Speech delivered at the opening of the I-Transport & UATP Go Green – Go Smart Conference on the future of public transport on 19 June 2018
On behalf of the Premier of the Gauteng Province, Mr David Makhura, the Department of Roads and Transport and Gauteng as the Host Province, we welcome you to the i-Transport & UATP Go Green – Go Smart Conference on the Future of Public Transport.
We welcome all the transport professionals from so many different countries who have gathered here to present new and innovative ideas to solve our multiple and in many ways common transport challenges. A very special and warm welcome to a dear friend, Mr Mohamed Mezghani, Secretary-General of the UITP, for gracing this event and agreeing to be the keynote speaker today. I am terribly sorry that Tunisia lost at the very last minute in the World Cup soccer fixture against England last night.
Gauteng is proud to be the Host Province for the Go Green – Go Smart Transport Conference and Exhibition because we believe that this strategic conversation is paving the way for policy innovation and industry mobilisation on how we look at the future of transport.
The Gauteng Provincial Government and our Department are making significant investments to transform, modernise, and re-industrialise the Gauteng economy and place Gauteng onto a growth trajectory. A key aspect of our work is to introduce technological innovation in the way that public services are being rendered to citizens. As the smallest province in South Africa, Gauteng accounts for only 1.5 percent of the land area but is responsible for a third of South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP), 10 percent of the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa and 7 percent of total African GDP.
We have a population of more than 13 million, which is highly urbanized. Our Province contains the metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, several district and local municipalities. We characterise our province as the Gauteng City-Region to reflect the high level of inter-connectedness and inter-dependence across metropolitan and municipal boundaries.
As a vibrant economic hub we also generate significant volume of traffic across all modes. Inevitably we have notable congestion and pollution. Hence, we are making a concerted effort to make transport work better for all and we see this as an absolute priority for the provincial government. This includes providing much improved public transport and supporting systems whilst reducing the transport sector’s carbon footprint.
Transport lies at the heart of our daily lives. Our people commute to and from places of work and leisure, to do their shopping, to visit places of education and health care or to visit friends and family. Gauteng is at work in putting various building blocks in place to make Gauteng a Connected Province.
We note that Smart Transport solutions are key drivers to make transport work better for all. Key deliverables include reducing congestion, significantly improving public transport systems and operations and reducing the carbon footprint. To this end, the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport and Municipalities have launched a number of key initiatives, including:
- Investment in our roads and transport infrastructure;
- Consultations with institutional stakeholders towards the establishment of the Gauteng Transport Authority;
- Conducted feasibility studies to significantly expand the reach of the Gautrain;
- Building integrated bus rapid transit systems in the metropolitan municipalities;
- Made excellent progress towards “One Province One Ticket” to achieve payment interoperability between the IRPTRN and Gautrain; and
- Launched the Go Gauteng Transport App to promote door-to-door trip planning; and
- Introducing innovations at our licensing centres to render them more efficient .
The strategies to achieve smart mobility require on-going co-operation across boundaries, and escaping from self-inflicted institutional silos and data fragmentation. We therefore applaud the co-operation between the Intelligent Transport Society - South Africa and the UATP in hosting this knowledge sharing platform. We share many of our transport challenges with colleagues across the globe and we especially welcome the knowledge-sharing across national and international boundaries that this event is enabling.
We look forward to your deliberations on finding intermodal and integrated transport solutions and promoting sustainable and environmentally sensitive transport options. On behalf of the co-hosts of this flagship event – ITS South Africa, the UATP, ITS Africa and the Mobility Forum for Africa – we welcome you to the Gauteng City- Region, and wish you well on your deliberations.
