Programme Director
The Deputy Minister of Transport, Ms Sindi Chikunga
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Transport
MECs of Transport
CEOs of Transport Entities
Government Officials
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
On this occasion of the launch of October Transport Month, I am honoured by the presence of many who have championed tirelessly to propel the transport infrastructure and system to where it is today.
In appreciating and thanking you all for your attendance I must say you have been working very hard in your respective areas of public transport, road and rail transport, aviation and maritime transport. When we began the October Transport Month Campaign in 2005, our transport system was seem lately to be in the periphery of our economy with a few notable exceptions of economic importance.
In fact there was insufficient appreciation of the role transport must play in our social and economic development. With traffic congestion challenges, the economic growth and the importance of mobility and accessibility in our country, the developments we have today have highlighted the need to unblock the bottlenecks due to unprecedented neglect in the infrastructure development of our transport system.
The successful hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup has provided a good reason for the international community to be interested in our transport system. This has also necessitated the increase of the number of tourists visiting our shores.
The theme for this year’s Transport Month is “Celebrating 20 years delivering efficient, reliable and safe transport services.” During Transport Month, the Department of Transport, provincial transport departments, State Owned Entities as well as the private sector and other stakeholders seek to highlight the advances we have made at the same taking stock and focusing on the transport challenges that are ahead of us.
We strongly view transport systems as vital to our way of life, connecting people with jobs, schools, shops, friends and family. However, the greatest challenges to reliable journeys remain congestion and accidents.
Congestion is depressing for motorists and has serious consequences for the economy and the environment although we have made a number of milestones in this regard in our transport system.
We are taking a number of essential interventions to tackle this challenge of congestion by focusing our efforts on the worst points of the problem – those being our urban roads motorways, public transport and air transport.
The completion of the Gautrain, the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project and launch of Business Express trains are some of the major interventions we have taken to ease congestion in Gauteng.
As we launch transport month today, we also meet a few months before the end of the second decade of democracy. This is another momentous occasion which will enable us to evaluate the progress we have made to implement the vision to make transport the heartbeat of the economy and social development.
Whilst we have achieved a lot in transport in many parts of the country, we are still concerned that there are still many South Africans outside the modern transport networks. They still depend on un-tarred roads and some have to walk long distances to access public transport.
The Transport portfolio is an integral part of the economic and social fabric of our country. Our programmes and interventions should seek to address ways to stimulate the economy and enable our people to leave comfortably.
We have to attain the following national goals in transport:
- Local economic development and regional integration
- Safety in all modes of transport
- Skills development
- Job creation and poverty eradication
- Redress apartheid spatial development
Ladies and gentlemen,
As we gear up to mark 20 years of democracy it is pertinent that we highlight some of our major achievements and milestones in the transport sector.
The ANC government cares about the huge impact that transport services have on the lives of our people as well as on our economic growth and development. Our ability to spearhead growth and development would therefore be partly measured by our success to provide a transport system consistent with the demands of our economy.
The department uses the October Transport Month Campaign to showcase achievements and milestones by its entities and provinces on transport infrastructure development and services.
The alignment between the National Transport Master Plan (NATMAP) and the National Development Plan (NDP) which sets out critical national policy goals to be achieved by 2030 will enable South Africa’s transport infrastructure development and services.
Sound economic infrastructure is a precondition for economic growth. It is for this reason that the Department of Transport has intensified efforts to develop and improve South Africa’s transport system to serve as a catalyst for social and economic development.
Focus over the next year will predominantly be on:
- maintaining road infrastructure;
- upgrading the rail infrastructure and services; and
- constructing and operating public transportation infrastructure
Through Transport and other infrastructure:
South Africa has achieved during the past 19 years a level of macro-economic stability not seen in the country for many years. Such advances created opportunities for real increases in expenditure on social services and reduced the costs and risks for investors, laying the foundation for increased investment and growth.
By 2007, the economy was stronger than at any given time over the past 18 years.
