Budget vote speech by the Limpopo MEC of Roads and Transport, Ms Pinky Kekana, at Lebowakgomo Legislature

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier, Cassel Mathale Members of the Provincial Legislature
My Colleagues from the Executive Council
Mayors and Councillors from various municipalities present here
Acting Head of the Department of Roads and Transport
Members of the Boards and Chief Executive Officers of our Para-statals
Representatives of stakeholders from the transport industry
The Auditor-General
Leaders and Veterans of the ANC and other political parties
Leadership of Organised Labour
Traditional leaders
Representatives of the Business Community Representatives of Faith Based Organisations Members of the media
Distinguished guests, friends and compatriots

Re a lotsha, Thobela, Avuxeni, Aa!
 
Honourable Speaker

On 22 April 2009, legible citizens of our country, South Africa, stood all forms of weather as they made their way to the polling stations to express their will.  They pinned their hopes and tied their aspirations to the glorious Movement of O.R Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, which had not just paid tribute to them on 8 January, but has also made a pledge to live up to the trust they put on it. Some of the parties that accompanied the ANC to the elections have not made it to this august house. Informed by the spirit that prevailed during the elections, it compels us to continue making a rallying call to all citizens of our
country to join hands for the common good of our province and the country.

Honourable Speaker

Parties that have accompanied the ANC to the elections have a responsibility, for the sake of our common good, to wipe off their eyes, tears of electoral defeat. For the sake of our province, they have a responsibility, Honorable Speaker, to come alive to the reality that 85% of all those that went to the polls, have given the ANC the mandate to continue steering our province towards our ideal society.

Honourable Speaker

As  one  stands  before  this  august  house,  one  is  conscious  of  the  journey traversed by generations of cadres and outstanding individuals who have understood the need to act in the interest of our common good. We meet here today in the month of June which our government rightfully declared as the Youth Month because, 33 years ago, the then apartheid regime was waging the worst one-sided war our country has ever witnessed.

Neither the calamity of that 1976 winter nor the lethal weapons in the hands of the apartheid machinery could deter the youth then who were prepared to make  sacrifices for our common good. Pondering on the choices they had, they opted to live by the Tibetan proverb that says, “It is better to have lived one day as a tiger than 1000 years as a sheep”. It is this generation of fellow fighters which declared that “freedom  or  death,  victory is  certain”.  Their resolve to act in pursuit of our common good has always achieved majestic results even in what, on the surface, appeared to be the rockiest soils of misfortune.

Honourable Speaker

It is my pleasure to present you my department’s budget for your consideration. The budget speech in Parliamentary democracy presents the opportunity to take stock of one executive portfolio and to set the course for the financial year.

Transport and quality of life

Honourable members, transport is about quality of life to all South African citizens. It is about meeting people’s basic needs of daily life. Poor households and communities are always the hardest hit if the transport system is inefficient, costly and not responsive to their needs.

As the ANC-led government we have committed to responding dynamically to the huge expectations of the communities who have entrusted us with the mandate to lead once again. For us it is important to improve their living standards and quality of life, as we are convinced that communities will embrace such a response with increased socio-economic activities, which increase the efficiency and productivity of their assets and thus addressing levels of poverty.
 
Honourable Speaker

What is the Transport Mandate?

As the ANC government, the mandate given to us by the electorate during the national and provincial elections is very clear. Ours is to ensure that:

• Transport services are safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable
• Reduction of travel times and cost of doing business
• Implementation  of  policies  that  coordinate  public  and  private  sector investment in the transport sector
• Transport  infrastructure and  services  meet  investment,  economic  and social demands of our people.
  

Our province requires critical investments in human capital and transport infrastructure to speed up the transformation process and bridge the divide between the rich and the poor. In the year under review, we enrolled 100 interns and a further 252 young people were put on learner-ship programme. 217 bursaries were awarded to departmental employees and young people from outside the department. To date, there are 134 students enrolled in Transport Management with the University of Limpopo with the last intake of 50 students in the same field of study. 76 students have already completed their degrees on traffic management and are employed in the department on a contractual basis.

Honourable Speaker

We have steadily been proving the world wrong since the dawn of democracy. If over the first 15 years of democratic government we have succeeded in defusing the possibility of civil war, stabilising our society, creating a general climate of peace and making progress, through hard compromises, with the difficult task of reconciliation;  if  we  have  ensured  continuity  of  government  and  economic stability even as we have been grappling with the problems of transformation; if we have done all this, why should we think that any problem is beyond solution?

