F Mahlalela: Mpumalanga Roads and Transport Prov Budget Vote
2006/07

20 June 2006

Madam Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Premier,
Honourable members,
Executive mayors and councillors,
Traditional leaders,
Esteemed guests,
Friends and comrades,
Ladies and gentlemen;

Madam Speaker, I stand before you and your august House to give account of
the progress on the promises made this time around last year to outline our
plans and goals for the ensuing year and to present our plea to honourable
members to grant us the resources to carry out our plans in the advancement of
our mission and vision in the Department. All this is in an endeavour to ensure
that the ‘age of hope’ has practical meaning to our people and to create a
better life for all.

Madam Speaker, without doubt there will be a debate on this budget vote.
Those that will come to flatter us will please us. Those that will complain and
criticise will never hurt us as they can only teach us to work harder and
smarter so that we may better please those we shall serve next. The only ones
that will hurt us are those that say nothing for they will thus refuse us
permission to correct our errors and improve our service.

We gather here knowing that due to policies that our government has adopted
and is implementing our country is experiencing the economy’s longest period of
expansion and growth, enabling us to respond to the increasing urbanisation and
industrialisation which characterises our province as having three features
that are undeveloped, underdeveloped as well as developed.

The amount of resources that government has been appropriating and spending
on the roads and transport vote in the last two years and what is estimated for
spending in the next three financial years is an indication of our commitment
to deal with this challenge and reduce the cost of doing business in our
province.

The enormous challenge we face is to implement programmes that are informed
by the social condition of our people that understand that economic benefit for
the few is morally, politically and economically unsustainable if the majority
of the people, the poor are excluded from reaping the promises of political
liberation. The tasks of the present include the need to use the power of the
developmental state towards transforming our transport system from merely being
the heartbeat of the economy to being the backbone of development itself.

Honourable members, I wish to use this opportunity this afternoon to assure
you that in the course of our planning we are and will remain fully cognisant
of the threats and opportunities that result from regional disparities that are
the legacy of apartheid and its economic distortions. These distortions
threaten to lock some regions into a self perpetuating process of
underdevelopment and marginalisation with adverse social consequences for the
great majority of our people.

It is therefore incumbent on us to deliberately, systematically, directly
and without any hesitation address these distortions and seek to achieve
balanced economic development in our province. We must seize the opportunity
that this period of high growth trajectory presents to us to ensure that the
potential and capacity of the regions can be fully harnessed to the benefit of
all the habitants of our province. This requires bold action and ambitious
implementation programme.

Madam Speaker, there is much that remains to be done in respect of gender
mainstreaming we must redouble all our efforts to ensure that our people and
government realise that we cannot have real development unless we place women
at the centre of all development plans and programmes.

This year we celebrate 50 years of the Women's March to the Union Buildings
in Pretoria where the women declared that:
"We shall not rest until we have won for our children their fundamental rights
of freedom, justice and equality."

Two years before this in 1954, women had come together to draw up the
Women's Charter. In this document they aimed among other things “to co-operate
with all other organisations that have similar aims in South Africa as well as
throughout the world. And to strive for permanent peace throughout the
world".

With this march and this Charter the women opened the road to a different
future and asserted the alternative values of a different order the values of
equality, justice and the emancipation of women, among others.

They recognised that the struggle for women's equality was a part of a
broader international struggle for peace and justice in the world.

True to this spirit last year we hosted a successful woman in construction
seminar with an aim to encourage more women to participate in construction
activities and partner with established construction companies in order for
them to learn from such companies.

Honourable members, as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of our Constitution
we continue to be inspired by the struggle of our youth who through their own
efforts 30 years ago ensured that the students of today enjoy a better life
than those of yesterday.

We cannot truly celebrate the tenth anniversary of our Constitution without
paying tribute to the workers' struggle which paved the way for our freedom,
especially since 2006 is the 60th anniversary of the historic African
Mineworkers’ strike of 1946.

It is in the spirit of all these heroic struggles of the Bhambatha
Rebellion, of Satyagraha, of the workers' struggle, of the women's march, of
the student uprising that we today are a real part of a democratic South
Africa, a country that is writing its own history "a glorious and dignified
history."

