delivered by Gauteng MEC for Public Transport, Roads and Works, Ignatius
Jacobs
29 October 2007
Friends
Colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen
Transport Month is drawing to a close, and once again, we would like to
thank the residents of our province for the passion with which they have
participated in this all important campaign for better public transport, in
particular, and transport in general. The High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane
Piloting also enabled all of us to work together in finding sustainable
mobility solutions for our communities and the economy of our province. And on
Car Free Day, we all spoke about the need to make our cities more accessible by
sharing the ride in our cars, reducing congestion and pollution, and also
ensuring a reclaim of public open space by pedestrians and communities.
Transport is the economic heartbeat of our country's socio-economic growth
and development. As government, we are committed to ensuring the use of our
roads to support socio-economic activities through efficient mobility of
people, goods and services. In the same vein, we also seek to ensure increased
access to places of economic activity, trade and opportunities by providing
adequate infrastructure that will meet the needs of our economy.
Investment in transport infrastructure is an investment in the well-being of
the socio-economic lifeblood of our communities, providing a means by which to
link multiples of local economies by uniting them into a single socio-economic
movement for a better life for all. Our roads infrastructure must enable our
province and its municipalities to act as a seamless source of access to
essential government services, as much as it also needs to increasingly enable
such services to turn Gauteng province into a Globally Competitive City
Region.
Public transport is the future, and, in a rapidly urbanising province such
as ours, where there is a need for efficient land use, it is the most
sustainable mode of transportation for the residents of our province.
Gauteng Provincial Government is currently building at least five new major
hospitals in various communities across the province. And, in three years'
time, the 2010 Fifa World Cup beckons us with many challenges for the
transportation of hundreds of thousands of soccer lovers and tourists from all
the corners of the world, relying heavily on the capacity of our transport
infrastructure to enable efficient mobility.
Resulting from progressive growth in our economy and the birth of a
democratic dispensation, there is a continuous birth and growth of new
communities in our province. There is also a need for established communities
to exchange their strengths with emerging communities, in terms of advances in
areas of socio-economic development.
The need for more jobs remains the single biggest challenge facing our
country. Therefore, government investment in transport infrastructure is aimed
at helping to address the twin challenges of reducing unemployment and poverty,
and, at the same time, continuing to unlock the economic potential of economic
nodes across the province. The economy of our country continues to grow
rapidly, calling on us to help maximise economic opportunities, by providing
adequate infrastructure that would match the needs of our economy. The rate of
growth of foreign direct investment requires of us to continue investing
strongly on infrastructure. In this regard, all there spheres of government
will be investing more than R9 billion in transport infrastructure over the
next three to four years.
The Gautrain Rapid Rail link is currently being implemented in line with the
objectives of developing an effective, efficient and integrated public
transport system for our province, and our country. The Gauteng Freeway
Improvement Scheme is also being vigorously implemented across the province,
with the view to also provide an infrastructure legacy as a direct result of
the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Today, we meet to once again unveil a programme to unlock the socio-economic
node of an important part of our Gauteng province, where the South West of the
City of Joburg meets the East of the Mogale City. The Sod Turning of the K15
Roadway Upgrade, on whose side we are standing today, represents government's
commitment to the delivery of adequate infrastructure to meet attendant
challenges. The road also serves as a North South socio-economic link. It is
strategic in providing more access to places of trade, entertainment and public
service.
This eleven kilometre gateway, is being upgraded at a cost of R200 million,
from a single carriageway to dual carriage status. This will complement work
that was done on the earlier part of the K15, in the year 1999, thus, turning
this into a fully-fledged and user friendly dual carriageway with adequate road
signage and traffic signalling. It is also a collector distributor for
communities such as Protea Glen, Doornkop, Vlakfontein and Kagiso providing a
link to important sites such as Maropeng, a marvel of work of the Gauteng
Provincial Government and her partners, and similar tourist destinations in the
North West province.
The inclusion of shelters for commuters, as well as bays for taxis and
buses, along the forthcoming upgrade, is line with the government bias towards
the promotion of public transport as well as the promotion of the practice of
high occupancy on our roads, in order to ensure efficient use of road space.
This will also be accompanied by more than 13,8 kilometres of sidewalks. We are
also implementing a strategic street lighting programme as part of the upgrade,
as well as the installation of traffic signals in order to significantly
enhance the safety of communities.
The project will result in the creation of jobs for local people as well
fully accredited training and development programmes for women, youth and
people with disabilities. The K15 upgrade will see to a 40% Broad-Based Black
Economic Empowerment Employee (BBEEE) content of works, focusing on small
medium and micro enterprises. This consists of an emerging contractor
development component that is made up of ten small contractors. And, in order
to maximise job creation opportunities for local people, the prescribed labour
content will be in the region of 26%, amounting to about 120 000 person / days
of workmanship. Of this amount, 20 000 workdays will consist of women, 10 000
workdays for youth and 3 000 workdays for people with disabilities. This also
comes with Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) Accredited
Training, and the project also consists of 50 learnerships.
The upgrade will be undertaken in two phases, starting two months apart,
lasting for a period of 21 months until mid 2009.
One of our strategic objectives regarding this project is to ensure the
building of safe and sustainable communities. The upgrade of this particular
road gives concrete meaning to a sustained effort to ensure that this is
realised.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works, Gauteng
Provincial Government
29 October 2007
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.gautengonline.gov.za)
