Hon Speaker, the hon Minister of Transport and his deputy have had to inherit from their predecessors an underfunded, underskilled and understaffed department. It has approximately 300 posts with unfunded mandates on its proposed organogram, and on the present organogram, a 9% vacancy rate, including a large number of senior posts where people are in acting capacities.
In real terms, a vacancy rate of more than 40% exists if the department realistically wants to effectively implement its progress. The department's budget has grown exponentially over the past five years and has moved from three administration branches to nine. If one breaks down the budget allocations of the department over the last five years, it is apparent that much of their budget is comprised of injections of funding into projects like the Gautrain, R25 billion and still growing; the Road Accident Fund bailout, R6 billion and it will be growing again this year; and the 2010 World Cup initiatives for public transport, road and rail infrastructure, which amounts to over R20 billion.
Once these projects have been implemented post 2010, the department resorts to its routine allocations of which only toll roads, Public Transport Infrastructure and Systems, PTIS, and bus subsidies show any increases to be at the inflation rate.
The department requested a budget of R31 billion for 2008-09 and was only allocated R24,5 billion, yet for the last five years bus subsidy levels have not been sufficient. The Road Accident Fund annually runs out of money to pay its claimants. Road maintenance and construction costs increase in line with fuel prices and a current loan backlog of R126 billion exists nationally and provincially.
Road commuter services are severely undercapitalised, the sum for funding is inadequate, taxi recapitalisation at current funding rates will take over 10 years to finalise, while critical challenges exist in funding such programmes as the revitalisation of the transport ... [Time expired.]