Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport MEC Ismail Vadi’s October Transport Month launch speech
We welcome one and all to the launch of the 2015 October Transport Month Campaign in Gauteng. We have selected this facility for today’s event as it represents a new, public transport, inter-modal facility where minibus and metered taxis, Gautrain busses and the Gautrain interface can operate.
Like Park Station, this is emerging as an important inter-modal facility for thousands of commuters and travellers. We wish to thank the Gautrain Management Agency, Bombela and the City of Johannesburg for allowing us to use this facility to launch our campaign.
The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport is the provincial custodian of the October Transport Month (OTM) campaign. As a government-initiated campaign, it is expected that the Department and municipalities play leading roles in promoting the use of public transport; encouraging citizens to use Non-Motorised Transport (NMT), and raising public awareness about road safety during this period.
Theme
Our theme for this month’s campaign is: Together, Moving the Gauteng City- Region Forward. It seeks to create awareness of the Department’s mandate to provide quality and improved mobility of people through the building and maintenance of roads, public transport infrastructure and NMT facilities.
It broadly supports the Provincial Government’s Transformation, Modernisation and Re- industrialisation (TMR) interventions. Also, due to the fact that our road fatality figures remain unacceptably high, road safety remains a focal point of the campaign for government as a whole.
Campaign Objectives
The specific focus of the 2015 OTM Campaign in our province is to:
- showcase safe, integrated, public transport system initiatives (like the facility we have here);
- encourage the use of safe and reliable transport;
- promote the concept of eco-mobility;
- promote non-motorised transport initiatives; and
- to position rail systems at the centre of the public transport network in the province.
Eco-Mobility Festival
This year's campaign in our province must be viewed within the context of a growing international campaign for eco-mobility. Tomorrow, the City of Johannesburg will officially announce the details of the Eco-Mobility World Festival and the month-long series of events in Sandton will be formally launched on Sunday, 4 October.
To demonstrate to the world that an eco-mobile future is possible and that public transport can be accessible, safe and attractive, Johannesburg will give public transport operators, cyclists and pedestrians, preference on the streets of Sandton.
Simply, eco-mobility can be defined as an integrated form of environmentally sustainable mobility that combines the use of non-motorised transport with the use of public transport, which allows people to move in their local environments without using privately owned vehicles. It is a bottom up approach in which an individual makes a personal, conscious decision not to use a car as the means of transport, and can serve as a future guide for urban planning and transport investment.
In terms of this concept preference will be given to walking, cycling, wheeling and using public transport as the primary means of moving from one point to the other. The idea is to create a living possibility of more liveable and sustainable cities, with reduced levels of air pollution and traffic congestion.
The Gauteng Provincial Government is pleased that the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) has brought the Eco-mobility World Festival onto the African continent and in the heart of an African city. In congratulating Johannesburg as the host city, there is no doubt that all of Gauteng as well as the country will be watching what happens in Sandton this month as we collectively grapple with the urgent need to build more sustainable cities.
This is an opportunity for a variety of stakeholders to actively imagine, and to create and live an alternative to the current car-centric nature of many cities across the globe. Whilst some are apprehensive about how this will impact on their daily activities, we urge all Gauteng residents to experiment with an idea that can transform our understanding of urban spaces for a long time to come.
Eco-mobility is an opportunity for us as individuals, families, communities, businesses and government to come together and to create a new vision, and to experience how things could be. The festival will also be an opportunity to learn about new technologies that others are using, ideas that cities are implementing and innovative mobility concepts.
As road use will be limited on selected streets in Sandton from tomorrow, there will be a controlled entrance to the Gautrain. Airport passengers who prefer to access the Gautrain at Sandton station must consider the use of bus or taxi modes to Sandton Station, or alternatively, must make an allowance of extra time to traverse through the controlled access point on the corner of Rivonia and West Streets to the station parking.
To assist Gautrain users during the Eco-Mobility Festival, the following adjustments to Gautrain services have been made:
- Additional eight-car train trips will depart from Hatfield at 5:56am and 7:26am on weekdays;
- The weekday afternoon peak period has been extended and will commence from 2:40pm;
- Over weekends the three trains will operate at 20 minute service intervals from 9am to 6pm; and
- Additional express bus services over and above the current Gautrain bus services will be introduced to service certain park and ride sites.
In addition, the city has made further provision for public transport facilities from the park-and-ride sites.
Prasa Control Centre
On 5 October, the Minister of Transport will open the newly-built Gauteng PRASA Control Centre that is located next to Esselen Park in Tembisa. This is an ultra- modern rail signalling and control centre that will open the way over time for the operation of new signalling systems on our rail tracks, initially in Gauteng, and then nationally.
This modernization of the rail signalling system is a vital step for the future integration of the Metrorail and Gautrain systems, and is consistent with the Transformation, Modernisation and Re-industrialisation agenda of the provincial government.