As we begin the age of hope we must similarly consciously seek to give hope
to the hopeless and ensure that we fully support the Joint Initiative Priority
Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) programme which serves as a tool for the realisation
of the goals set by the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
(AsgiSA).

Madam Speaker, development theories has proven that we live in an unequal
world where 80 percent of our people live below the poverty datum line and 20
percent live a “good life” as demonstrated by the first world countries. These
sentiments were echoed by the former leader and president of Haiti Mr
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Honourable members, allow me to quote from his words;
“The world is like a table. 20 percent live on the table and 80 percent survive
underneath it. Our work cannot be to move a few from under the table onto the
table or vice versa. Our task is to move the table to change its position if
necessary and all to sit together around the table.”

We committed ourselves last year that we will as a matter of principle at
the beginning of each financial year identify a set of flagship projects that
will become yardsticks to test policy options and customise our service
delivery options. In this financial year we will continue with some flagship
projects identified last year while introducing new projects namely;

* Taxi Recapitalisation Project
* Moloto Rail Development Corridor
* Non-Motorised Transport
* Siyatentela Project
* Restructuring of Government Motor Transport
* 2010 Soccer World Cup
* Restructuring of Bus Subsidy Scheme

Roads infrastructure

Madam Speaker, we cannot over emphasise the need to continue to increase
investment in transport infrastructure both as part of a developmental state
intervention to stimulating economic growth, creating jobs and fighting
poverty.

As a rule the high initial investment of upgrading a road from gravel to
surfaced standard is offset by the reduced maintenance and user operating costs
when the average daily traffic on the road increases by 500 vehicles per month,
therefore the maintenance and road user cost is very dependant on the
topography, drainage structures and rainfall of the area.

Under ideal conditions of light to medium traffic, a gravel surface when
properly maintained can last up to seven maintenance free years. From every
road user’s perspective, every road should be surfaced. The fact of the matter
is that this province will for many years to come be stuck with a significant
gravel road network. These roads include important access roads to rural
communities and to areas of socio economic activities often being public
transport routes to work opportunities and public facilities such as schools
and clinics.

Apart from the proclaimed provincial gravel road network of 9 400 km, there
is a further 21 000 km of gravel road in the province. Around 12 000 km of
these roads is access roads to public facilities in deep rural areas and also
include ring roads connecting villages. We are in a process of evaluating
models that will ensure that these roads are maintained to appropriate service
levels.

In the province we have in excess of 2 000 km of surfaced roads in urgent
need of resealing, and a further 1900km of un-surfaced roads that need
upgrading to surfaced roads. It is therefore evident that the budget allocated
is very limited but we hope that this situation will improve over the next
Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period. In the meantime we will
continue with the work which is currently in progress on maintenance,
rehabilitation and reconstruction of our roads.

In ensuring that we create safer roads, the Department will continue with
the implementation of a world class Bridge Management System (BMS). Under this
system all our bridges will continuously be inspected in a prescribed way and
all relevant details recorded in a prescribed format. Coupled with this system
will be our efforts to fight poverty and create jobs. To this end we will set
aside 50 percent of all bridge maintenance projects to youth and women. This
BMS has revealed that we have a backlog of around R50 million in critical
bridge repairs and a total need of R280 million for bridge repairs in the
province.

The President, in his 2005 State of the Nation address made an announcement
that three power stations will be commissioned in the province. Since that
announcement we have witnessed an increase of more than 1000 truck loads of
coal per day to Majuba and more than 500 truckloads of coal per day to Thuthuka
Power Station and this number is expected to increase further. According to the
information provided by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), more than
140 coalmines are expected to be opened soon.

Madam Speaker, we are sharing this information in order to indicate to this
august house of the current imbalances between the use of roads and rail. Our
records for example indicates that since 2003 to date, the number of heavy
vehicles (trucks) have increased dramatically by more than 70 percent. This
dramatic increase of trucks has therefore put more stress on our roads.

Honourable members, we should be aware that the state of our roads
particularly in the Gert Sibande Region requires an integrated approach that
involves all stakeholders and since this matter has become a national call, we
were able to engage in fruitful discussions with Eskom, national Department of
Transport and DPE through the leadership of the Premier. As a result of this
engagement we were able to come up with short and long-term solution of which
amongst them includes the creation of Coal Grid Road Network, finalize the
overloading strategy and exploration of alternative funding. The long-term
solution is the resuscitation of the rail infrastructure so that we are able to
move a sizeable number of road coal haulage to rail.

