D Peters: Transport Consultative Conference

14 December 2006

Programme Director
Honourable Members of the Northern Cape Executive Council
Honourable Mayor Patrick Lenyibi
Honourable Members of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature
Honourable Executive Mayors, from Districts and Local Municipalities
Provincial Commissioner Mbombo
Deputy Provincial Commissioners Sithole and Mbaliso
Representative of the Labour Movement
Representatives of the civil society movements
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

During the month of October, we celebrated Transport Month as part of our
efforts to assess the ability of our public transport system to deal with
challenges that are faced by our people. Our assessment of the current
situation has shown that a lot still has to be done to deal with the
inefficiencies of our public transport system. Visible traffic policing,
followed by heavy traffic fines to reduce road accident deaths remained the
most critical challenge faced by our provincial government today.

Furthermore, the target set by the African Transport Ministers in the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG), document (includes amongst others, halving
road fatalities by 2014). In the said document it was also noted that the
number of death and injuries that take place in developing countries due to
traffic crashes is recognised by the World Bank as a priority health issue.
South Africa is unfortunately part of this international trend.

Factors that contribute to this unfortunate situation in our beloved country
are as follows:

* poor driver behaviour and attitude - 95% of crashes are caused by traffic
violation incidents
* the existence of a "culture of impunity" in respect to payment of traffic
fines, resulting in little behaviour change for offenders
* widespread fraud and corruption in all sectors of the transport industry.

To improve the situation, a nationally recognised road safety strategy must
be implemented; this strategy should include the following amongst others:

* emotive advertisement, showing consequences of unsafe behaviour, coupled
with a public relations campaign to ensure support of communities for the
efforts made
* co-ordination and co-operation between all role players, and involvement of
business and civil society should be highly sought after
* a demerit points system which may lead to forfeiting your licence should be
introduced for repeated offenders.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today's event is in line with our key pillars of Public Transport and Road
Safety Strategies: the scrapping of old taxi vehicles, the introduction of new
and safe vehicles, effective regulation of the industry, empowerment of the
taxi industry and law enforcement. The Public Transport Strategy (PTS)
recognises that it is not only about the replacement of old vehicles with new
and safe vehicles, but presents provincial government with the opportunity to
transform, empower and regulate the industry.

By increasing mobility levels, our people will be in a better position to
access economic opportunities and the provincial government services. We are
also about to enter into different levels of consultations and interaction with
a broad-based forum of transport users, stakeholders and the general public on
important transport strategy initiatives, with a focus on Public Transport,
Accessible Transport and Road Safety. The results of the deliberations are
intended to influence the final versions of these strategies.

We are committed to finding solutions and willing to address genuine
concerns on the part of the taxi organisations, civil society groupings and
other role players that show commitment to improving road safety for our
people.

Programme Director,

The National Household Travel Survey that was conducted during 2003,
revealed a number of inefficiencies in our public transport system. Among
others, the survey revealed that:

* only 25,4% of households in the province have access to vehicles
* travel between 46-60 minutes to get to educational centres
* 57% of households have no expenditure on public transport; this is mainly
because most households walk to their various destinations.

These statistics clearly indicate a need to modernise our public transport
system so as to make it accessible, safe, reliable and punctual. The 2006
mid-year transport Lekgotla endorsed the draft public transport strategy as the
intercession required to deal with the inefficiencies currently experienced in
our public transport system. The strategy is firmly based on the White Paper on
National Transport Policy and the Moving South Africa Action Agenda.

The key pillars of the strategy are two-fold:

* aggressive upgrading of the various modes: where the strategy calls for
urgent improvements in the current public transport services and the
accelerated upgrade of public transport fleet as its centrepiece
* Integrated Mass Rapid Public Transport Networks: by ensuring the promotion of
a growing public transport sector that is able to meet the needs of current and
new users and is able to deliver a functioning international system.

Some of the building blocks on which the strategy is based are:

* strong local planning, regulation and management of public transport
networks
* rapid and innovative action-plans and projects based on local integrated
transport plans that optimises network efficiencies across all modes of
transport, including non-motorised transport
* strong local enforcement capacity to deal with safety and security issues in
the public transport system
* management and control of car use and land use to ensure viable and efficient
transport
* access to transport for rural and urban poor through extension of affordable
services.

The building blocks will ensure that the following is achieved:

* increased overall capacity of municipalities in planning, regulating and
managing locally driven mass rapid public transport networks
* city/town networks that prioritise quality public transport and non-motorised
transport and quality public space systems
* effective implementation of an integrated mass rapid public transport
system
* effective integration of transport planning and land use management
* effective regulation and enforcement capacity and tools in place
* enhanced personal safety and security in our public transport system
* enhanced efficient and effective public transport that will create an
enabling environment for the 2010 FIFA world cup event
* support of the Millennium Development Goals for the Transport Sector
* contributions that traffic management can make to achievement of the
Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) goals.