Honourable Speaker

Roads infrastructure upgrade and improvement

Allow me to invoke the words of our Premier during his State of the Province Address  when  he  said,  “we  do  not  just  want  to  talk  about  unity  and cohesion,  when  it  is  convenient  –  but  we  want  to  exemplify  it.  Our gathering here today  is a sign  that we hold  this  ideal in high  esteem, and are  prepared  to  make  sacrifices for  it”.  The words of  our  Premier were profound and represented the clarion call for unity from the African National Congress for we said, I quote, “Working together we can do more”.

If we then turn to roads, we see that we have been living off our assets for the past 10 to 15 years and are now facing very significant costs to maintain the deteriorated network and restore the roads to a reasonable standard.
 
We will be completing our multi-year upgrading projects started in 2007/08 and
2008/09 which shall see us tar roads with total distance of 150 kilometres at the cost of R691 million.

Our province currently has 21 971km road networks and out of this 7 345km is tarred. Limpopo province is known to be a gateway to Africa and this suggests that we should improve our road networks to respond positively to the demands of transporting goods and people thereby increasing sustainable mobility. In this regard, our strategic location needs no further emphasis.

Honourable Speaker

Connecting our people through roads and building bridges

Much as the decades-old apartheid misrule resulted in the worst form of the display of contempt to our people, ours is a mandate to restore the dignity of our people. Since time immemorial the community of Maredi had to cross the Olifants River using the segwai-gwai. Much as members of the community had perfected the use of this facility, we have found it prudent to take into account their safety and dignity.

A bridge will be constructed at Mankele village during this financial year. This community has always suffered as it was cut-off from the other villages during rainy days, an anomaly that disrupted the functioning of any sustainable, self- reliant and economically active community. Plans are also at advanced stage to construct a  road  that  connects the  Rapotokwane and  Lutto  communities in 
Witlaagte. This will help unleash the economic potential of this community. An amount of R43 million has been set aside for the two bridges as well as the Witlaagte road. An additional R11 million will be used for the construction of a Bridge at Seloane in Mopani. The design of the Lutanyanda Bridge on the Louis Trichardt / Thohoyandou road has been completed and construction shall commence in this financial year.

The ANC government has always preached the need to join hands in an effort to build better communities. Informed by this understanding and in line with our Private Public Partnership approach, the department has entered into a joint venture partnership with Pretoria Portland Cement  (PPC) to build a 50 km road in Dwaalboom at a total amount of R200 million. The parties will jointly spent R120million and the balance of R80 million will be the cost of building material which will be provided for by the PPC. We commend our private partners in this regard and call upon other business entities to take lessons from this noble overture.

During elections campaign our people raised concerns about disintegrated planning, maintenance as well as re-gravelling of access roads across the province. While we acknowledge concerns of our communities, it should be brought to the attention of this house that the department has serious challenges of internal capacity and management of routine maintenance unit. We have reason to at all times heed the concerns by our people because it is in their name and in their interest that we serve. We shall be re-organising our maintenance approach to be in line with the local municipalities of our province. We believe this will improve our service delivery efforts and enhance better coordination with the local sphere of government. For this course we have allocated an amount of R590 million.

Of this amount, we will spend R112 million buying new plant and equipment to capacitate our Routine Maintenance units. R20 million will be spent on the recruitment of new engineers and artisans to build capacity for the maintenance units. R86 million will be for operations of the equipment as well as buying material for the pothole repair of tarred roads. R120 million will be spent on the re-establishment and renovations of cost centres.

Honourable Speaker

Creating jobs through Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)

The creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods is a critical building block towards the realisation of the noble goal of a better life for all. Identifying it as one of the priority areas for the next five years is an indication that the ANC-led government is well-endowed with the necessary clarity of thought and superiority of vision on how to go about ensuring that the democratic order finds resonance in its ability to add value to the lives of all our people.

As a province we have expanded the current initiatives for labour-intensive rural access roads as part of the Extended Public Works Programme. It speaks to the needs of the roads sector as well as the directive to scale up the EPWP by ensuring access to public amenities and places work.

