Chairperson, hon Ministers, MEC Ndosi, hon members, government officials, ladies and gentlemen.
Ngena naye! Phuma naye! Lesi isikhalo esivamile uma kugitshelwa noma kwehliwa esitimeleni. Ngaleso sikhathi kukhalwa ubumayemaye kubagibeli abagibelayo kanye nalabo abehlayo esitimeleni. Wo he! ngiyakuzwela wena mama otete ingane, ngesinye isandla ubambe enye ingane kanti-ke futhi ngesinye isandla uphethe umthwalo.
Ngoba uma umkhosi kangena naye, phuma naye usumenyezelwe enhliziyweni yakho wazi kamhlophe ukuthi kusenokwenzeka ngeshwa ulahlekelwe yingane oyibambe ngesandla noma kulahleke imithwalo. Yonke lengxubevange ebeyenzeka ezitimeleni yadalwa umbuso wobandlululo ngoMthetho Wokuhlaliswa Kwezinhlanga Ngokwahlukene ngokuthi abantu basuswe ezindaweni zabo zendabuko balahlwe le kude. Izindawo ababekwa kuzo bekuyizindawo zokulala kuphela "slaap dorpies".
Ukwanda kwabantu njengaseSoweto yikona okwadala ukuthi abagibeli bonke bathuthelekele ezitimeleni, njengento ezobathutha ukuya emisebenzini. Mhlonishwa Ngqongqoshe, singumphakathi waseMpumalanga sithanda ukubonga ngegalelo olenzile ngeprojekthi ebizwa ngokuthiwa yiMoloto Corridor. Siyathemba ukuthi lomzila wesitimela oxhumanisa iMpumalanga neTshwane uzoba nempumelelo emizameni yokunciphisa ukucinana kohide lwezimoto olugcina ngokudala izingozi ezinyantisa umzimba nsuku zonke emgwaqeni woMoloto. Nathi-ke siyizakhamuzi zaseMpumalanga sesizokwazi ukuhlabelela sithi:
Yaduma yaqeda impolompolo Ilindele ukusa ishosholoze. Igudle izintaba igudle namawa. Iqonde khona eTshwane Iqonde khona eGauteng (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Push him in! Push him out! This is the common chant when boarding or alighting from trains. At that time the people who are boarding or those who are alighting from those trains are crying for dear life. What a pity! I feel sorry for the mother who is carrying a baby on her back, whilst holding another child with one hand and carrying parcels with the other hand.
That's because you know in your heart that once the "push him in, push him out" chant begins, two unfortunate things might happen, and that is you can either be separated from the child you are holding with your one hand or lose parcels in your other hand. That chaos was created by the apartheid government through its separate development policies by removing people from their ancestral land and dumping them in remote places. The areas that were allocated to them were meant to be for overnight stay and they were known as "slaapdorpies".
The increasing number of people living in places like Soweto resulted in large numbers of people opting for trains as their mode of transport to work, and that resulted in trains becoming overcrowded. Hon Minister, as the community of Mpumalanga we would like to thank you for the contribution you have made with regard to the project known as the Moloto Corridor. We hope that this commuter rail line, which will connect Mpumalanga and Tshwane, will succeed in reducing traffic congestion that leads to fatal accidents every day on the Moloto road. We, as the community of Mpumalanga will be able to sing the following song:]
Yaduma yaqeda impolompolo Ilindele ukusa ishosholoze. Igudle izintaba igudle namawa. Iqonde khona eTshwane Iqonde khona eGauteng
The ANC, in the recent national and provincial elections, received a strong mandate to better the lives of all the people by working together with communities and all development partners. We can therefore not betray the will of our people, but instead have to restore their dignity and confidence in this ANC-led government.
The ANC's manifesto is very clear on the fact that we need to build an equitable, sustainable, safe and inclusive transport system. The reality is that our public transport system is fragmented, irrational and uneconomical. This results in it being unsustainable and unable to drive the local economic development programme for the purpose of creating jobs in order to eradicate poverty in our communities. Thus, our public transport system has to be significantly improved to meet challenges that our people are confronted with in our endeavours to fully integrate and transform their lives and ways of living.
Our transport system must be capable of becoming a labour-absorbing sector that will be a driving force on capacitating small businesses. So, the integrated transport system must be the main driving mechanism for the development of a mixed economy, where the state, private capital, co- operatives and other forms of social ownership complement each other in an integrated way to eliminate poverty and foster shared economical growth.
A developmental state should maintain its strategic goals in shaping key sectors of the economy like a national transport system. This means that the Department of Transport has a responsibility to roll out state-led infrastructure investment programmes. We need to have a comprehensive rural development strategy which builds potential for rural sustainable livelihoods, especially for disabled people and women as part of an overarching vision of rural development.
Thus, public participation in order to produce integrated transport plans at local level, as part of the broader integrated development plans, is highly recommended. Hon members, I am making a call to all the municipalities to establish, as required by law, transport authorities involving all the major role-players in this regard. The taxi recapitalisation programme must be reviewed if we consider that, as estimated, 64% of all commuters in our country rely on minibus taxis. Therefore, these taxis are the backbone of our public transport system, with small profit margins. Drivers are forced to speed, overload, work long hours and overwork their vehicles, thus causing this sector to have a very high accident rate.
It is one of the biggest infrastructure investment projects for the 2010 Fifa World Cup and articulates clearly the fact that there will be serious engagements with various stakeholders that are affected by the bus rapid transit, BRT, system and will include how all stakeholders benefit from this initiative.
Our transport system has a responsibility to facilitate transformation in cities, towns and rural areas in order to build cohesive sustainable and caring societies with closer access to work and social amenities, including sport and recreation facilities. We need to realise that rural areas have a right to roads; we have to ensure training and skills development that responds to the requirements of the economy to boost human resources capacity.
Lastly, we have to be tough on drunken driving and pay special attention to combating corruption and fraud in the procurement and tender processes ... njengoba ubaba uNdosi enza ... [... just the way Ndosi is doing it ...]
... in terms of the application of driving licences and theft of police case docket documents. The main goal of our government must be to ensure that foreign relations contribute to the creation of an environment conducive to sustainable economic growth and development. We must emphasise that a developmental state requires improvement of public services that will strengthen our democratic institutions.
It is important to reflect that the first National Household Travel Survey, in its findings, reported that 67,9% of South Africans do not have access to trains, 56% do not have access to buses, and people who don't have access to taxis are just a small percentage of 11,22%. So, there is a need for an intervention programme like the BRT system that will be accessible to poor communities, especially from the rural areas.
The main challenges in this area are that we need to find out about the behaviour of the taxi industry; interrogate to what extent transformation is taking place on both metro rail and buses; consider whether there is any transport strategy utilised to address the need of the poor in rural areas; enhance sustainable local economic development objectives of the developmental state that speaks to the ANC policies and conference resolutions; and identify loopholes and ensure co-operation among the three spheres of government on allocation of public transport in our communities.
Ake ngisho lokhu, kancane ngizophinda ngibuye. Sihlalo, ngivumele ngikhumbuze amambuka ukuthi kumazwe athuthukile afana noBritain kanye ne- Amerika kuneqembu elibusayo kanye namaqembu aphikisayo kodwa wonke lamaqembu awadluli kwamahlanu. Abantu baseMzanzi Afrika balwela inkululeko kodwa hhayi amaqembu-qembu. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Let me say this first, and then I will come back to the point. Chairperson, allow me to remind the traitors that in developed countries like Britain and America there is a ruling party and opposition parties do not exceed five parties. The people of South Africa fought for freedom and not for the formation of many parties.]
Are you free or are you dom? [Laughter.]
Ngibuye futhi. [Coming back to the point.]
There is an interesting relationship between types of settlements and the number of people who spend nothing on public transport, for example, nearly a third of metropolitan and urban households spend money on transport. In rural areas only 14% of households spend nothing. This indicates the dependency of rural populations on public transport in provinces like Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Northern Cape.
The reason why there is a slow expenditure on public transport in the Western Cape and Gauteng is that household income in these provinces is much higher and use of public transport is lower. [Time expired.] I thank you. [Applause.]