Across some of our cities, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay, Rustenburg and others, we are seeing investments in transport infrastructure, such as the Bus Rapid Transport system which is a catalyst for urban regeneration, reconnecting isolated nodes and bringing disconnected communities closer to economic opportunities.
In 2013/14 over R5 billion will be spent on 13 cities on planning, building and operating integrated public transport networks. Both Johannesburg and Cape Town have already constructed over 20 km of dedicated bus lanes on which services are operated, supported by over 100 km of complementary, feeder and distributor services.
Prior 1994 public transport was not an item on the government agenda yet the majority of South Africans were supposed to depend heavily on it. In the 2013/14 financial year both Cape Town and Johannesburg will expand operations on Phase 1 Rea Vaya and My CiTi services to carry up to 100 000 passenger trips a day on each system.
Minibus taxis are responsible for 65% of the 2,5 billion annual passenger trips in urban areas, as well as a high percentage of rural and intercity transport. Rea Vaya buses transport an average of over 40 000 people to and from work daily.
The buses give residents of Soweto and the southern parts of Johannesburg direct access to inner-city and surrounding areas. Both Johannesburg and Cape Town have already constructed over 20 km of dedicated bus lanes on which services are operated, supported by over 100 km of complementary, feeder and distributor services.
George municipality is a new entrant to the public transport network development enterprise. George will complete its full city-wide network at a more modest scale than the networks being constructed in the metropolitan areas.
Buffalo City, Ekurhuleni, Mangaung, Msunduzi and Polokwane will complete their public transport network development planning and service contract designs during the course of 2013/14 and will commence with network development in the 2014/15 financial year.
The Department of Transport has developed a comprehensive draft Green Paper on National Rail Policy. The draft Green Paper focuses on commuter and freight railway systems in the country. In-depth analyses of the factors that have resulted in the state of railways are explored in detail, as are challenges facing the rail sector.
Through the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa - rail plays an important role in the daily mobility needs of ordinary people. Most people in Gauteng and Metrorail trains carried about 30 000 people a day and about 256 million passengers a year.
In 2009/10 there were 25 000 to 30 000 train trips each month in Gauteng and an available train fleet of 2 296 coaches, of which 712 coaches, or 31 percent, were out of service. This is a remarkable achievement in South Africa’s passenger rail system.
Over the next 20 years, PRASA is implementing a bold plan to transform and modernise passenger railways in preparation for a modern, safe and reliable passenger service starting by 2015 through the New Rolling Stock Acquisition Programme. Prior 1994 we did not have trains running up and town between cities and residential areas. Today we have trains that cut across residential areas and cities making it easy for commuters to travel.
Over the past 5 years Prasa has invested over R40billion in passenger rail infrastructure and services in South Africa. This involved R23 billion in the Gautrain project and almost R13billion on rehabilitating Prasa coaches and signalling system. Prasa transported 476 million passengers in 2010/11 excluding passengers during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Since 2006/07 financial year, a total of 2013 commuter train coaches have been upgraded or overhauled, creating over 2000 jobs in the field of engineering as well as semi-skilled labour force.
During the 2009/10 531 coaches were upgraded or overhauled, with an investment of R2billion. Construction work on the R1.3-billion, 3.5 km new dual Bridge City rail link (BCRL), north of Durban has been completed. The new Bridge City station includes a bus and taxi interchange.
The new rail link is the largest rail infrastructure development project in the Durban area. The project was largely funded by Prasa, with some contributions by the City of Ethekwini and private developers. Bridge City is a new town centre 17 kilometres from the Durban city centre, bridging the communities of Phoenix and Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu (INK) and linking them into the urban system.
This visionary new town serves as the social and commercial centre to an area housing a population of over 800 000 people, who at present have generally poor access to facilities and social services. Bridge City is a catalyst for economic growth and the empowerment of surrounding communities by improving their access to public transport and opportunities to work, travel, shop and do business within the INK area, via a symbiotic relationship between the public and private sector.
In the area north-east of Tshwane there are large numbers of commuters travelling daily by bus over long distances with excessive travel times and at high cost to both government and the commuters. Between their homes in Mpumalanga and work destinations in Tshwane there is a corridor known as the Moloto Corridor.