In the last financial year, our Extended Public Works Program created 1 193 jobs. Of these, 532 were occupied by youth whereas 580 and 5 went to women and people with disabilities respectively. Without blowing our own horn, we are
 
motivated by the fact that this intervention shows that we were able to double the total number of jobs created in the 2007/08 financial year. Skills were transferred to  forty-six  (46) small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs)  thereby  enhancing  their  prospects  of  playing  a meaningful role in the economic activities of our province.

During this financial year R119 million of the maintenance budget is allocated to upgrade 59 km of access roads to public amenities such as schools, clinics and multipurpose centres from gravel to tar through the Gundo Lashu Programme. The new Gundu-Lashu projects are designed to strike a balance between the conventional and the labour intensive programme to ensure quality and optimisation of labour. This methods will benefit 90 emerging contractors and create 2 583 jobs that will benefit mainly women and youth from the far flung rural  areas of our province.  R55 million is allocated for the Tsela Tshweu Programme which will create 1 284 jobs. This programme will improve the state of our access roads from the main provincial roads into local municipalities.

The combined programme ensures that there is a direct line of development from basic poverty relief  through to  more sophisticated upgrade and construction work. Work of this kind is a critical lever for rural development in that it opens up whole areas of the hinterland previously isolated from schools, clinics, social services and market access.

I must indicate that as we speak today the national department of transport is recognising Faun’ alert to be one of the best initiatives to advance the road safety programme. This initiative was introduced by one of the sons of this province and it is aimed at ensuring the visibility of stray animals. The project will be rolled-out to other provinces by October this year with recognition to the founder province (Limpopo). An amount of R5 million has been put aside for this project.
 
Honourable Speaker

Transport as key driver of economic activity

In the State of the Province Address, Premier Mathale amplified the commitment of our President that, “Government will roll out massive infrastructure over the next five years to stimulate growth and development in the economy. We have completed the spatial development framework which identifies growth points where the bulk of economic activities take place.”

Transport infrastructure holds the potential to stimulate economic development while at the same time representing a substantial investment in people as jobs are created, entrepreneurs developed, training and skills transfer projects developed.

It is in the context of this that we wish to report that the R33, R37 as well as the N11 roads designs have since been completed. The re-construction of R37 is already underway. The total distance to be covered by this massive construction is 123 kilometres and  will cost R243 million. We wish to acknowledge and express our appreciation to South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) for agreeing to this partnership. For us as the department the consistent aims are to ensure that affirmable business enterprises are drawn in, equity and contract management roles are given to previously disadvantaged individuals and  that women - in particular the poorest rural women - are involved in labour-based construction and maintenance work and life skills training.
 
The economic costs of inadequate road maintenance are borne primarily by road users.  When a road is not maintained – and is allowed to deteriorate from good to very poor condition – every rand saved on road maintenance increases vehicle-operating costs by 2 to 3 rand. This situation is compounded by the impact on our roads of systematic vehicle overloading by a significant minority of our road fleet operators, in ruthless pursuit of competitive advantage at the expense of system sustainability. Our roads need periodic maintenance for them not to lose their status. For the current financial year we will be spending R148 million on repair and reseal (preventative maintenance) of tarred roads.

In this context, we therefore need to do three things at the same time: seek creatively to expand the resources available for road infrastructure investment, attack overloading head-on and ensure that the road freight sector internalizes at least some of the damage it causes, so that we create a more equitable environment for dynamic competition between road and rail. To protect our road infrastructure, Beit-Bridge weighbridge has been completed in the last financial year. This financial year, Mokopane and Polokwane weighbridges will also be completed. An agreement has been signed with SANRAL for the upgrading of Mooketsi and Rathoke overload control centres for this financial year.
 
We are on course to realise the economic potential of the province by stimulating economic activities and opportunities, especially in the tourism, mining, industrial and agricultural sectors.

Speaker

Improved  public transport

My department’s work is informed by the National Rail Plan which puts emphasis on priority rail corridors that must be serviced to enable a seamless movement of people and goods to enable economic efficiency and sustainability. I must say a lot of work still needs to be done on our rail infrastructure for the transportation of both  freight  and  passengers through  our  railway  systems.  The  demand  for reliable  and  sustainable  rail  infrastructure  for  freight  is  evidenced  by  the abnormal road freight that we experience on our roads that should be transported through rail.

