2007/08 at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Free State
Legislature
6 July 2007
Chairperson of the NCOP
Minister of Transport, Honourable Jeff Radebe
Colleagues, MECs from other provinces
Honourable members of the NCOP
Ladies and gentlemen
It is pleasing to participate in this Policy Debate on the Transport Budget
vote at times when transport has occupied a very central role to our efforts of
bringing about a shared economic growth.
Our slogan: Transport, the Heartbeat of South Africa's Economy augers very
well with this year's national government's theme of Renewing our National Our
Pledge: A National Partnership to Build a Better Life All.
This is because at the core of building a better life for all is the 2014
Vision of halving poverty and unemployment by the year 2014. This programmatic
slogan of Transport: The Heartbeat of South Africa's Economy, therefore
positions us, and properly locates our role, as the transport portfolio in the
economic activities that are already dominating Government Programme of Action
in this Second Decade of Freedom, leading to 2014.
Accelerated Infrastructure Development for Building a Life for All was our
central programmatic slogan we announced when we tabled our provincial Budget
Vote on the 26 March 2007. In this input, we will therefore seek to highlight
our work with regard to transport infrastructure and improvement measures to
transport services.
Chairperson, our current budget allocation for roads is R932 million. It is
the single largest allocation and alone it accounts for 58% of our entire
Departmental Budget for this financial year 2007/08.This has risen from R515
million in the last financial year and therefore represents an increase of
81%.
Whilst we appreciate this substantial raise, we continue acknowledge that it
is still not enough considering the huge backlog we have in roads. This backlog
is estimated at R8 billion. Another factor that has to be seriously taken into
account is the fact of above 50% escalation of market prices in the
construction industry. The significantly increasing traffic volumes, both
freight and private vehicles, on our roads in recent times also have a negative
impact on roads. Free State tends to be seriously affected because we are
geographically located at the centre of the country.
Our strategic approach for addressing the overloading and traffic growth on
our roads includes the following:
* the construction of traffic control centre which include permanent weigh
bridges at strategic points of the province
* to complement an effective overloading control plan through the utilisation
of mobile weigh bridges
* to design our road network in such a way that it accommodate the envisaged
growth of heavy trucks on our roads.
During this last financial year, as part of our efforts to improve our roads
network infrastructure, we over spent with R279 million on roads alone.
These budget allocations and expenditure are deeply rooted in our policy
trajectory of utilising infrastructure development as a catalyst for economic
growth and development. This policy trajectory has gained momentum since we
commenced this Second Decade of Freedom in 2004. It is therefore in this
context that roads infrastructure development has progressively gained
prominence.
Honourable chair, since April 2006, a total of 309 kilometres of secondary
roads was re-gravelled. 315,100 metre square paved roads and eight bridges were
repaired. As part of these projects, we have increased our roads construction
and maintenance in depressed rural areas of our province. The importance of a
developed roads infrastructure in economically depressed rural areas cannot be
overemphasised. It will lower the cost of economic activities in the
agricultural sector and help revive other industries that have potential in our
rural areas. Roads infrastructure and development in rural areas help ease the
movement of people and the delivery of social services such as education and
health. These improvements also help people with easy access to main corridors
as well.
The other social and economic benefits that have accrued from our roads
projects execution is that we have and continue to increase the EPWP (Expanded
Public Works Programme) content in terms of labour intensiveness, contractor
development and skills development. We are therefore implementing leanerships
that are covering 107 learner contractors who are involved in the construction
and maintenance of roads. On completion of the leanerships, we will therefore
create clear exiting opportunities that will empower contractor learners
further. A total of 3 640 temporary work opportunities have been created in the
past financial year in roads alone.
Chairperson, in order to sustain the momentum generated by the winning of
Makwane Access Road as the best EPWP project in the country, we will implement
the following five projects collectively worth R155 million for this year,
along the same model of Makwane Access Road:
* Monontsha Border Post access road
* Access road to Swartwater Dam-S1502
* Access road to the Dome as Phase 2
* Access road to Koppies Dam
* Access road to Thaba Phatsoa.
Three projects standout as our main transport infrastructure projects
outside roads this financial year. These are N8 Road Development Corridor, the
Bloemfontein Transport Inter-modal Facility and the Harrismith Freight
Logistical Hub.
My department has commenced with the construction of a 19 kilometres (kg)
palisade fence along the N8 corridor. This project through EPWP principles has
this far created temporary employment for 150 locals.
The N8 corridor project will also include the revitalisation of the commuter
rail service between Bloemfontein, Botshabelo and Thaba-Nchu, covering a
distance of 70 kg. Our initial study indicated that already in on a daily
basis, there are more than 40 000 people travelling on this road. This study
also show that the introduction of an integrated public transport network with
commuter rail serving the line between Botshabelo/Thaba-Nchu and Bloemfontein
would bring about major reduced passenger fares, safer commuter trips and would
furthermore reduce the current operational subsidy requirement for buses and in
favour of commuter rail. We are working the South African Commuter Rail
Corporation to get the project to unfold.
It is also pleasing to report that we have made tremendous progress towards
concluding the renewal of the Inter State Bus Line contract which will include
new empowered partners in taxi operators and small bus operators.
The construction of the Bloemfontein Inter-modal Facility connecting rail,
buses and taxi services will be one of our major transport infrastructure
projects as we move towards 2010 Soccer World Cup and beyond. A total budget of
R230m is available in this current financial year for this project and is
mainly managed by the Mangaung Municipality as a Host City. We are, however,
playing an active and collaborative role in the project. The actual
construction of the Inter-modal facility is expected to commence before the end
of this financial year.
Honourable Chair, the Harrismith Logistical Hub is certainly one of our
transport infrastructure projects that will give concrete expression the
slogan: Transport: The Heartbeat of South Africa Economy. It will link with
both Durban and Johannesburg through the N3 Corridor. This is a project we are
pursuing in partnership with the National Department of Transport and is one of
the AsgiSA projects for the Free State. We are about to conclude the process of
establishing a Provincial Data Bank. This Data Bank will therefore serve as an
important tool for the management of freight in the province. We hope to launch
this Freight Data Bank this coming October as part of the October Transport
Month Campaign.
Since the launch of the Taxi Recapitalisation in October last year (2006),
we are surging ahead with the actual implementation of the Recap. We are in
process also addressing the challenges that have arisen. These include the slow
pace of scrapping, problems related to uplifting of operating licences by taxi
operators and tensions among associations.
The process of the formulation of the Transport Master Plan that has been
initiated by the national Department of Transport has been warmly embraced in
the province and we are therefore active participants in this process. In
conclusion, Honourable Chairperson, as we said we when we began this input, the
achievement the economic and social goals of 2014 Vision remains our strategic
tasks; we dare not lose focus. Let us therefore work harder to position
transport as great contributor to a shared growth and development. As the
province of Free State, we therefore endorse the national Transport Budget Vote
as tabled.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Transport, Roads and Public Works, Free State
Provincial Government
6 July 2007
Source: Free State Provincial Government (http://www.fs.gov.za)