Madam Speaker, we have therefore set aside R21,580 million for the roll over
of the overloading control infrastructure which will be used for rebuilding of
a Weighbridge in Ermelo and upgrading of the Kinross and KwaMhlanga
Weighbridges. In this context we have also established an overloading control
unit in the Department that will deal with overloading control in the entire
province in a similar way as the one currently operating on the N4 road.

As we have reflected last year, we will continue with the implementation of
the learnership projects which are at their last stages at a cost of R19
million. These projects include 45 learners who are currently based on the
following projects Fernie to Diepdale, GaMatlala to Magakadibeng as well as
Gutshwakop to Luphisi.

In the last financial year we have created 2 617 jobs through road
construction, maintenance and rehabilitation and this number comprise of 46
percent youth, 24 percent women and one percent people with disabilities. This
number is very small compared to the many unemployed poor people of our
province. We will continue with our efforts to create jobs, being mindful of
the fact that our people’s needs are unlimited and our resources are
limited.

Our routine road maintenance budget has increased from R87 million in the
last financial year to R116 million in this financial year, with R37,2 million
for Gert Sibande Region, R26 million for Ehlanzeni Region, R22,4 million in
Nkangala Region and R30 million allocated to Head Office for resealing, road
signs and Siyatentela Project.

As part of our routine road maintenance strategy therefore the Department
has been able to reduce the number of pothole claims from 73 claims in 2004 to
53 in 2005 as well as the total number of eight claims as of May 2006. Madam
Speaker, this is a remarkable savings and a sign that so many lives have been
saved through accidents caused by potholes.

In our efforts to reduce pressure from our budget we will through the Road
Infrastructure Strategic Framework (RISF) for South Africa continues to
identify some of our strategic economic routes with a view to transfer them to
South African National Roads Agency limited (SANRAL).

Madam Speaker, let me take this opportunity to indicate the roads that we
have through this process been able to transfer in the 2005/06 financial year,
N2 from (Ermelo to Piet Retief) 159 km, R23 from (Rotanda, Balfour, Standerton
to Volksrust) 164 km, R40 from (Barbeton to Nelspruit) 33 km and N11 from
(Middleburg to Marble Hall) 121 km, which makes 476 81 km.

Similarly, this financial year we intend transferring the last badge of 916
km of roads to SANRAL which are R33 from (Commondale to (R555) Stoffberg) 246
km, R38 from (Bethal to Kaapmuiden) 246 km, R35 from (Amersfort to Middelburg)
150 km, R40 from (White River to Marite River Bridge) 98 km, R40 from
(Barberton to Bulembu border) 45 km as well as the R50 from (Standerton to
Gauteng boundary) 130 km.

In the Gert Sibande Region we will continue with the reconstruction of roads
from Bethal to Morgenzon, Kinross to Standerton then complete Bethal to
Middleburg and complete the upgrade of the road from Driefontein to Piet
Retief.

At Nkangala Region we will also continue with the completion of roads from
Vlaglagte to Moteti (Moloto Phase three), complete the gravelling of the
Gamatlala to NoGaneng Road and complete the Matlerekeng to Motsanangoana as
well as the Senotlelo to Lefiso.

In response to the undertaking we made just six months after the 1994
democratic breakthrough we will at Ehlanzeni Region begin with the construction
of the Matsulu access route to the east of the N4 which will see the people of
Matsulu traveling less than 16 km per day, 80 km per week, 320 km per month
which will result in the reduction of the cost of doing business. In the same
vein this will give the community of Matsulu to have more than one choice to
exit or enter Matsulu.

As part of the implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
which forms part of our work and mindful of the role these programmes play in
creating jobs and fighting poverty, we will register as EPWP the Sandriver to
Nyongane, Gamatlala to Noganeng, Steenbok to Khombaso as well as the
Siyantentela Road Maintenaince Projects targeted at rural women headed
households.

The declaration of October as a Public Transport Month has come with good
results since our Department was able to identify a community that was divided
by nature. By this we are referring to Ntombe Village and a river called Ntombe
in the Gert Sibande Region that made it very difficult for the people of Ntombe
Village to have easy access to public facilities such as clinics, schools,
police stations and other public facilities. Now that the Department has
successfully constructed a foot bridge there is easy accessibility to public
facilities irrespective of the flow of the river.