Last year we made a commitment to this esteemed house that we will complete the development of the Limpopo Rail Plan. It is, however, common cause, that major improvements are required in the structure of general freight services and the development of our commuter rail network. The latter serves hundreds of thousands of our people every week of the year, yet leaves millions captive to buses or taxis, and many more altogether excluded. In fact, it is doubtful whether we can speak accurately of a commuter rail network in South Africa, given that  the deliberately engineered spatial distortions of apartheid have left us essentially with  six  metropolitan-based  mini-networks  rather  than  a  coherent  national system.

The need for rail passenger services in the province has been identified. We will be embarking on a thorough and extensive provincial assessment workshop to prioritise the options that have been identified by Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). A budget of R5 million has been allocated for the project.

Honourable Speaker

Taxi recapitalisation project

The average age of the South African taxi fleet is almost 10 years out of a maximum useful life of 11.5 years. This fleet carries 65% of South Africa’s daily commuters. The minibus taxi industry is a critical pillar of the South African public transport sector, currently being the most available mode to the largest number of transport “customers” across a variety of income and need segments.  As a province we continue to facilitate the development of the taxi industry into a safe, affordable and sustainable mode, which serves as the backbone to public transport.
 
The age of  the fleet is a  major safety hazard, and impacts significantly on operator returns.  Operators lose revenue due to poor vehicle performance and the level of downtime for serious maintenance. While it could be argued that many operators are making sufficient returns to plough capital back into recapitalisation, the reality is that they do not.

The importance of road-worthiness of the taxi fleet comes second to none when we speak about the safety and dignity of our people. In this regard we wish to thank all taxi operators who have displayed high levels of co-operation in ensuring that they transport our people with taxi’s that are in good condition. We also appreciate the positive response of those who have handed over their taxis for scrapping in line with our Taxi Recapitalisation Program (TRP).

As of 27 March 2009, the total number of applications received for taxi scrapping is  4  549.  Only three  applicants  exited  the  industry.  The  total  Old  Taxi Vehicles (OTVs) received is 3 716 and the total demolished is 3 621. Total amount paid in terms of the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme is R182 million.

We also take pride to inform this House that we are making progress in our endeavour to assist the taxi industry in self-sustaining programmes by facilitating the establishment of at least one (1) taxi cooperative in this financial year. Once this idea has reached fruition, there can be no doubt that the taxi industry will be stronger and therefore be able to play a meaningful role in the economy.
 
Honourable Speaker

Inland waterways

Remarkable progress has also been made with regard to inland waterways. Our intentions of working on the regularisation of this industry continue to take shape because in the year under review we managed to register 38 boat owners in our database and also proceeded to train 18 regulation officers. These endeavours will lay a solid basis to ensure that this fledging industry develops to a point it is able to play a more meaningful role in the economy of our province.

Honourable Speaker

South African National Women Network in Transport (SANWIT)  – women in transport

The glorious struggles to rid our society from all forms of oppression, exploitation and discrimination is equally one that is aimed at fighting sexism in all its forms and manifestations. The need to ensure that women also play a meaningful role in the reconstruction and development of our country is critical.

We wish to acknowledge and applaud our President, J Zuma for introducing a ministry that will focus on women. This new ministry will enhance the work we are  involved  with  of  ensuring  that  women  play  a  proportionate role  in  the transport industry and we will find ways and means to make sure that the South African National Women Network in Transport (SANWIT) is strengthened. Over  and above all, the department will be providing capacity building programme whose intention is to impart entrepreneurship skills in order to equip them to run businesses in particular transport-related. An amount of five hundred thousand has been put aide for this course.

Honourable Speaker,

Undoing  the apartheid legacy: extension of public transport services

We are working on the extension of public transport services to areas that were previously disadvantaged. In this endeavour, a process of integration of various modes of public transport is underway through the development and design of the Integrated Rapid Public Transport Networks (IRPTNs) in line with the Public Transport Strategy. The purpose of the networks will be to bring passengers to as close as at least 2km of access to public transport networks.

We are walking our talk in working towards the implementation of our public transport strategy that seeks to improve and integrate all modes of transport. It is in this regard that we are proud to report the completion of the designs and infrastructure costing of the seven inter-modal facilities. The construction of the two inter-modal facilities, namely Jane Furse and Northam will commence during this financial year at a cost of R107 million.
 