Autopax Bus Service
As part of promoting public transport and ensuring continuity of services to commuters in Mamelodi, Midvaal, Kathlehong and Vosloorus, the department has extended the eight temporary contracts that it had signed with Autopax in June this year. The contracts will now expire on 31 March 2016. This means that Autopax busses will continue their operations in the affected areas on 1 October 2015 until the end of March next year.
At the same time I wish to indicate that there are on-going discussions between the provincial government and representatives of the taxi industry to examine ways and means of including the taxi industry into an integrated public transport system in the Gauteng city-region. The provincial government is engaging with the taxi industry to explore how it could be incorporated into the funded public transport networks of the affected municipalities.
We are also in discussions with the national government to review policy relating to the public transport operating grants, which presently limits funding to bus commuter services. As the discussions with both national government and the taxi industry are not concluded as yet, it is necessary to extend the current temporary contracts with Autopax so that commuter services are continued.
As Gauteng Provincial Government we are steadfastly committed to the modernisation of public transport infrastructure as one of the ten pillars of our programme for radical Transformation, Modernisation and Reindustrialisation of our province. We are also firmly committed to the integration of the taxi industry into the mainstream, public transport system that is modernised, efficient, affordable and reliable.
Over the past three months, we have had interactions with the leadership of the taxi industry in an endeavour to find common ground on the best model to integrate the taxi industry in the public transport system that is being built in Gauteng.
However, we need more time to discuss various proposals and find common ground on the best way forward with regard to the integration of the taxi industry, drawing on lessons of how various municipalities have involved the taxi industry in the rollout of the bus rapid transit system in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.
The Gauteng Provincial Government will meet again with the leadership of the taxi industry on 13 October in order to discuss detailed proposals on the best integration and transformation model for the industry. We appreciate the commitment and goodwill demonstrated by the leadership of the taxi industry to work with us to find a lasting and sustainable way forward for the industry.
Wonderboom Airport
We are pleased that the City of Tshwane has resumed flights from Wonderboom Airport to Cape Town. The airline service sees six daily flights from Wonderboom Airport to Cape Town and back. This is a welcome addition to our aviation landscape and provides, together with Lanseria and the OR Tambo International Airports, greater travel choice and flexibility to Gauteng citizens and foreign travellers.
Freedom Ride
As part of promoting non-motorised transport, a Freedom Ride will be hosted on 11 October in Johannesburg and, in addition, I will be doing a special ride one
morning during peak hours from Diepsloot along William Nicol Drive. On 13 October, the Department will host a Public Transport Race and we invite members of the media specifically to participate in this event together with officials from government. On 15 October, we will be doing the sod turning for Phase 2 of the William Nicol road construction project and between 20 to 22 October we will participate in the All-Africa Public Transport Conference (UATP) to be held in Cape Town. On 22 October we will launch a construction project to build a new Driver License Testing Centre in Sebokeng and on 26 October we will officially open the R25. Finally, on 28 October we will promote walking through a Family Fun Walk in the Randfontein CBD.
Anti-Corruption Campaign
In the course of the month there will be specific public awareness campaigns at taxi ranks and testing centres, along with road blocks, to promote road safety and strengthen our anti-corruption campaign. As citizens under the banner of civil society organisations march against corruption in the public and private sectors we re-affirm our commitment to a corruption-free environment within our spheres of work.
As we speak, the Department and the South African Insurance Crime Bureau (SAICB) are engaged in an intensive 10-day training programme for government officials to tackle problems relating to fraud, corruption and vehicle related crimes at Driver License Testing Centres (DLTCs) and other vehicle registration offices.
Fraud and corruption must continuously be tackled by all in society to prevent criminal syndicates gaining access to vehicle registration systems. Criminal networks target officials within government institutions to register stolen vehicles and then sell these vehicles back to unsuspecting members of the public. Therefore our partnership with the SAICB is to improve the skills set of our officials so as to prevent corruptive practices taking root within testing centres.
The training programme will serve to equip compliance personnel of the Department and the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality to conduct specialised investigations into fraudulent transactions at Registration Authorities, Vehicle Testing Stations and DLTCs. The joint programme will emphasise best practices, legislation, and audit
processes to ensure that fraudulent and corrupt activities are uncovered and will result in the successful prosecution of perpetrators.
We are confident that our October Transport Month Campaign will draw in the participation of thousands of our citizens in a variety of activities that are being organized by the local, provincial and national spheres of government. We urge our people to take seriously the messages of the benefits of public transport, road safety and eco-mobility. It’s about our future and that of our children and grandchildren.
We must consciously strive to build a reliable, safe, affordable, accessible and environmentally sustainable transport system for the benefit of all. As we do so, we must ensure that it is done without the taint of corruption. I have the pleasure of launching the 2015 October Transport Month Campaign in Gauteng and I invite all transport stakeholders to participate actively in this campaign.
