Community Safety, honourable Frans Phenye Vilakazi at the Taxi Sod Turning and
Certification Ceremony held in Mafikeng
12 October 2007
Programme Director
The executive mayor of Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality Councillor
Themba Gwabedi
Representatives from various institutions
Our recipients of certificates present here today
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
The taxi industry has been one of the fastest growing businesses in the
country in the past 27 years. Yet, for many years, very little or no attention
was paid to the process of transforming the industry to make it a real,
sustainable business that is respected by the people it serves and other
role-players. In the past few years, we have taken a bold step towards the
restructuring and reform of this industry. In the beginning, this step was
questioned by many and it was viewed by some as having very little chance to
succeed. And we endured all sorts of frustrations as we paved the way for dawn
of a new era in the taxi industry. But through the cooperation with our main
players - the taxi people - we kept going and vowed never to look back.
Yesterday, history was made when the taxi industry of the North West
province represented by the executive committees and directors of the
Provincial Taxi Council, the five Regional Taxi Councils, Bokone Transport
Holdings and the five Regional Transport Co-operatives gathered at
Potchefstroom to form a single structure that will represent the entire
industry in the province and streamline the activities of taxi operators.
In addition, we have also taken the opportunity to assess the progress we
have made since we started the programme of transforming the industry in the
province. And I'm proud to say our province remains the leader and trendsetter
in the transformation of the taxi industry and our pace in this regard is
unprecedented throughout the country.
We have become the first province to help our taxi operators diversify their
business through the R30 million we allocated to them in order for them to
start their own retail outlets, thus helping them create a viable and
sustainable business for themselves.
Already, part of this money has been used to purchase a complex in Vryburg
at a tune of R5,25 million that includes a petrol filing station and some few
other outlets. The business is earmarked to earn our taxi industry at least R50
000 per month in rent and petrol retail.
They have also bought an old complex at Tlhabane in Rustenburg worth R4,8
million that will be refurbished in partnership with a strategic partner. I'm
told they will also buy another petrol station in Klerksdorp soon. Perhaps the
biggest coup for the taxi industry in this kind of business is a venture that
we have made sod turning for this morning. This is the venture that I think has
taken the programme of empowering taxi operators to the level never seen before
in our country.
The place where we made a sod turning â just behind the Crossing Shopping
Complex â will be home to a new complex in which our taxi operators in the
province will have a 50% ownership through the Koponeng Shopping Centre (Pty)
Limited, with the other 50% being owned by the Crossing Property Investment.
The two companies will invest no less than R120 million on a new complex and I
have been assured that this development will be completed in the next twelve
months. Allow me, therefore, to congratulate our Taxi operators in this
Province for these bold initiatives and I am proud that our partnership has
yielded this kind of result.
This integrated public transport commercial centre concept developed in the
North West province provides for world class public transport facilities
integrated with a shopping commercial centre. The display indicates the level
of sophistication that this initiative provides for. But most importantly, it
is a first of its kind in our country and we must be proud to be dictating the
pace of transformation to other provinces.
Congratulations to the taxi industry once more, to the strategic partners,
to the financiers and to my departmental staff for your hard work to make this
possible. I want to remind that our target is to create a capacitated taxi
industry in the province with full staff compliments in line with its
competitor public passenger transport providers in the form of bus and rail.
The third pillar of our dream over the next three years is taxi industry
participation in inter-modal public transport provisioning through strategic
partnerships with bus and rail. And I believe this is possible.
For us to succeed in this regard, we also need to ensure that the workforce
within the taxi industry is ready to be part of these developments and it
responds accordingly to the changes in the industry. We have therefore seen it
necessary and urgent to initiate a training programme for members of the taxi
industry.
Last year, we began to train them on various skills such as:
* communication and interpersonal relations,
* customer relations,
* commuter services,
* driving skills.
In May this year, we had 291 trainees who completed this training. Today, we
have another 110 members that have successfully completed training and will
receive Transport Education Training Authority (TETA) Skills Education Training
Authority (Seta) accredited certificates. These people include taxi drivers and
owners and at least 36% of them are youth.
As part of intensifying this training, we hope to sign a Memorandum of
Understanding with TETA in a not too distant future. The Memorandum will have,
as its focus, the objective of a transformed public transport in the province
including all modes of public passenger transport with its objective being to
provide accessible, reliable, safe, integrated and environmentally sustainable
transport systems and processes in the province.
It will also provide for principles of collaboration between TETA and the
department to achieve the objective and facilitate the role of TETA as the
training authority responsible for transport and implementation of sector
workplace skills plans. We already agree with TETA that it must bring its
capacity and knowledge on skills development to our Province, including
pursuance of accredited training as well as quality monitoring through
assessment and moderation.
The department, on the other hand, has undertaken to provide the necessary
institutional capacity within the Province to manage the process. The
institutional arrangement for this has already been agreed between the Industry
and the department. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate our successful
trainees who will receive their certificates today. You have indeed provided us
with an example. Please let this be a start of enhancing your career. Take up
opportunities for further training and enhancement of your career through
further training that we will continue to provide with TETA. Motivate your
fellow operators and drivers to also enrol for training.
Congratulations to you and our best wishes in your future endeavours.
I thank you
Contact Person:
Mandla Mathebula
Tel: 018 387 4810
Cell: 083 282 6133
E-mail: mmathebula@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Transport, Roads and Community Safety, North West
Provincial Government
12 October 2007