District municipalities are playing a major role in transport planning matters through their integrated transport plans.  We will prepare them to receive the additional responsibilities so that they can determine the needs and provide Operating Licenses and Permits for Public Transport in their respective areas in line with the National Land Transport Act of 2009.

Honourable Speaker

Aviation

Aviation in South Africa has an extremely important role to play in achieving sustainable growth and development for the industry and economy at large. The expansion of air services both domestically and internationally is a necessary condition for the development and growth in tourism, business focused traffic and trade enhancement.

It  is  precisely  for  this  reason  that  our  provincial  airport  is  receiving  urgent attention in terms of improving operational efficiency and effectiveness.  A Provincial Airlift Strategy will be developed. Our strategy as informed by national priorities will be developed on the basis of aviation policy directives and as a specific contribution to AsgiSA through:

• Greater alignment with the tourism growth strategy and industry
• Prioritisation of tourism and trade markets
• Un-blocking obstacles to growth and increasing African connectivity and access.
  

Honourable Speaker

2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup

We are conscious of the fact that the FIFA World Cup tournament is around the corner. We will continue to harness and enhance our partnership with Polokwane Municipality and other affected municipalities in implementation of 2010 FIFA World Cup, Public Transport Operational Plan.  In due cause, service providers will be appointed to assist with the implementation of the Transport Operational Plan during the 2010 FIFA World Cup games in Polokwane.

Honourable Speaker

Road safety

Still, to this very day, as we look at the fatality statistics, we see that the majority of the people dying on our roads are passengers in public transport vehicles or pedestrians. In South Africa, apartheid legacy continues to live while death remains discriminatory. So when we tackle the problem of road safety - and the deeper underlying problems of traffic management systems, economic opportunity and democratic participation in decision-making - we are tackling our history. We’ve done it before - and we can do it again.
 
What we must not, at all costs, do is run all the problems related to safety on our roads into one big stew, and either throw up our hands in despair or look for scapegoats and villains to compensate ourselves psychologically for our own failure to become part of the solution.

Honourable Speaker

Arrive Alive has taught us very important lessons about coordinating resources and efforts as rationally and effectively as possible across more than traffic authorities. It has helped us to align the enforcement actions of traffic officers, South African Police Service (SAPS) officers and South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel, and to use hard statistics to target enforcement actions on those stretches of road and those times of the day or week where we know most crashes take place.

These statistics have shown us, beyond any possibility of argument, what the key issues are that we need to concentrate on: speeding, drinking and driving, failure to wear seatbelts, overloading, vehicle and driver fitness, driver carelessness towards pedestrians and pedestrian carelessness in crossing and walking along our roads. Above all it has focussed us on the crucial role that speed plays in roughly 75% of all crashes and the pervasive - if not always so clearly visible - impact of alcohol and drugs in crashes involving both motor vehicles and pedestrians.
 
Honourable Speaker

Allow me to use this opportunity to pay tribute to one of our own. Last Saturday we laid to rest the mortal remains of Ms Mihloti Hetisani, the then Acting HOD of the Department of Local Government and Housing. This young and energetic epitome of our ideal civil servant lost her life in the line of duty. This accident that claimed a young life is just an indication of the incalculable loss we reel under owing to road accidents. Many other illustrious lives of people with rare skills get lost owing to road accidents and if anything, these accidents derail our development as a people. We  also  extend  our  deepest  condolences to  all families  that  have  lost  their  loved  ones  since  and  wish  to  express  our commitment to work relentlessly to ensure that road safety is never a fleeting illusion.

Arrive Alive has made us supremely aware of the necessity for high-visibility, 24 hour  targeted  enforcement,  backed  up  by  effective  alignment  of  the  traffic policing and criminal justice systems and the certainty of prosecution for every transgression. We have not yet reached where we want to be, but we are very clear about the road that has to be followed.

Honourable Speaker

As I address this house today, on Friday this week we will be releasing trainees from local municipalities, other provinces and from our own province amongst whom the department made it a point that we face poverty head-on by ensuring
 
that individuals without driving licences were recruited and trained as traffic officers while at the same time undergoing driving licence lessons.  This was made possible through an agreement that was entered into by the department and UMSOBOMVU through National Youth service. The college provided training to neighbouring countries such Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia and within the country for other provinces and local municipalities.

Honourable Speaker

In an endevour to address the problem raised by the community of Botlokwa about the increasing rate of accidents in that locality, we are glad to report that SANRAL will be commencing with the construction work of a traffic circle along N1 road in that area. Through this initiative we are certain that the rate of accidents in this area will be reduced drastically.

