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Date : 29/04/2005
Source: Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Government
Title: Cele: KwaZulu-Natal Transport and Community Safety and Liaison Prov Budget Vote


KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport Budget Speech by MEC BH Cele at KwaZulu-Natal Legislature

Mr Speaker
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Members of the Transport Portfolio Committee
Distinguished Guests
Members of the Media
Fellow Citizens
All Protocol

Introduction

“For us this is not a job but a cause” (Gerry Harmmel). Likewise, at Transport we do not have workers but revolutionaries. Allow me then to present my cause Mr Speaker.

As I address this House today into the second decade of our democracy and my second year as the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, I look forward to the future with great optimism for our Province. I am confident that with every milestone we achieve the injustices of our past will indeed be corrected. The government’s contract with the people of this country is beginning to yield fruit, and it is my endeavour to see to it that a bulk of the harvest goes to the weakest of our province. Surely, we are still at the threshold of a brighter day that our forefathers foretold.

However, Mr Speaker I must point out that it would be an injustice for me to stand here and speak of hope for a brighter future while the vast majority of our people in this province are still living in poverty and total exclusion from the rest of us. This eminent exclusion of our people reduces them to second class citizens in a country that belongs to them. The Freedom Charter, upon which our Constitution is based, expresses unequivocally that:

* South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people; that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality;
* that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities; that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief;
* and therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and brothers adopt this Freedom Charter;
* and we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.

The current picture however depicts images that are contrary to this ideal; it suggests that South Africa belongs to the First Economy, which is mobile with full access to the means of production and full participation in the active economy, on the other hand the Second Economy remains frozen in time and locked up in perpetual poverty, underdevelopment, exploitation and immobility.

Having visited various parts of this Province both urban and rural as the MEC, I can submit before this House that there still lies a challenge, a huge challenge before us. Central to that challenge is the implementation of policies, legislation and ideals contained in our Constitution and the Freedom Charter. Implementation of all these ideals suffers, Mr Speaker, when the budget for the department is inadequate to meet the mobility needs of the KwaZulu-Natal public within reasonable time frames. The department is grossly underfunded when we consider the roads and transportation needs of the communities of KwaZulu-Natal.

This calls upon us to intensify programmes that are aimed towards uplifting the second economy. The presence of the dual economy is a stark reality not only in this Province but in South Africa as a whole. As the MEC for Transport I am constantly reminded of this challenge as I witness how societies become stagnant due to the unavailability of basic services some of which are access roads and bridges in localities. Images of particularly children and women who risk their lives on a daily bases crossing swollen rivers to get to school and their respective destinations continuously haunts us. History will judge us if we let this continue.

Defending the Weak

Mr Speaker Sir, I am privileged to be tasked with a mandate of ensuring that within the budget allocated to the Transport Portfolio, I sustain the ideals of “Defending the Weak”. Who are the weak in this Transport Portfolio?

* It is that child or teacher who cannot go to school today because the river is flooded and there is no pedestrian bridge
* The weak is that child, expecting woman, ailing man or woman who is dying because she/he could not reach the clinic or hospital as there are no access roads to such places
* The weak is that woman or man who cannot farm the land available because there are no access roads to that land
* The weak is that child, woman or man who is illiterate and therefore cannot access government services because the services are far removed from their communities
* The weak is that child, woman or man who is killed in taxi violence of rivalry between taxi associations
* It is that child, woman or man who is killed on the road because the driver was drunk, moving at a high speed, did not obey the rules of the road
* The weak is that child, woman or man who is killed on the road because the driver had no drivers licence or permit to carry passengers
* The weak is that child, woman or man who is killed on the road because the vehicle driven was unroadworthy or overloaded
* The weak is that woman who cannot hold a senior position for she is judged and discriminated against
* The weak is that man or woman who cannot compete fairly in the market for tenders, and jobs for his or her company has no track record to speak for itself as she/he is still finding her feet on the market
* The weak are the elderly who have to travel on foot, carried on wheel barrows and wagons to reach pension payout points
* The weak are communities in the rural areas who do not have access roads to link with each other for social cohesion and mobility.

The list is endless Mr Speaker. The point I am making therefore is that within our portfolios it is imperative that we generate urgent appropriate responses to address the challenges alluded above. Within the Transport Portfolio, it is evident that access, mobility, safety, affordability and prosperity are a requirement that must be fulfilled for every individual, every community of this Province if indeed we are serious about improving the quality of lives of our people thereby realising our vision “Prosperity through Mobility”.

Access

The department is committed in providing access to all communities of KwaZulu-Natal within its limited budget. In an attempt to do this, more emphasis would be put on pedestrian bridges. The demand for these is very high particularly in rural areas, where one witnesses the plight of teachers and pupils. Education to these children ceases to be a basic right and becomes a privilege enjoyed only by those who have access to schools.

I would like to bring to your attention that increasingly communities are requesting my department for pedestrian bridges. To date the total cost of community requested pedestrian bridges amounts to R205,750 million. Many of these requests relate specifically to community concerns for pedestrian safety.

Provincial Public Transport Bill

I am pleased to inform this House that the KwaZulu-Natal Transport Bill was submitted to the Legislature for deliberations and thereof enactment into law. The Bill is now before the Portfolio Committee on Transport. Public hearings will be held on the Bill very soon. Our appeal as the department is that the law making process on the Bill be expedited since this is an enabling legislation in many respects on transport matters.

Taxi Recapitalisation Programme

Allow me to inform this House on the progress made regarding the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme. This programme is on track. Vehicle specifications have been gazetted and will be adopted at the end of April 2005. This will then enable manufactures to design vehicles which meet these specifications.

As a province we are gearing ourselves for the implementation of the programme through a Taxi Recapitalisation Plan, which will be completed by June this year.

Scholar Transport

Mr Speaker Sir, let me indicate to this House that we find ourselves presiding over scholar transport matters time and again as we address the issues of bakkies carrying children to and from school. It should be noted by this House that this is not a competence of my department. In an attempt to address this matter bilaterals were held between the executing authorities of the departments of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison and Education. The outcome of these bilaterals was the formation of a committee inclusive of members of these departments. This committee is tasked with addressing matters that cut across these departments. We are confident that this matter will finally be dealt with in a befitting manner.

Economic Empowerment

Whilst government is committed to growth and development of emerging contractors, it would be deemed inappropriate to continuously retain the same consultants within a department for a period exceeding a three year cycle. Trends would suggest that within this time frame most businesses would have grown, thus able to compete in an open market. Government is about creating an enabling environment for all to acquire expertise, skills, experience and not to make millionaires out of specific individuals to the exclusion of the rest.

I would like to make a few remarks on what my department is doing to promote black economic empowerment, job creation, gender equity, integrated and sustainable rural development. I would also like to draw your attention to some proposed initiatives that resonate with the vision and message delivered by our Honourable Premier in his State of the Province address.

I am not going to dwell on the virtues of our acclaimed Zibambele, Vukuzakhe, ARRUP, Asiphephe and other programmes that are already well known to you. I must add, Mr Speaker, that the successful implementation of our Road to Wealth and Job Creation Initiative – especially our Zibambele and Vukuzakhe programmes - has stimulated even greater public demand for roads. Indeed our African Renaissance Road Upgrading Programme (ARRUP) has created a new awareness within rural KwaZulu-Natal of how upgrading of major transport corridors from gravel to blacktop can kick start stagnant economies and create new opportunities on an unprecedented scale. Regrettably, a quality black top road costs some R3 million per kilometre and extending our black top network for the benefit of all is not yet feasible.

The following are just a few of the recent developments within my department:

* A “rights” audit has been completed of all Zibambele households, in the Durban and Pietermaritzburg regions, to ascertain the extent of their legitimate access to social grants. These findings will be used to access Zibambele households to the Department of Social Services and Population Development in an orderly and cost efficient way. A rights audit will be extended to the remainder of KwaZulu-Natal in the near future
* All Zibambele contractors have been organised into savings clubs. A systematic programme to access savings clubs to other Departments pro-poor support programmes
* The KwaZulu-Natal department of Transport is once again a leading Province on its Zibambele programme. It is pleasing to report to the House that the National Department of Transport has vowed to take this programme an extra mile. Minister Jeff Radebe together with the new Director-General of Transport, Ms Mpume Mpofu, has committed all departments of Transport in the country to incorporate the Zibambele programme in their portfolios
* We have identified the land, agriculture, water and other development potentials that exist around our road construction programmes e.g. ARRUP as well as Roads for Rural Development Programmes. Thus, for example, in our Nongoma Project comprising the upgrading of main roads 235, 49 and 52, the following initiatives have already been implemented or are planned under our ARRUP and Roads for Rural Development Programmes approach to integrated and sustainable rural development
* The small rural town of Hlabisa has been made safer with new sidewalks, paved areas and public transport facilities.

The introduction of “development corridors” has only been achieved through the co-operation of provincial and local government within the community at large. Increasingly ARRUP “development corridors” are resulting in a wide range of government departments co-operating in planning and pooling their resources in the best interest of beneficiary communities. Corridor development promotes a more integrated response to the multi-dimensional and complex nature of poverty.