The deliberations at this conference will help shape a clear implementation
plan that must be adopted as part of the resolutions of this conference. These
deliberations will form part of the inputs to be submitted to finalise the
implementation plan that will be submitted to Cabinet for approval.
Ladies and gentlemen,

The current public transport system is not promoting the needs of passengers
with disabilities, which is in conflict with the Reconstruction and Development
Programme (RDP) principle of equitable distribution of government resources in
fighting poverty. The challenges that are being experienced revolve mainly
around aspects such as physical barriers, management, psychological issues
(especially mind-set problems), communication and information. The enabling
environment has been created through the promulgation of relevant policies and
legislation. However, this alone appears to be inadequate to effect the
necessary change.

The short-term accessible transport strategy provides solutions and options,
which are aimed at promoting and integrating the needs of passengers with
disabilities into the public transport system. It is important to incorporate
access requirements of passengers with mobility needs into planning, provision
and management of the public transport system, with the intention of making the
system universally accessible to all passengers over a long term.

The basic fundamentals to implement the accessible transport strategy and
its policy statements, is the transformation of the public transport
environment with particular focus on operations and services, strategic
selection of the accessible corridors, better co-ordination on spatial
development and alignment of the transport network including the built
environment.

Programme Director,

This accessible transport strategy takes a leap to restructuring the public
transport system, transport infrastructure and proposes a practical approach
towards planning accessible improvements for meeting the needs of
customers/passengers with disabilities as well as those with special needs.

It has six distinct areas of strategic thrusts namely:

* transforming the operational context
* improving vehicle design
* improving infrastructural design
* improving the provision of passenger information
* building of capacity
* communication and marketing plan.

This is informed by a number of processes and initiatives, which started in
the late 1990s. In 1997 the Department of Transport held high-level public
consultative process, which led to the development of Moving South Africa (MSA)
Action Agenda of 1999. This is a strategic guideline document wherein strategic
actions in relation to accessible transport were recommended.

Furthermore, several enabling pieces of legislation were developed to ensure
equitable provision of services within public transport. These cover the
development of the White Paper on National Transport Policy of 1996 and the
National Land Transport Transition Act (NLTTA) No 22 of 2000. Another
influential piece of legislation is the promotion of Equality and Prevention of
Unfair Discrimination Act of 2000.

Let me also draw your attention to an urgent issue of the devastating
increase of road accidents in our road network. The number of people affected
by our accidents rises each year. It is our families that are affected and
suffer the most by these accidents, on average accidents take about 13 000
innocent lives every year, translating into R43 billion in costs to the economy
annually.

Our Road Safety Strategy as approved by Cabinet will introduce drastic steps
to improve the levels of road safety in our country. We will be intensifying
law enforcement on public transport, pedestrians and cyclists. An investigation
will soon be finalised to declare Traffic Enforcement an essential service to
enable officers to work during evenings and weekends. Extra traffic personnel
will be employed to improve visibility of officers on our road network.

Furthermore, provincial Department of Transport, Roads and Public Works has
also embarked on supplementary programmes, i.e.:

* The project on the revitalisation of rail in the province will commence
during the first quarter of 2007, this strategy will be aimed at freight
transport, long distance passenger transport as well as tourism access
opportunities.
* Work on the Provincial Transport Master Plan is at an advance stage and will
be completed by the end of this financial year.
* More funds will be made available during the next financial year for the
upgrading of the public transport facilities in all regions of the provinces. I
trust these initiatives will assist in minimising the huge challenges that are
faced by our province.

Ladies and gentlemen,

This conference must be an event of commitment. It must be a commitment
based on success, results, genuine and sustained improvement of our transport
system. I'm confident that you have the resolve and the responsibility to
accept the challenge I'm putting to you today. I believe together we will put
in place the improvements which are necessary. That's the challenge for today
and that's the outcome I want to see from this conference.

Let us also help those who are dragging their feet on our concerted attempts
to improve the state of our transport system. I remain hopeful that we can
convince them towards a common position. I firmly believe that the only answer
is to construct a common agenda. We have a profound choice to make; its either
we continue to make modest progress; or we act decisively. Let us put transport
squarely on South Africa's agenda. We must make sure that the impact of some of
the decisions we take today must be felt during our lifetime.

I thank you.

Issued by: Northern Cape Provincial Government
14 December 2006
Source: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.northern-cape.gov.za)