Honourable Speaker

Tackling  fraud and corruption and improving access to traffic services

Fraud and corruption in driver licensing is being attacked on all fronts. To date we can announce that we have had individuals facing criminal charges because of their involvement in these nefarious activities. Some are already doing their terms at correctional service centres.

I want to announce that the Mokopane, Moutse and Thohoyandou traffic stations will be completed in this financial year at the tune of R30 Million. Equally, land  has already been acquired for the construction of K53 driver licence testing centres at Aganang and Fetakgomo.

Honourable Speaker

Improving service delivery:  eNaTIS and revenue enhancement

Our efforts to enhance the co-ordination of our services with the view of enhancing revenue revealed that a modern integrated traffic information system was required to consolidate all road traffic management information and to improve service delivery through a centralised solution allowing for rapid deployment of new system functionality (software). A centralised system has the advantage of improved data integrity, eliminating synchronisation problems between distributed databases, simplifying data extraction, resulting in  lower costs in maintenance and cost effective implementation of new features, also allowing easier interface with other systems.

With the old system we could not implement online transactions through the Internet and ATM transactions, the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO), biometrics and smart card technology, handheld devices for law enforcement and new interfaces with financial institutions. The system includes as part of  the new functionality deployed a  centralised driving and learner license booking system, user friendly interface, easy method of payment, improved auditing and control.

Piloting of electronic NaTIS booking system was done in Tzaneen and Marble Hall. All testing stations were provided with new learner’s driver license test materials. Learner’s licence testing services were implemented at Maruleng centre. An agreement was also entered into with South African Post Office and eleven post offices have been registered to render services for the renewal of vehicle licences.

The implementation of this traffic management system and the expansion of services through the South African Post Office will enhance the collection and monitoring of revenue in the province. Possible extension of these services will be announced during the course of this financial year.

Honourable Speaker

Points demerit system

As the pilot phase of Road Traffic Infringement Agency takes shape we are confident of laying the foundation for an effective, efficient and streamlined fine processing and collection system that will take routine traffic offences out of our over-stretched court system, create “quick pay” incentives for prompt fine payment and nail fine evasion through the power the Act confers on the agency to attach defaulters’ property.
 
Consistent with our zero tolerance approach to traffic violations, the current situation where the overwhelming majority of persons receiving tickets and summonses for violations ignore them with impunity - will come to an end. The new system will ensure that once a traffic violation has been ticketed, such violation will be recorded against the vehicle licence concerned. When the owner concerned seeks to renew the vehicle licence for the new-year the renewal will be refused unless all fines and penalties accrued have been paid. Repeat offenders will also be punished by de-merit points, which will lead to confiscation of drivers licenses, or a financial penalty when re-licensing vehicles, and even vehicle confiscation.

Honourable Speaker

Improving driving  skills

During the presentation of our 2008/09 budget speech, we made a commitment to have 800 employees undergoing competency driving test. As we indicated then, this is aimed at reducing and ultimately circumventing the undesired costs of repairing government vehicles that get involved in accidents owing to the insufficient driving skills of government employees. We are proud to report that we were able to go beyond the set target in this regard. The rewards of this exercise are a motivation for our plan to take 1200 employees of government departments during this financial year.
 
Vote 8 budget for 2009/10

Honourable speaker, allow me  to  present to  this  honourable house, a  total budget of R2 989 565 000.00 for the financial year 2009/10. The details of this budget per programme and per economic classification appear as follows:

Budget for 2009/10

Honourable Speaker

I would like to drop the anchor of this budget speech as a way of signing off and taking to the trenches by way of re-affirming the words of the President of the Republic and the Premier of the Province, that, “duty calls”, and I am willing to mobilise the resources in this department for the renewed offensive against poverty.

As the adage of yore would have it, beyond the horizons, lies the secrets of a new beginning that the people of this province have been yearning for, for all the years. We do pledge with the sister departments in this provincial government to make development and the delivery of services a reality.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the Acting Head of Department her management team for burning the midnight oil to ensure that we deliver this budget vote in this manner. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to all stakeholders who support and extend their warm hands in ensuring that we deliver in our mandate. I look forward to a long lasting service delivery commitment.

I thank you

Source: Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport