Hon House Chairperson, hon Minister of Transport, Ntate Sbu Ndebele, hon MECs present here today, hon chair of the select committee, Ntate Sibande, hon members of the NCOP and hon special delegates, it is Salga's belief that in order to move South Africa safely and on time we have to attend to but are not limited to the following: the promotion and use of safe, efficient and affordable public transport; getting freight off the roads; funding of road infrastructure and maintenance; and traffic management.
Efficient public transport is the future in densely built-up areas the world over. The sustained increase in the demand for vehicle travel puts pressure on the existing road and parking capacity, leading to the need for further expansion of roads infrastructure. Building more roads and parking spaces decreases traffic congestion only temporarily. Instead of adding more road lanes and upgrading roads and bridges, there is a need to prioritise the improvement of alternative transport mechanisms that will meet the needs of communities and businesses.
Salga appreciates the strides taken so far in respect of supporting the implementation and roll-out of the rapid transit systems in four cities. However, some of the cities have indicated a concern that the rapid transit system has been reduced to only a bus rapid transit system. Where a city prefers a rapid transit system that is not anchored on using buses but, for example, rail, this does not appear to find favour with officials of the Department of Transport, hon Minister.
We are proposing that in the medium-term we focus on supporting the major cities by assigning them the appropriate powers, functions and financial resources and supporting them to build the requisite capacity to take full responsibility for planning and managing multimodal urban public transport.
With regard to getting freight off the roads, as Salga we appreciate the focus of government in respect of building the necessary infrastructure capacity so that we may eventually get freight off the roads and into rail transport. There is a need to consider the use of such instruments as vehicle licensing for trucks to stimulate a modal shift of freight from roads to rail while at the same time getting the licensing fee for trucks to reflect the road maintenance cost associated with the use of roads by heavy trucks.
Regarding the funding of roads infrastructure maintenance, Salga appreciates the steps that the Minister has taken in launching the S'hamba Sonke programme. However, we understand the focus of this programme on secondary roads to mean that it is only about those roads that are the responsibility of provinces. It does not include municipal roads, but focuses mostly on access roads. With the exception of toll roads, road infrastructure is generally funded from tax. In the case of local government, this tax is property rates tax and in rural areas there is no payment of property rates tax. The national fiscus contributes - in the form of a MIG - on behalf of poor households a limited amount for the provision of basic services infrastructure, including basic levels of road infrastructure. This means that those rural households that are not reflected as poor by Statistics SA, as well as rural business, do not contribute to the cause of providing road infrastructure in their areas.
Therefore urban ratepayers and poor rural households who are paid for by the national fiscus have to carry this unfair subsidy burden to the rural, middle and high-income households and businesses. Unfortunately a municipality cannot overtax those urban ratepayers, leading to situations where there is no financial provision for investment and maintenance of the rural roads infrastructure, except for the small contribution made by the national fiscus on behalf of poor households.
Ironically, middle and high-income households and businesses are the most vocal in their demand for good roads because of the impact it has on their vehicles. Consequently, road expenditure statistics indicate that from 2003- 04 up to the 2009-10 financial year, municipalities spent on average R156 000 per kilometre of road for maintenance and upgrading, compared to the R258 000 and R3 million spent by provincial and national governments respectively. Actually, if you compared that with what Sanral is spending, in other words, if they should spend R3 million on the maintenance of a road, the quality becomes far better than that of a municipal road. Smaller rural municipalities spend much less. Even taking into account that the three spheres of government are responsible for different classes of roads, the differences are just too big. This is not a consequence of choice by municipalities, hon Minister, but is the result of a financial resource constraint.
Complicating this matter more is the fact that about 221 000 km of road remains unallocated among the provinces, districts and local municipalities. This means that the monitoring of the conditions and maintenance of this vast portfolio of roads infrastructure falls between the cracks. Since all roads are in a municipal area, municipalities are forced to take some care of these unallocated and therefore unfunded roads. Since the establishment of municipalities in the year 2000, local government has been calling for the resolution of this matter. This underfunding leads to the evident deterioration of rural roads, which in turn leads to the accelerated deterioration of user vehicles and increased road accidents. We would like to request the Minister of Transport to work closely with Salga and National Treasury to find a solution to this challenge.
With regard to road traffic law enforcement, the country has been hoping that the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences, Aarto, will be a significant step up in traffic law enforcement. However, it appears that the level of centralisation associated with the implementation of Aarto is working against it. A review of the need for this level of centralisation needs to be considered.
In conclusion, Salga believes that attention to these four interrelated matters, namely the promotion of the use of safe, efficient and affordable public transport; getting freight off the roads; funding of roads infrastructure maintenance, and traffic management, will go a long way towards moving South Africa and South Africans safely and on time. [Applause.]