Modulasetulo, Tona ya Dipalangwa le Motlatsa Tona wa Dipalangwa, baeti botlhe ba tlotlegileng le badiri ba lefapha, ke a le dumedisa e bile ke a le akgola mo tirong ya lona ke le eleletsa matlhogonolo. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Ms N P KHUNOU: Chairperson, Minister of Transport and Deputy Minister of Transport, hon guests and employees in the department, I would like to convey my sincere greetings and appreciation to you on a job well done, and further wish you everything of the best in your jobs.]
I would like to dedicate my speech to fallen heroes and heroines who fought and waited for this time when our country would focus on delivery. I am dedicating this to the late Ncumisa Nkondlo, fallen compatriot, a gallant fighter for democracy to the end until her untimely death.
I would like to agree with our President that indeed our people have spoken in large numbers. Chairperson, on the day of the elections people were in the queues as early as four o'clock in the morning to show their commitment to democracy. In their minds, I am sure that they were concerned that we need to give the ANC another mandate and saying that working together we can do more to fight poverty and build a better life for all our people. They were encouraged by a vision of an inclusive society for the greater good of our people.
Ke bua ka batho ba ba rileng le fa re sa fitlhelela tsotlhe tse re di tlhokang re tla ba kgetha re dirisane le bona mmogo gore re tokafatse bophelo jwa batho botlhe gonne matsogo dinku a thebanya. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[I am referring to those particular people who never got all they wanted because we could not address all of their needs. Nevertheless, they re- elected us into office so that we can work together to improve their lives because many hands make the work lighter.]
Chairperson, the ANC has done a lot in the past 15 years and it's committed to do even more. One of our focal points is rural development and urban renewal. Without accessibility there won't be any economic development. In our urban areas, especially in our townships, you still find a lot of roads that need to be refurbished and restructured and because of that it becomes difficult for more people to actually invest in our townships. We need those investments in our townships.
Our people have to go into town because they have to buy things they need. The poor infrastructure in the townships is a pressing issue, which is why I think we are focusing on that, as I have heard previous speakers do. We need to focus more on upgrading our rural roads. Our people in the rural areas still have to travel long distances with wheelbarrows, because cars can't even travel on some of the rural roads. So, we are saying that that needs to be taken into consideration and emphasis placed on it.
The department had plans to distribute a million bicycles to rural poor, which I think is one of our strong points. Chairperson, some of the children in our rural areas still don't go to school when it is raining. I think we need to focus more on this project. For instance, the budget that the department had asked for was R31 billion, but it has been minimised. I think we need to focus more on things like the distribution of bicycles and Treasury needs to take that into consideration.
The department is in the process of improving airport infrastructure for 2010. There are great improvements especially in host cities that are visible. The question, Chairperson, is: of all those projects that have been given, did BEE benefit; and for the companies that had joint ventures, was there any transfer of skills? The department has to check into this and as we are giving out projects we need to also check that our people are benefiting from those projects.
Another problem with the airports is overcrowding and I think that co- ordination and planning need to be done as far as that is concerned. In the waiting area, for instance, there are not enough chairs for people to sit whilst waiting for their flights, and I think, especially here in Cape Town where we live, it's a disaster on Fridays and the Minister should take that into consideration and make sure that we have more aircraft.
Our entities, which is my focal point, I think they can do more if they work together. For instance, as far as co-ordination is concerned, road accidents are caused because of bad conditions of roads, potholes, markings that are not visible, etc. I think if this was taken into consideration, the death toll that we are seeing on our roads could have been minimised.
I wanted to talk about what Ntate Farrow had said earlier regarding visible policing on our roads. I don't think he is correct. In fact, for the first time, I am seeing some police around Cape Town and other towns and cities in our country. They are policing, but what I think you should have said, hon Farrow, was that, at night when there are problems and when these accidents happen, there is no visible policing on our roads. I think that should be our focal point.
Let us co-ordinate all our structures between local government, provincial legislatures and the national sphere of government. I think the Minmecs are trying to actually look into this, but we need to see the effects as far as that is concerned. Effects such as what we call Integrated Development Plans, IDPs, in our local governments. But what happens with the IDPs? I don't think it's the business of the local municipality only, but other than that we need to have ways of making sure that we plan together within all those spheres of government. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]