Madam Speaker, in partnership with the Department of Public Works,
Department of Local Government and Housing, Ehlanzeni District Municipality and
Nkomazi Local Municipality we are currently conducting a feasibility study in
relation to the maximum utilisation of the Nkomazi Precast Concrete Factory as
a Multi-Facet Labour Intensive Project (MFLIP). Honourable members, the success
of this project will have a huge positive impact to the women and youth of
Nkomazi in terms of fighting poverty, unemployment as well as the development
of emerging contractors.

As part of ensuring that we improve quality of construction and maintenance,
we will conduct a technical skills audit within the Department and appoint a
programme manager for quality control and programme management services. The
absence of a programme manager and inadequate capacity on the roads section has
made us to be highly dependant on consultants who sometimes collude with some
contractors to do poor workmanship.

Public transport

Honourable members, globalisation which essentially refers to developments
that lead to the shrinkage of space and time is attributable to two things. One
is the developments in Information Technology (IT) and the other is the
improvements in the field of transport.

Our challenge in transport is about the reduced costs of doing business,
improving the quality of life and increasing workforce productivity. Public
transport therefore must focus primarily on the needs of the urban poor, the
rural disadvantaged and isolated communities.

Our key focus area is with the development of policies, programmes and
initiatives that provide an overall framework in which co-ordinated, integrated
and targeted public transport takes place with the ultimate aim of moving
towards building a future where public transport will be a viable alternative
for all travellers.

As indicated in our last year speech that the taxi recapitalisation project
will get off the ground. We are happy to report that we have just successfully
concluded the implementation of the first stage of this project, which is the
application for conversion of permits to operating licenses.

We once again commend all those taxi operators in the province for
responding overwhelmingly to our call to come forward and convert their
permits. As on close of business on 31 May 2006 our operating licensing board
registered a record of about 9 517 permits which is above the forecast of 7 005
as well as about 517 Be Legal Campaign (BLC) and about 458 Special Legalisation
Process (SLP). This discrepancy is in part attributed to the submission of some
dormant permits as well as poor record keeping of SLPs and BLCs.

Madam Speaker, in our province the conversion process went smoothly. This
Department would like to send a strong message of warning to all those who did
not submit their permits for conversion, urging them to refrain from operating
because those operations would be regarded as illegal and if found their
vehicles will be impounded.

Our operating licensing board is busy with the processing of these
applications and I have instructed them to carry out this task expeditiously
and timeously. We must indicate that those operators who have not received
their operating licenses will not be penalised as long as they have a receipt
showing that they have applied.

The board will also continue to receive applications after the cut off date.
The successful processing of these late applications will depend on stated
acceptable reasons provided by the operators that reasons for late submission
were not of their own doing.

As announced by Minister Jeff Radebe we can confirm without any fear of
contradiction that the taxi vehicle that meets the safety requirement is now
available in the market at the price ranging from R140,000 excluding the
scrapping allowance of R50,000. We expect that there will be six and 11
different models for taxi owners to choose from across the three vehicle
categories.

The scrapping agency as announced by the Minister will enable us to begin
next month with the implementation of the second stage of the taxi
recapitalisation programme which is the scrapping of old vehicles for those who
voluntarily wish to exit the taxi industry and for those who wish to
recapitalise first and vehicles found to have reached an age limit.

Honourable members, government law enforcement strategy is a critical
component of the taxi recapitalisation process as it presents government with
an opportunity to intervene in the industry by addressing quite a number of
compliance and regulatory issues. In this context our law enforcement
initiatives and actions will continue and intensify in the following areas:

* un-roadworthy vehicles
* operators deviating from prescribed routes
* operators operating contrary to the conditions of their permits/operating
licenses
* taxi piracy (operators found not in possession of any single document to
validate any claim made by the driver/operator)
* operators/drivers and members found in possession of stolen and suspicious
stolen vehicles
* operators/drivers and members found operating illegally imported
vehicles.

The challenge that we confront as a province is the shortage of transport
inspectors who are tasked with law enforcement of the above issues.

During the public transport month held in October 2005 in particular the car
free day, we have witnessed a number of shortcomings and weaknesses of our
public transport system which then necessitated that our government should move
with speed to finalise the Model Tender Contracts which will be inclusive of
all other modes of public transport and introduces competitive tendering in a
regulated environment.

Honourable members, I must however emphasise that as we review the current
operation of the old system towards a more equitable system where the commuter
is paramount we will be sensitive to the current needs and structures of all
operators. Our intention is to put in place better co-ordination of routes and
integration of fare and ticketing systems.

Madam Speaker, corridor development remains one of our core projects and our
aim is to optimise and integrate all activities along the corridors to improve
efficiency. In this context we shall be conducting a detailed feasibility study
on the Moloto Rail Development Corridor which is aimed at improving passenger
mobility and reducing the number of vehicles from the road. Every one of us in
this house is aware that the Moloto Road in particular has, because of its
notoriety been given the name of “killer road.” The construction of this rail
would certainly reduce the number of fatalities in this road because many
people would migrate to the rail. I must also indicate that this project is
part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA)
projects in the province.

As part of resuscitating the Maputo Development Corridor and identifying
other development corridors in the province we shall be launching the Maputo
Freight Forum. The Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI) will be the
Secretariat of this forum and the national Department of Transport has since
allocated an amount of R300 000 on our behalf to enable MCLI to undertake this
responsibility.

We are currently in a process of developing a provincial aviation strategy
that seeks to address development requirements particularly as they relate to
the role that aviation plays to boost tourism, promote business travel, extend
the role of general aviation which offers low cost airlines and also to promote
suitable air freight capacity. In this regard we shall during the course of
this financial year convene an aviation summit.

In preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup we will this year update the
current public transport record with a view to develop the public transport
plan for the Mbombela Municipality. We will continue and support construction
related matters development of public transport facilities in the Hazyview,
White River, Kabokweni and Pienaar areas with a view to ensure that the legacy
of the 2010 World Cup is retained. Through the multi modal strategy we will
further support the development of a multi modal public transport facility that
will see the link between rails, taxi’s and buses.

Over the past year through the Shovakalula project and in partnership with
the Department of Education, we have been able to distribute about 200 bicycles
to learners who are not covered by the scholar transport that is in the
vicinity of four to five kilometres. We will this financial year establish
about five bicycle shops that will be closer to communities in order to
facilitate easy access for parts and repairs.

During the course of this financial year we will as part of a process to
increase rural mobility launch a Rural Transport Strategy (RTS) which is aimed
at promoting easy access to transport by the rural people in order to have
access to economic opportunities, with more focus on the following
municipalities Albert Luthuli and Mkhondo Municipality in the Gert Sibande
District, Dr JS Moroka and Thembisile Municipality in Nkangala District,
Nkomazi, Buschbuckridge and part of Mbombela Municipality in Ehlanzeni
District.

In relation to the Multi Modal Facilities (MMF) we will be working closely
with various municipalities to upgrade public transport facilities in the
following towns being Nelspruit, Middelburg, Ermelo, Witbank and Secunda in
Mbalenhle.

Traffic management

Madam Speaker, our road traffic fatalities continue to increase at an
alarming degree with a substantial number of passengers and pedestrians dying
on our roads. Our roads have turned into graves, our families live in constant
fear of not coming back home in one piece from our respective places of
work.

The tasks of turning this culture around and replacing it by one of care,
peace, love, compassion, respect for the law and mutual respect on our roads
requires the full participation of every citizen and the investment of all the
resources at our disposal including prayer for safety of lives from accidents
on our roads.

In the same fashion that we have raised the level of consciousness of our
people around HIV/AIDS, we also need to do the same with road safety. It is
only through a collective effort by all of us as road safety activists that we
can turn the tide against deaths and make our roads safe for everyone. This
responsibility should be a shared responsibility we cannot do it alone as a
Department. All of us must act together and advocate the importance of road
safety in our communities.

Madam Speaker, the statistics are showing that road accidents are still
claiming and maiming too many lives of our people despite the appeals we have
made year in and year out to all road users both motorist and pedestrians to
behave responsible on our roads. Our analysis reflects that most of the
accidents occurred over weekends and in the evenings between 18h00 and 20h00,
with 39 percent being passengers 31 percent pedestrians and 30 percent
drivers.

The appeals and messages that “Don’t Fool Yourself! Speed Kills! Don’t Drink
and Drive! Arrive Alive” are well known to all of us. It is very obvious that
the continuing of unnecessary loss of lives and injuries on our roads
communicates the message that there are irresponsible people among us who still
refuse to respect the rules that govern our conduct on the road.

Our traffic law enforcement in the context of “Sivutha Umlilo” will have to
double their efforts and work harder in order to ensure that those who continue
to misbehave and break the rules of the road are caught and severely
punished.

We also want to encourage and commend the partnership we formed with
companies such as BP, Sasol, SAB as well as the decision taken by some
celebrities to become our road safety ambassadors which will enhance our work
and integrate our efforts to have more meaningful impact. As part of our RSS we
managed to host the National Driver of the Year Competition which was preceded
by the Provincial Driver of the Year Competition. For the first time provincial
best drivers were awarded trophies and cash prizes.

Madam Speaker, we want to commend all our sponsors such as Buscor and ABSA,
who have made it possible for this competition to be a success and we further
wish to appeal to those companies operating heavy vehicles to allow their
drivers to participate in this competition as this will improve their driving
skills and thereby contribute to road safety.

We also need to commend the work of the Moral Regeneration Movement (NRM) in
the renewal of our attitude and behavioural change to bring back the element of
ubuntu. It can only be through this attitude and behaviour change that we shall
be in a position to reduce the number of widowers, orphans, people with
disabilities and any other emotional suffering as a result of people dying on
our roads. We urge our churches to continue playing this role of complementing
our efforts in this regard.

In this respect we need to reach out to our public passenger drivers who
must begin to see their passengers not as loads but as human beings, as
fathers, mothers and breadwinners in whose hands many lives depend and most
importantly as customers of the very passenger drivers. Once we manage to
change these attitudes, positive results will be realised and our roads will
cease to be graveyards of our people.

As we pointed out in our speech last year we will roll out the best practice
model in seven more municipalities in our quest to prevent fraud and corruption
at all our testing stations. We have also intervened in some of the
municipalities where fraud and corruption was detected and found to be rife.
The issuing of fraudulent drivers license has and is still undermining our
efforts to reduce accidents and fatalities on our roads. That is the reason why
we are geared towards the immediate appointment of traffic officers who would
in the immediate future receive specialised training in order to curb fraud and
corruption more especially in the licensing and testing centres.

During the past financial year we successfully held a Road Safety Summit
which was attended by almost all our stakeholders. One of the objectives of the
summit was to come up with strategies to deal with challenges of road safety
and traffic law enforcement.

The summit has among other resolutions agreed that the Department must
revisit the current policy on the provision of subsidised vehicles to employees
of the Department which is not in the interest of the state. Madam Speaker, I
wish to report to this august house that this matter has now been reviewed and
have since taken a decision that subsidised vehicles will be provided only if
it is in the interest of the state in relation to traffic management and what
is in the interest of the State is the visibility of our traffic officers.

Administration and financial control

Madam Speaker, if we truly believe and define our State as a developmental
State, then we have a task to build the capacity of the state to deliver and
intervene from time to time. For this purpose we have set aside R1,6 million on
staff development programmes with the help of training providers and
institutions of higher learning.

We have also successfully lobbied the private sector and working in
partnership with the Department of Education, we have embarked on a pilot
project with TSB where 155 learners from grade 10 to 12 are participating in a
Star School programme for extra science and mathematics classes on
Saturdays.

About 20 learners will be placed in winter classes with the help of Air
Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) on aviation related fields in
Johannesburg. This will further enhance our work of encouraging learners to
take careers on aviation.

Madam Speaker, the shortage of skills more especially in the field of
engineering (civil and mechanical), technical areas and project management is a
serious cause for concern. As a result of this skills gap the department is
highly dependent on consultants.

As a measure to address this skills gap, we have started awarding bursaries
to more than 40 learners and we intend to continue this financial year and
beyond as and when funds allows. 23 of them are part time and nine of them are
studying civil engineering of which three of them are females.

The lack of capacity in financial management has had a negative impact on
our financial management and control. Be that as it may we have now put all our
financial control systems in place inclusive of expenditure management system.
This is aimed at ensuring that our service providers are paid within 30 days of
receipt and acceptance of the invoice in compliance with the PFMA.

