consideration the number of kilometres travelled by each learner.
The argument put forward by the taxi operators is that car parts and the petrol price have a major impact on increased transport costs. The dilemma with this argument is that when the petrol price drops, the transport costs remain the same. An obvious result of high transport costs for many learners is the choice between walking long distances and staying at home.
On Shova Kalula, the distances that have to be walked by rural or farm school students are sometimes as long as 30 km each way. Naturally, walking such distances has an adverse effect on the quality and availability of basic education. Schoolwork and the physical safety and wellbeing of those who choose to walk to school are affected by the cost of and inability to access transport.
A number of mainstream newspaper articles have corroborated the safety issue over the past several years, and they have chronicled the long distances that learners walk to school and the dangers that they face along the way in terms of crime, violence, overflowing rivers and traffic accidents. Honestly, bicycles are similar to walking, because learners are also exposed to harsh weather conditions and crime. [Interjections.]
In conclusion ... [Interjections.] You know, when the ANC is making a commotion like this, you must know that I am doing a good job. [Laughter.] In conclusion, the taxi industry will continue to be hard done by and remain a hurdle that the government has just been unable to overcome. It is not in the interest of the country for the taxi industry issues to remain unresolved. Commuters have a right to a good service, legal cover and safety. We are still waiting to hear when and how the problems of the taxi industry are going to be put to rest.
To quantify this, the department is still bogged down in scrapping taxis. We all know that it is not winning in this regard. When the department arrived at a particular fee that will be given to a taxi for scrapping, it did so without taking into consideration the issues around fuel prices and the issues of inflation. Taxi owners, like every average and poor South African, are faced with rising costs of everything from food prices to electricity hikes. How the department is expecting the owners to finance and service their vehicles, remains a question to be answered by this government. When will the millions of taxi commuters be subsidised like the bus commuters? This is another question that the department still has to answer. [Time expired.] [Applause.]