Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister, hon Ndebele and hon Cronin respectively, fellow Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament, the Director-General, Mr Mahlalela, chairpersons and CEOs of the different entities, guests and friends, the Budget Vote on Transport is being tabled just a few hours after the launch of Youth Month in Parliament under the theme, "A Caring Parliament that Advances Youth Development to Achieve Economic Freedom".
This launch signifies the events of 35 years ago, on 16 June 1976, where more than 20 000 pupils from Soweto engaged in a protest march against the directive of the apartheid government to have Afrikaans used on an equal basis with English as the language of instruction in secondary schools.
Thirty-five years later we commemorate this day, guided by the words of political wisdom of President Mandela, when he said, and I quote:
Youth are the valued possession of the nation. Without them there can be no future. Their needs are immense and urgent. They are the centre of reconstruction and development.
I will today be speaking on public transport, covering areas that relate to integrated public transport, scholar transport, Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, and broad-based black economic empowerment as an imperative in the advancement of small bus operators, the taxi industry, and co-operative development.
The Department of Transport has committed itself to the development of integrated public transport by advancing, amongst others, the following objectives and measures.
The first is to improve public transport access and reliability by developing norms and standards to support the development of integrated public transport networks in 12 cities by 2020 and to monitor and evaluate progress in this regard.
The second is to ensure that there is efficient and effective public and tourism transport, by establishing the National Public Transport Regulator by 2011-12, as required by the National Land Transport Act of 2009. The third is to increase the equity ownership and broad-based black economic empowerment in the public transport sector, by implementing the industry development model to empower 20% of taxi operators and 20% of small bus operators by 2014.
The last is to align and integrate the taxi recapitalisation programme with national and provincial rail services, metropolitan and rapid public transport corridor services and provincial bus services by redefining the taxi recapitalisation project by 2013.
We welcome these noble objectives of the department and, working together, we hope that they will get implemented in the projected time frames.
We also call for the subsidisation of the taxi industry, especially as they now compete with other modes of transport such as buses and rail, but also because they are the largest carrier of public transport passengers.
We are aware that the transformation of the public transport system integration of the taxi operation into mainstream public transport is under way, as your department has committed itself to the following.
Firstly, there exists a need to move from mode-specific subsidies, rail and bus, to public transport subsidies. Secondly, all new designs and redesigns will be reviewed to ensure that they are integrated. Thirdly, no new tender or negotiated contract will be approved if it does not subscribe to integration. Lastly, the taxi industry must be assisted to prepare for this transformation, that is, to organise itself into entities that can compete in this space. [Applause.]
We as the portfolio committee support and acknowledge the contribution of the taxi industry to the country's GDP, job creation, and economic and social development, and we wish to assure them that we take very seriously the work they do as the largest transporter of millions of the previously disadvantaged and marginalised communities in the country.
Let me deal with scholar transport. South Africa currently lacks an integrated approach to the transportation of scholars, and this is largely because there is the absence of a policy to address the transportation of scholars. Provincial departments are currently providing scholar transport assistance, and because there is no national policy framework, there is therefore no uniform way of managing and operating scholar transport in provinces.
In some provinces the provision of scholar transport has been transferred from the Department of Education to the Department of Transport. We as the portfolio committee support this move, because we believe that the core business of the Department of Education is to educate the child and not to transport the child. [Applause.]
It has taken the department more than four years to develop a national policy, and that delay has contributed to the fragmentation of this operation, because there are no uniform national norms and standards for the implementation of scholar transport provision in all nine provinces.
We have witnessed huge inconsistencies in the mechanisms for payment of scholar transport service providers from one province to the other. This has negatively affected service providers, especially small bus operators, preventing them from adequately executing their work to establish a favourable infrastructure that will address the safety of pupils.
There is absolutely no justification for government to continually award contracts to monopoly players and thereby defeat the noble objectives of promoting SMMEs and broad-based black economic empowerment entities, as outlined by policy.
We applaud the strides made by the department in establishing a technical and steering committee, as well as the draft policy to address the many challenges in scholar transport. However, we can no longer delay the question of a fully-fledged policy that will speak specifically to vehicle type and mode, roadworthiness, eligibility of beneficiaries and access for children with disability, amongst other things.
The Shova Kalula programme is being well received and provinces must be encouraged to continue with its roll-out if it is to make the noble interventions that we all envisage.
Let me deal with BRT. The Department of Transport made a commitment that BRT would be crucial to the success of South Africa's transport system and would yield positive results. I recall that the taxi associations at the time expressed their discomfort with the implementation of the BRT, as they felt there should be further engagement on the matter. Other taxi owners felt they could not compete with BRT, because the system was to have its own dedicated lanes.
Despite these challenges and concerns, the Department of Transport, under the stewardship of Minister Ndebele and his capable director-general, Mr Mahlalela, have been able to diffuse this discomfort by addressing the concerns of the taxi industry, particularly by ensuring that the industry moves towards being a major player in the transport sector, as was evident in the handing over of 66% of Rea Vaya, the majority shareholding in the controlling Johannesburg Bus Rapid Transit system, to the taxi industry. This is indeed a huge success for broad-based black economic empowerment.
We will not be apologetic about, or hesitate in our oversight role of often reminding the department of its obligation towards broad-based black economic empowerment, and where we can trace success stories, we will not hesitate to applaud you. [Applause.]
It is in the interests of this government to ensure that public transport monopolies are transformed in favour of SMMEs. Monopoly players cannot continue to be major beneficiaries of this government, lest we do not take very seriously the objectives of government, as outlined in policy, of correcting the economic imbalances of the past.
We as the National Executive Committee of the ANC Youth League will convene our 24th National Congress in the next two weeks, in which we will be looking broadly at the whole question of attaining economic freedom from the hands of the minority, and monopoly capital in favour of the previously disadvantaged majority.
It is for this reason that we support the diversification strategy of the taxi industry, to expand its scope of business operations from the taxi industry to transport, in order for them to participate in other transport modes such as in the bus industry, rail, and aviation. It is in the best interests of development and achieving economic freedom for the taxi industry and other BEE groupings to own airlines, because if it is not they who own the airlines, who better qualifies to own them. We as the portfolio committee have already expressed our support for the consolidation of individual taxi business operations into co-operative entities that will harness bargaining power and create efficiency in business management operations.
We cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the taxi industry and small bus operators, as they were the ones who supported the country during the dark days of apartheid and provided the necessary means of movement of our people. The ANC supports the budget. Ngiyabonga kakhulu. [Thank you very much.]