Approximately 35 000 commuters are being transported in one direction in the morning by 536 buses and in the opposite direction in the evening along this corridor.
Exacerbating this situation is the lack of local economic development, with the concomitant lack of job opportunities along the corridor. Commuters spend long hours in transit, with some in extreme cases spending up to seven hours per day on buses. Road safety is also an issue along the corridor. This is considered to be an unsustainable situation. The department has conducted a feasibility study into options to mitigate the situation.
The project has been registered with Treasury as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project and the feasibility study is being carried out in terms of Treasury Regulation 16 and the PPP Manual. The project also forms part of Strategic Integrated Project 1 (SIP 1) of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee with the objective of unlocking the Northern Mineral Belt. The target date for the completion of the study is 10 March 2014.
The underinvestment in our road infrastructure compounded by the ageing factor of our road network has resulted in the degradation of our road network.
In the “Moving South Africa” study of 1997, we are warned that by 2020 our road network in poor condition would increase by 20%. This could be attributed to the limited implementation of effective road maintenance on our network. A further constraint was the limited budget allocation to implement road maintenance.
SANRAL manages and maintains 19 667km of national road network all of which is paved network. There are a number of projects that are identified by SANRAL’s pavement management system. As we implement our transport plans we have to be mindful of the following aspects under our different portfolios: We have more tarred roads than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa combined. They are worth over R1trillion (equal to the national budget for a year).
We need to spend R30bn a year on just maintaining roads, but at the moment can only spend R30bn on both maintenance and new construction. We are urgently looking for better ways of financing and maintaining roads.
Our economic growth depends on our ability to get goods. Hundreds of billions are being invested to expand and upgrade rail and harbours and airports
Without these investments, we will not be able to export much more than we currently do and will not meet our economic growth targets.
Government prioritises access of the majority of our citizens to the national road network. SANRAL spent a total of R1.8 billion on contracts with SMMEs, of which more than R1.2 billion went to black-owned firms for both toll and non-toll roads. SANRAL has a number of major projects nationally with majority being non-toll projects.
A key aspect of the integrated Road Safety Management Programme is increasing pedestrian safety. In planning and design, SANRAL makes provision for interventions such as traffic calming, safe stopping areas for public transport, and pedestrian bridges. We also engage communities adjacent to national roads to find solutions to pedestrian needs.
The Department of Transport is implementing the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety. The department is implementing the 365 Days Road Safety Programme.
The department is also implementing the National Rolling Enforcement Plan. We will be hosting the National Road Safety Summit in Johannesburg on the 4th and 5th of October to map up an improved way to address the road safety challenges in our country.
Rural transport development has become one of the main challenges in this country and it is important for all of us to focus on the improvement of mobility and access in rural areas.
The national travel survey has highlighted that a higher percentage of the population does not afford transport cost. These in turn affect their transport needs and limit access to social and economic services. This limitation alone perpetuates under-development and isolation from the mainstream public transport system.
In 2012/13 financial year, the Department of Transport finalised the draft National Scholar Transport Policy to guide the implementation of the scholar transport by provinces. The objective of the policy is to manage and oversee the implementation of an integrated learner transport service.
Furthermore the policy provides the framework that facilitate safe and secure transport environment for learners through co-operation of stakeholders and law enforcement authorities.
Distinguished guests;
The National Development Plan acknowledges that the Gauteng-Durban- Free State corridor is vital to the future of the national economy, and should be designated as a national competitiveness corridor. It accounts for about 46 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
The Department of Transport’s 2050 Vision for the Durban-Gauteng freight corridor should be integrated as part of the anticipated transnational Durban-Dar es Salaam corridor.
According to the NDP, by 2030, the Durban-Gauteng-Free State logistics corridor should be a model for how to strengthen and optimise freight corridors. As the corridor that handles most of the country's high-value freight, it is the first priority.