Expanded Public Works Programme

Mr Speaker

The Cabinet of KwaZulu-Natal led by our Premier entrusted the co-ordination of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to my department. I would like to thank this House for their confidence and wish to assure you that I will embrace this additional challenge and the department will indeed give this programme the attention it deserves.

It is well established that the high rate of unemployment in South Africa is a structural condition. It is thus not a transitional phenomenon and we will not impact on it unless we adopt policies and programmes that consciously and actively build our Second Economy. We must therefore develop our EPWP in such a way that the creation of short term employment and skills training opportunities stimulate both formal and informal income generating opportunities. These must necessarily be created on a scale where the number of new jobs and income opportunities created exceeds the number of new market entrants.

A recent report by a leading South African economist calculated that if South Africa was to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the unemployment rate by 2014 then 3,7 million jobs would have to be created.

I think that we can all agree that this is, indeed, a very sobering statistic. It is particularly challenging for the political leaders and captains of industry in KwaZulu-Natal particularly since KwaZulu-Natal is the most populous province in South Africa.

Clearly the co-ordination of the EPWP must succeed in creating new jobs, stimulating the small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) sector and generating new opportunities for self employment through the expansion of community livelihood opportunities. The KwaZulu-Natal People’s Budget, as presented by my honourable colleague, Dr Zweli Mkhize, must now be used to consciously and actively build our second economy.

In co-ordinating the EPWP we will encourage the notion that public facilities such as new hospitals, clinics, schools, libraries, multi-purpose community centres, agricultural land, police stations, new rural housing settlements, etc. be established within our planned road infrastructure for easy access. This will create new supply side opportunities within rural communities such as the manufacture of bricks, windows, doors, roofing, glazing, plumbing, fencing, etc.

Izimbizo

Mr Speaker, it is my pleasure to inform this House that, in line with our Constitution which advocates participatory democracy, we shall continue with Izimbizo. The purpose of Izimbizo is to allow the community to interact directly with government thus bringing government closer to the people. Government is given a human face through Izimbizo since communities realise that their elected representatives care enough to speak to, listen to, as well as interact with them.

Izimbizo are also a means for feedback mechanisms. Service delivery is evaluated through these among other strategies. Feedback assists government to better prioritise and make informed decisions on how and where the bulk of its financial, infrastructural/capital, human resources are to be invested.

Synergy

It is my pleasure Mr Speaker Sir, to announce to this House that the convergence of the Department of Transport and that of Community Safety and Liaison under one political head has maximised the utilisation of resources of not only traffic offences, but also crime offences. Policing at the ports will now be conducted by the South African Police Service (SAPS). This would be complemented by the proposed development of a vehicle test station also at the ports. Evidently, this strategic positioning of all these law enforcement agencies at ports will no doubt crack down on crimes that continuously go undetected at our ports.

The merging of both departments has clearly brought about efficiencies in policing and traffic control. Joint Operations of the Road Traffic Inspectorate, Operation Shanela and the SAPS have yielded good results. This has resulted in a slogan that says, “Catching crime on the highway”. I can safely say with confidence that it is this synergy that puts KwaZulu-Natal as the best policed Province in South Africa in 2004 scoring a B symbol whilst the rest of the Provinces scored a C symbol.

Allow me Mr Speaker to present Budget Vote 12 (R2,198 billion) on a programme by programme basis.

Programme 1: Administration (R95 691 million)

The development goal of administration is to provide proactive support services that increase the efficiency of the Department and the Office of the MEC and provide the public with a user friendly service which is consultative and free of corruption and fraud.

The key challenges that Administration faces this year are to:

* Develop a human resource and skills development strategy, which aligns the demand and supply factors in the fields of transport, construction, civil engineering, road traffic management and community road safety
* Accelerate the recruitment and promotion of women, particularly black women, into middle and senior management positions
* Create learnership opportunities, within the Department and its business partners, which are consistent with the goals and undertakings of the Growth and Development Summit
* Align the Department’s support programmes for workers living with HIV/AIDS to those of the Department of Health
* Complete the full scale data migration from NaTIS (paper-based) to e-NaTIS (electronic). NaTIS is a national road traffic information system that administers driver and vehicle registration and de-registration
* Manage the provision of fleet management services to government, to ensure that they comply with the Department’s black economic empowerment (BEE) procurement targets and to stamp out the private use of government vehicles
* KwaZulu-Natal T2 to host the 2005 Africa T2 conference.

