Chairperson and hon members, thank you very much for the very constructive contributions that have been made. We really want to express our appreciation for that.
I would like to deal with a few issues. On Friday, 22 October, I think it was, we had a meeting with my counterpart, the Minister of Public Enterprises, Ms Barbara Hogan, from the Department of Public Enterprises, together with our two entities - the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Prasa, led by its CEO, Lucky Montana, and Transnet, led by its CEO, Chris Wells.
We had a constructive meeting in which we, as political principals, wanted to bring peace where there had been ructions and disagreements. The meeting ended very well with a full commitment from both Transnet and Prasa to work as the Ministers are doing - in co-operation and in a manner that makes the passengers and the public number one, to be serviced, and not taking into consideration whatever differences there might be. Indeed, we found that those differences were not deep-seated. I am happy to say that that matter was resolved.
Secondly, we are really happy in Transport. Last year we were discussing the issue of the taxi violence. We asked: What about the taxi violence? What has happened is a measure of the success of all of us who raised our voices, saying that this was not acceptable. It is not acceptable in the Western Cape, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal or anywhere. All of us raised our voices.
As we speak, the main concern and pre-occupation of the taxi industry is now more investment, more development of themselves as businesses, and more service to our people. I think quite a lot of progress has been registered in that area. The unanimity of the voices, whether provincial, local, national or across all parties, has been very helpful in ensuring that we put pressure on that industry. Indeed, the focus is now on their developing themselves as proper businesses, and that they can do by giving proper and admirable service to our people. There has been progress in that regard. There is stability now.
Thirdly, as far as the issue of road infrastructure is concerned, the voices that were raised here have been responded to, particularly with regard to the budget. I am sure the Minister of Finance will be raising the question of the dedicated road maintenance fund tomorrow. There can never be enough money, but we need to make sure that nationally we have funds dedicated to maintenance. Provinces and municipalities have dedicated funds for road maintenance.
This is a measure of ourselves and where we stand in the scale of development. You judge the development of a country by four things - does it have clean water, roads, electricity and proper communication? It doesn't matter which part of the world you are in; you should have those four basic things. It should be taken for granted that they will be there.
We in Transport are saying that all of us, from municipalities, local governments and provinces to the national arena, should make sure that we give ourselves a very tough test. That test is: Is there a school that cannot be reached by road? Is there a clinic that cannot be reached by road, whether it is raining or not? Is there a sports facility or social development facility that cannot be reached by road? It is for us to make sure that it is not just roads in general - we can talk about 16 000 km of blacktop national roads, and that is fine, but it doesn't answer the question of the person who must have a road in order to go to the clinic or to school or just to entertain himself.
We have called for the creation of road safety councils as community-based structures. We need to have them in all provinces and wards. This is so that when an accident happens, or even before it does, the councils will have ensured that youngsters have been educated on how to cross the roads and so forth. They should ensure that there is no drinking and driving, and that there are no shebeens that just let everybody drink.
If four people are drinking, one of them should be the dedicated driver to take them home. It should just be accepted, the norm, just like when you accept that you can't simply go into a supermarket and steal a packet of biscuits and put it in your pocket. Similarly, nobody should boast that they drive their cars at 180 km or 200 km per hour, and think that that is socially acceptable. It should just be seen as criminal behaviour, not a social expression of some sort.
So, on the question of road safety councils, this is one of the instruments that society as a whole must have in their hands. It is these that will also access the Road Accident Fund. When we visit a family, as we visited the Nyembe family in Alexandra, we should be able to say what we as the progressive democratic government of South Africa can do in regard to a funeral. We know that every South African who is on the road is insured through the Road Accident Fund. We have up to R10 000 to assist with any funeral of a road accident victim if they don't have any other assistance. We are able to do that immediately. Then the Road Accident Fund people are there to take the details and move on with it.
In the last financial year we spent R11 billion on the Road Accident Fund, and approximately R5,5 billion of that money was spent on lawyers, which we would like to ensure doesn't continue to happen. That is just not on. The money should be going to the victims.
The issue of Shova Kalula is still very much there. Sir, 26 100 bikes are to be distributed, and 13 500 had been distributed by March of this year. The 15 000 milestone will be reached by the end of this financial year. So, Shova Kalula is still going on. It has also created micro businesses in six provinces for repairing those bikes. That programme is going very well.
Chairperson and members, thank you very much for the very constructive debate that we have had. It has been a very fitting closure to Transport Month. Those 1 million cars are going to be checked every month, wayawaya [always]. I thank you. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.