It is also the most strategic corridor to achieve a shift of freight from road to rail by overcoming rail's main drawback - lack of intermodal flexibility by improving the performance of terminals on either end.
It could demonstrate that the institutional model needed for corridor improvement rests with aligning the interests of cities with authorities across all tiers of government, as well as the transport operators that connect the intervening space.
SAMSA and the Department of Transport have been working on mobilising the maritime sector, organising its industries and drawing the attention towards what the sector can contribute to the achievement of government’s social and economic goals.
In the process, SAMSA has successfully pulled elements of the sector and created a cohesive sense of the boundaries and drivers of the country’s performance, with regional and international positioning options.
Amongst other achievements SAMSA worked towards the development of the 2050 African Integrated Maritime Strategy, which was adopted on the 6th of December 2012 at the AU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
SAMSA successfully assisted in the implementation and execution of the West Indian Ocean Marine Highway (WIOMH) Project.
It also achieved the following:
- Seventy-six persons saved and 15 evacuated through our search & rescue efforts
- Successfully managed two major vessel casualties that of Eihatsu Maru and Panos Earth, which could have caused a major disaster along the South African Coastline.
- SAMSA in partnership with the DoT hosted the Diplomatic Conference on behalf of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in Cape Town which led to the successful adoption of an Agreement on the Implementation of the Torremolinos Protocol of 1993 relating to the 1977 Torremolinos International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels.
- SAMSA won the Africa Maritime Agency of the Year (2012) based on his contribution in Maritime Skills Development Programmes. and Shipping
- SAMSA through its Cadetship Programme has created about 460 jobs opportunities since 2010.
- SAMSA received unqualified audit for the 2012 financial year and has consistently done so for the past five years.
The DoT is finalising the Maritime Transport Policy and fast track through Parliament key legislation and Regulation with the view to reform the sector and create an effective regulatory environment.
The focus is on increasing the number of qualified South African seafarers and ensuring that they are absorbed into employment, particularly the youth. During 2013-2014 we will be placing a concerted focus on the area of maritime education network development with a particular focus on expanding the network of Maritime High Schools offering maritime subjects in all provinces.
The DoT needs to increase the number of Cadets Officers through our Cadetship Programme on the SA Agulhas from this year's 109 to 200.
SAMSA will send 20 South Africans this September, 2013 to study Master’s Degree courses and 2 Doctorates in Maritime Affairs at the World Maritime University in Sweden.
Civil Aviation, in particular air transport, is one of the world’s most important service industries. It serves as a major catalyst for global economic activities and it is vital to trade and tourism.
South Africa’s airport network consists of 135 licences airports, 19 military airports and up to 1300 unlicensed aerodromes. ACSA is responsible for processing approximately 93-95% of all passengers departing on commercial airlines from airports within South Africa.
OR Tambo International Airport serves as the main international air gateway into South Africa and the SADC Region. The airport processes almost 19 million passengers and over 200 000 air traffic movements per annum and it also facilitates over 300 000 metric tonnes of cargo per annum. O.R. Tambo International Airport is projected to handle 30 million passengers and 360 000 air traffic movements by 2024 on current assumptions.
South Africa is presently one of the 36 Council Members at ICAO Council, serving under Part II. As a country we have taken a decision to stand for re-election to the ICAO Council which will take place later this year.
As part of this drive the Department of Transport will be beefing up our own capacity by sending some of our key officials to our offices in Montreal, Canada in order to assist with the lobbying process.
South Africa is committed to regional aviation safety, security and environment issues. Through the SADC and AFCAC mechanism we will continue to work tirelessly to prevent an EU blacklist of African States and a unilateral imposition of the EU-ETS.
In conclusion I must say that provinces and entities have activities that are marked for the whole duration of the transport month. I want to encourage all the stakeholders to join hands with us in highlighting our transport achievements and challenges so that moving forward we know exactly which areas to focus on.
Ladies and gentlemen, transport is the most powerful tool with which we can use to change the economy. Our commitment to this industry will be South Africa’s and Africa’s development. Thank you once more for participating on our transport launch programme of 2013.
I thank you.