While commendable progress has been made towards meeting some of these challenges, more urgent attention must be focussed on human resource and skills development issues.

Programme 2: Road Infrastructure (R1,656 billion)

Our mandated development goal is to construct and maintain a balanced road network that meets the mobility needs of all KwaZulu-Natal’s citizens and which supports our national and provincial growth and development objectives. Essentially this means that:

* We must plan for the cost efficient and cost effective movement of people and freight which utilise our provincial road network and link into the national transport corridors
* We must direct attention specifically to those road infrastructure developments that will stimulate the growth and development of our second economy and promote greater integration of the province through the provision of transport infrastructure and transport related services
* We must contribute to the provincial and national priority of maximising job creation, promoting BEE and contribute towards poverty alleviation
* We must put more effort towards providing rural access to those who were previously denied such opportunities.

Mr Speaker, my department would soon make announcements on major projects like the John Ross Highway. Honourable members are probably all aware that this road is now a provincial competence, as such we shall strive to ensure that this road poses no safety threat to our road users.

Allow me now to deal with the budget allocations for Road Infrastructure. This budget accounts for 75,3% of the Department’s budget. The budget attempts to strike a balance between the need to maintain existing infrastructure and the need to develop new strategic corridors and a need to provide communities with access roads. The budget allocated towards maintenance is R677,714 million while the budget allocated towards construction is R823,598 million. The construction budget includes R187 million for the Cabinet Projects namely upgrading of P700 and P577

As noted, despite significant budget increases over the MTEF period, the budget allocated to Road Infrastructure is inadequate to meet the road network and mobility needs of all our citizens. This was well illustrated during the 2004 elections when 444 kilometres of access roads had to be upgraded to enable voters to reach polling stations.

The key challenges that Road Infrastructure faces this year are to:

* Integrate road network and transport systems planning across spheres of government and modes of transport
* Repair of recent flood damage roads and bridges to the amount of R256,674 million, which might compromise other road maintenance programmes unless an additional budget is allocated
* Bring focussed inter-governmental attention through the EPWP to realising the vision and objectives of creating other transport “corridors”
* Finalise the introduction of a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative to provide for the plant and plant management needs of emerging contractors and of the Department
* To normalise and democratise the construction industry in the Province
* Progressively increase the already achieved EPWP target of 30% of budgets allocated to labour to 40%
* Extend the Zibambele road maintenance contract system beyond the lengthman system to ensure that a target of 40 000 contracts is achieved by 2009
* Facilitate the development of Zibambele savings clubs as an integral component of the province’s agrarian revolution and in the establishment of a rural co-operative movement
* To create access to community facilities like clinics, schools, police stations, heritage sites and areas of high agricultural potential
* Extend the experiential training opportunities provided to S3 engineering students from the achieved target of 43 to 60
* Complete the current 14 labour intensive pilot projects for the construction of roads.

Programme 3: Public Transport (R34,103 million) PLUS Agency Agreement National Transport Subsidy R475 million.

Our mandated development goal is to regulate public transport and to ensure public access to safe, efficient, regulated and affordable modes of transport.

In South Africa currently more than 60% of all commuter traffic is carried by the minibus taxi industry, which increasingly operates with an aging fleet and is not subsidised. The balance of commuters are carried by subsidised rail and a bus system whose subsidised routes are often still aligned with the needs of industry rather than with the needs of commuters, particularly poor commuters.

Developments in Public Transport

Three municipalities in the Province have completed their Public Transport Plans in full co-operation with the Department. The rest of the municipalities will complete theirs by the end of December 2005. This will position us as the leading Department in Transport planning in South Africa.

Such a development will enable us to re-align taxi and bus routes accordingly and ensure that licences from the Board are driven by commuter needs rather than operators. We will now focus on intensive corridor design in selected areas and modes. The following corridors have been identified for intensive design by the Province.

* Edendale Corridor (Pietermaritzburg): A route design of the corridor has been initiated, which will be completed by the end of December 2005. This corridor is important to support the city as the capital of the Province. An efficient and affordable public transport system is crucial for the smooth running of the city.

* Taxi Recapitalisation Corridors: Three “pilot” corridors have been identified for the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme in the Province. The identified corridors are Inanda Ntuzuma KwaMashu (INK) Corridor, Ladysmith and Nongoma. A detailed route management model will be developed to implement the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme. These designs will also be completed in December 2005.

* 2010 Corridors-Intercity: Corridors have been identified which will exploit the opportunities associated with the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The corridors identified are the following: Pietermaritzburg – Durban; Ladysmith – Durban; Empangeni – Durban; and Port Shepstone – Durban.

The design of such corridors will be completed by the end of December 2005.

Taxi Elections

We are again going to be conducting elections for the taxi industry at all levels. In May and June 2005 we will have elections for the 253 local taxi associations. These will be followed by the election of the Regional Taxi Councils in July 2005. Subsequent to that will be elections for the KwaZulu-Natal Taxi Council in August. By this time new constitutions for taxi structures would have been adopted.

Rail Branch Line Revitalisation

Provincial rail branch lines have been characterised by gross underutilisation. Some branch lines have been closed all together for business. This has had a negative impact on the provincial road network as heavy vehicles have increased on our roads and this has resulted in massive road network damage. This then led to a need to revive the rail line.

The Nkwalini to Empangeni Rail Branch line was selected as the pilot project for this revival exercise. The national Department of Transport has made R10 million available for initial rehabilitation of the infrastructure.

After the Nkwalini Project has been completed the department would move to the line between Port Shepstone and Harding; Pietermaritzburg to Kranskorp and Pietermaritzburg to Kokstad/Matatiele line.

Programme 4: Traffic Management and Road Safety (R361,512 million)

Our mandated development goal is to create a safe road environment through the annual reduction of road crashes. The main services rendered by this programme include:

* road traffic enforcement
* community participation
* road safety education
* re-engineering of hazardous locations.

Mr Speaker

On 13 December 2004 the Department of Transport launched the new slogan that is “From Zero Tolerance to 100% Compliance”. This is an extension of the original slogan “Zero Tolerance KwaZulu-Natal”. The intent of the new slogan is to ensure that when the rules of the road are not obeyed, our law enforcement agencies act decisively. It is a slogan that says as government we have the capacity to enforce our laws.

The slogan “From Zero Tolerance to 100% compliance” is relevant because for more than a decade we have championed the view that, for the most part, road collisions are due to human error and could have been avoided. It is thus befitting that government ensures that all road users comply fully with the law as they use our roads. Our roads cannot be reduced to playing fields for non complying individuals.

Statistics indicate that pedestrians account for the largest number of road deaths. Furthermore pedestrians are eight times more likely to be killed by cars travelling at 50 kilometres per hour than at 30 kilometres per hour. It is on this very basis that more focus would be on conducting operations on pedestrian campaigns. There would be a strong emphasis on school road safety programmes in the entire Province. Such campaigns would further extend to the broader communities.

The new thinking in road safety suggests that government involvement in promoting road safety should go beyond traffic regulation and enforcement and adopt a people centred approach that deals with accident prevention and post accident support in a holistic manner. It is thus becoming increasingly clear that traffic management and road safety in South Africa must adopt new strategies that resonate with people centred development principles to meet the challenges of our growing and changing economy. This will require a fundamental shift from awareness campaigns towards a growing emphasis on community participation in planning, facilitating and implementing road safety.

Programme 5: Community-Based Programmes (R50,414 million)

Community-Based Programme is a recent budget line that has been specifically created to encourage innovative development strategies that specifically target vulnerable sectors of our society through the introduction of pilot programmes that, if successful, can be allocated budgets to go to scale. It is generally acknowledged that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport has an enviable record of innovative development thinking and programming. The sectors that have been identified for support through this budget include new poverty alleviation projects, women empowerment, youth and learnerships.

This year we have divided the Community-Based Programme budget under two broad umbrellas. R32,311 million has been allocated to the development of Pilot Programmes while R18,103 million has been allocated to Economic Empowerment and Training.

Conclusion

The fundamental objective of my department is to promote the sustainable, safe, cost efficient and cost effective movement of people and goods throughout our province and to ensure that our transport system responds to the different needs of our first and second economies.

To this end, we need to accept that, for the majority of our citizens, transport mobility is a basic need and budget accordingly. Pedestrian bridges, access roads and roads for rural development are a priority that will drastically begin to address the second economy dilemma that still prevails in KwaZulu-Natal and in this country as a whole. It is however evident Mr Speaker that as I indicated before, the department is grossly underfunded when we consider the roads and transportation needs of the communities of KwaZulu-Natal.

In closing I would like to thank my Head of Department, Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa, and his dedicated management team and the entire staff of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport for all their hard work and commitment. I would also like to thank the members of the Transport and Finance Portfolio Committee for the contribution to my budget and my department.

It is now my privilege to formally table the Department of Transport Budget of R2 197 532 000 for the 2005/2006 financial year for approval.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Transport and Community Safety and Liaison, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
29 April 2005
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government (http://www.kwazulunatal.gov.za)

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