We must however report to this august House, that regardless of these
weaknesses we have however managed to spend 98 percent of our 2005/06 budget as
adjusted.

We would as a matter of extreme urgency come up with revenue enhancement
strategy that would enable our Department to improve our revenue collection
which among others includes to revisit the traffic fees with an aim of
increasing them, taking over payment of traffic fines from Department of
Justice to ensure maximum payment of fines which will also serve as a deterrent
improve registration centres in order to encourage more people to register
their vehicles in the province and in this regard we will therefore engage
companies such as Telkom, Eskom, car rentals whose vehicles are currently
registered in terms of their head office location but also run permanent
businesses in the province.

With regards to service delivery improvement initiatives the Department has
upgraded its Transversal Unit and renamed it Special Programmes and
Transformation (SPT) in order to deal with the challenges of transformation as
well as special programmes. We further wish to state categorically that we will
continue and give preference to women in our attempt to deal with the
imbalances of the past more especially in the filling in of posts in the senior
management position.

Madam Speaker, honourable members, our fight for human dignity, social
development and economic prosperity requires that we reach out to every corner
of our province and mobilise support for this noble course of the impoverished
majority of our people.

Part of our strategy is to improve communication and also to ensure that the
inhabitants of this province have access to information and are also able to
exercise their rights in relation to freedom of expression. We have produced a
newsletter for the Department and we now are enthusiastic to announce that
later this afternoon we would be launching our departmental website which would
serve as a tool to ensure openness, transparency and maximum participation of
all the people of this province.

Madam Speaker, now comes my plea to your august House and in front of your
honourable members. I kick off by quoting from Hendrik Van Loon when he said:
“I have come to have very profound and deep rooted doubts whether science as
practiced by the human race will ever do anything to make this world a better
and happier place to live in or will ever stop contributing to our general
misery.”

I want this House to concur with me when I assert that our generation is the
first one in many centuries to have both the correct vision and the necessary
free hand to change for the better the course of human suffering, bondage and
deprivation. Those of our fore fathers that were blessed with such vision
clearly lacked the free hand due to our sad history.

The Department is determined to make use of human and capital resources and
all that is necessary and available to effectively and efficiently contribute
to the efforts of the provincial government to make a change out there. I have
no doubt that you are convinced of the appropriateness of our endeavours to
this end.

The overwhelming mandate given to us by the people of our province at the
last general elections focuses on three areas:

* the need to accelerate growth and promote equitable economic development
of our country and its people

* stepping up efforts to achieve social cohesion and to nurture national
identity, to realise the goals of non-racialism, non-sexism through a deepening
and expansion of democracy

* installing robust mechanisms and systems to monitor and evaluate progress
on all objectives, strategies and plans of government in relation to the above
priorities.

Honourable members, the strategies, plans and expenditure commitments of the
department of roads and transport proceed from this medium term framework and
seek to align its budgetary patterns with it.

This speaks directly to the needs of the majority of our people who in terms
of the mandate of the Department of Roads and Transport we are obliged to
provide safe, affordable and accessible public transport infrastructure.

I therefore take this opportunity to table an amount of R961 821 000
for 2006/07 financial year for approval by this august house, which is outlined
as follows:
* Administration - R118 629 000
* Roads Infrastructure - R691 781 000
* Public Transport - R28 517 000
* Traffic Management - R122 894 000

In conclusion, let me pay special tribute to the hardworking women and men
of the Department of Roads and Transport under the capable leadership of Ms TN
Msibi with a poem called ‘Ode to an old pair of shoes.’ It goes:
“Brothers and Sisters we are
Great burdens we bear
All day we are bitterly pressed
And yet this to you I would say
We are full all day
And empty when we go to bed.”

I also take this opportunity to thank the members of the portfolio committee
under the able leadership of the Chairperson, honourable DD Mabuza for the
excellent co-operation they have displayed and accorded the Department. Most
importantly, I thank the honourable Premier and members of the Executive
Council (ExCo) for the unswerving support for all our endeavours to deliver on
our constitutional mandate.

Thank you!

Issued by: Department of Roads and Transport, Mpumalanga Provincial
Government
20 June 2006