Minister of Public Enterprises Mr Malusi Gigaba
Colleagues, Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers of Transport and Meteorology
Ladies and gentlemen
Today we undertook a tour of these Transnet facilities because we wanted to give ourselves as politicians a look into the state of South Africa’s transport infrastructure.
We also wanted to re-examine the readiness of South Africa’s logistics platform to play its proper role in our national economy but also in the economy of the region.
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues we move from the central premise that freedom is ultimately the freedom to move. Whether one is moving goods or people, transport is at the centre of that exercise of freedom.
Indeed, if you want to drive an economy from where it is to a higher point in the development index, one cannot do so unless your transport logistics platform is ready to play its proper role as what we call ”the engine for growth and development”.
We have called on you the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers of Transport and Meteorology to be part of this journey because our success as individual nations depends on our success as a regional collective.
The impediments we face as individual countries are felt in the rest of the region.
It is our view that if the solutions to our common challenges are to be long lasting, they must emerge from collaboration across our national borders. It is our pleasure to have the Ministers attending the SADC Meeting of the Ministers of Transport and Meteorology.
Outlining the key challenges
In a 2007 World Bank report researchers Eustace and Fay argue that sound infrastructure facilitates the mobility of the means of production i.e. labour, goods and finance, thus improving productivity and reducing cost, which are key factors in competitiveness.
I quote:
“Infrastructure also increases the flow of information, opening new opportunities and reducing asymmetries and other market imperfections. In terms of final products or goods, the consumption of infrastructure services improves easy access to energy for industries and domestic use; safe transportation; reliable communication; clean water and sanitation”.
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen we want to support the view that a symbiosis exists between infrastructure and economic growth. Put differently, good infrastructure spurs growth. Increased growth results in a demand for more infrastructure.
In this context the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank today recognise the inadequacy of Africa’s infrastructure.
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We have something in the order of only 30% of the population having access to electricity. This compares with rates of 70% to 90% in Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Latin America.
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Our continent has 13 of the world’s population, yet we consume only three per cent of the world’s commercial energy, although its share of the world’s energy production is 7%.
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Sixty-five percent of the population has access to safe water and sanitation, compared with rates of 80% to 90% in other developing countries.
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Africa has a telecommunications penetration rate of about three percent, compared with an average of 40% in other parts of the world, and it has a very low penetration rate for broadband services.
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Africa’s road access rate is only 34% compared with 50% in other geographical zones. Yet roads remain the dominant mode of transportation, accounting for more than 90% of passenger and freight transport in Africa, compared with around 50 per cent of freight in Europe.
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Our continent’s rail network barely covers the continent and has low interconnectivity.
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African maritime ports and inland waterways are not exploited for travel.
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Continental transport costs remain the highest in the world, with those of landlocked countries accounting for up to 70% of the value of exports.
So what are we saying? We are saying that a better interconnected Africa - internally and with the rest of the world- is much better than an Africa that is not connected with itself. An Africa that is connected with the world is a better Africa than an Africa that is disconnected from the rest of the world.
An interconnected Africa can stand as one economic unit and present itself as a collective market to the world. An interconnected Africa will be able to stand on of own as an economic force ready to take its place among the nations of the world.
We do not exist in order to become a passive force for exploration and exploitation by the nations of the world. We exist to explore our own countries. We exist to explore our own continent. We exist to explore the limits of our own borders by extending our own interaction beyond Africa to Asia, Europe and the Americas, the rest of the world.
What has been the continent’s response?
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The Lagos Plan of Action (1980) and the Abuja Treaty (1991) emphasised infrastructure development, and New Partnership for Africa's Development(NEPAD) (2001) has made infrastructure a priority.
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A short-term action plan (STAP) was defined and institutional mechanisms put in place to facilitate project implementation of NEPAD projects, including the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) and the NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparation facility (IPPF).
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Infrastructure development continues to rank high among the AU’s priorities, which is currently working on Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).
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The Summit of the African Heads of State and the AU consequently dedicated its Twelfth and Fourteenth Sessions in 2009 and 2010 to the themes of infrastructure development in Africa, focusing respectively on transport and energy, and information and communications technologies (ICT).
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The 2009 session adopted a Declaration on Transport and Energy Infrastructure Development in Africa to guide infrastructure development, while an action plan for implementation was agreed upon at the 2010 session.
South Africa’s response
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In June this year we held a Transport Investors’ Conference in Cape Town Challenges faced by transport systems in the various countries require specific responses in order to solve particular economic problems. In our context, the root cause of the current status of our transport system is the historic under-investment of our country in its transportation sector; this especially in the face of ageing infrastructure, growing urban population, global trading and the expansion of the economy.
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We have organised ourselves into the Infrastructure Development Cluster which includes among others Energy, Telecommunications, Water and Transport.
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Recently Cabinet announced the formation of the Infrastructure Commission, chaired by President Jacob Zuma which seeks to prioritise the provision of infrastructure in our economy.
We are certain that as we continue our discussions later during our meeting, we will engage towards finding solutions to these challenges. We will learn from our different experiences and together craft our regional responses to these challenges. We also take this opportunity to wish you all well during this gathering which is certain to charter better way forward for our transport and related infrastructure.
Thank you
