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Date : 09/11/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: I Jacobs: The Five Year Strategic Plan for Transport and Infrastructre in Gauteng

The Statement by the MEC for Public Transport Roads and Works, Mr. Ignatius Jacobs, on the Five Year Strategic Plan for Transport and Infrastructre in Gauteng

Like the rest of the country, Gauteng continues to experience challenges that have to be addressed in order to improve on, and consolidate the gains and successes of the past decade.

These challenges relate to rapid urbanization, sprawling urban black townships far away from markets and other economic activities, demographic challenges through movement and poverty and unemployment.

In relation to transport and infrastructure specifically, the province experiences increased motorization, a shift in business confidence from rail to road and increasing pressures on the maintenance of roads and overloading of vehicles.

Economic successes have put extra pressures on our provincial infrastructure. The evolution and implementation of integrated planning and provisioning for infrastructure investments lag behind the changes in the province.

The complexities that this densely populated, economically vibrant and environmentally sensitive province presents requires a planning approach that is people-centred and has one key objective: that of being able to provide the best quality of life for people of Gauteng.

The achievement of this objective requires a developmental approach that is implicit and explicit about value judgement that relate to the direction and speed of change.

Thus future development cannot be seen to be only economic development or economic growth, but must be understood to be a multi-faceted and integrated process concerned with the distributional aspects of development, political/administrative processes concerned with shifts in the influence and power of groups and individuals in the development process.

The centrality of the principle of participatory and people-centred development in the determination of future planning and infrastructure provision cannot be overstated.

In other words, the planning and provision of socio-economic infrastructure in the province, including transport infrastructure must be underpinned by sound development principles that will impact positively on the greatest number of people in Gauteng.

The majority of Gautengs' population is still not mobile and/or has no direct access to reliable and affordable pubic transport. 84.7% of the province's population uses all modes of public transport, i.e. bus, train and taxi.

These commuters continue to register significant levels of dissatisfaction with each mode of transport, ranging from distance between home and station, travel time, security to, at and on mode, crowding, safety from accidents, frequency, punctuality, fares, facilities and overall service.

The main reasons people cite for not using public transport is that it is not available, it is too far from home, there is too much crime and the transport does not go where needed.

Our current transportation system, largely developed during the Apartheid era, was designed to serve the objective of providing a transportation network that transport black labour required in the first economy, to places of economic activity, and back to the townships and compounds where they live.

The emphasis was on a defined mobility that did not necessarily follow normal planning objectives of integration, legibility, complexity, accessibility and communication efficiencies.

This is evidenced in the lack of integration of the different transportation modes and the dysfunction caused by a lack of integration of land use and transport planning.

The fragmentation of planning activities such as town and regional planning, which includes land use planning; Transportation planning and the provision of and the spatial distribution of physical, social and economic infrastructure has resulted in a province that is unnecessarily burdened with a multiplicity of inefficiencies that impact on the economy and the people of Gauteng.

An average person in Gauteng lives far from economic opportunities is not able to access social and recreational infrastructure and generally has poor access to government and administrative institutions. This creates an unnecessary and inefficient demand for transportation of mainly the poor, from their outlying and peripheral townships.

The poor in our province continue to suffer the burden of poor transport and other socio-economic infrastructure. In terms of transport, monthly public transport costs for 71.2% of our population exceed R300 per month.

These expenses are unacceptable in the context of average monthly household income of approximately R2000 per month. Our public transport system remains inaccessible to people with disabilities. Despite improvement in provincial governments provision of other services to poor people, the lack of transport and related infrastructure leaves 32.9% of our population without immediate access to welfare offices, 39.6% without immediate access to police services, 42,1% without immediate access to medical services and 88.8% without immediate access to all other services.

Thus one of the key objectives is to provide a public transport system that will address these issues and that in the main, will reduce transport costs and travel time for the majority of our citizens.

The main impact of persistently inadequate transport and socio-economic infrastructure development on the quality of lives of our people is that they are still excluded from social and economic life and thus, they are still subjected to poverty and unemployment.

The time spent on traveling further impacts on the quality of life of our people. 57.4% of commuters spend an unacceptable amount of time on traveling, sometimes as more than 2 hours.

The impact on the overall economy and on the lives of our labour force and people in general includes:
* travel time being disproportional to actual work time and productive hours * labour force experiencing tiredness, inadequate concentration, etc which directly impacts on their productivity * a significant proportion of salaries being absorbed into travel costs thus making the act of work costly * issues of cost, safety, reliability, etc impact on ability to get to work and back * lack of social life, recreational activities, community activities, etc Transport and Pubic Works and its socio economic infrastructure development Programmes are critical to addressing these issues. Public Works involves two levels, namely the maintenance and re-furbishment, etc of government buildings and other property assets and the expanded public works program.

While both levels contribute to creating a better life for our people, it is the infrastructure evelopment of the latter which has more direct, immediate and tangible results regarding improving the quality of life of the poor.

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is part of both levels. Public works must be informed by the needs of communities. It must be done in a participatory manner.

Most importantly it must create direct and indirect jobs. Socio-economic infrastructure development will include transport related infrastructure development.

There must be a decisive departure from the fragmented planning that saw transportation, land-use planning and the provision of physical, social and economic infrastructure that created current spatial disparities at a huge cost to the economy and the people of Gauteng.

The legacy of apartheid planning can only be dealt with in the context of integrated development planning, where the provision of infrastructure, including transport infrastructure and public works related infrastructure is demand-driven. This will ensure that sustainable and more functional human settlements are developed.

This approach, going forward into the next decade of democracy, will ensure that transport and public works both make an overall contribution to creating work and fighting poverty.

Our goal in the next five years is to ensure increased mobility and accessibility of Gauteng citizens, particularly the poor, to transport and socio-economic infrastructure that facilitates their meaningful participation in economic and social activities.

The provision of an affordable and efficient transport system that reduces overall household expenditure on travel costs and decreases actual time spent on traveling is critical to achieving this goal.

Equally critical is the provision and ongoing maintenance of relevant and appropriate socio-economic infrastructure such as schools, clinics, community centres, etc.

The foundation that will support the achievement of these will be the professional business-oriented functioning of the GDPTRW as a service manager.

Our goal and its related priorities and activities significantly contribute to growing the provincial economy, reduce poverty, creating jobs and improving the quality of life of all Gautengs citizens.

The goal also directly contributes to the country's national goal of increased quality service delivery, growing the economy and reducing poverty and unemployment. It also directly contributes to United Nations' goal of: * Halving unemployment through ensuring high levels of labour absorbing Programmes and projects, ensuring that economic growth contributes to reduced inequality and leads to the development of our Province, nation and continent.

* Halving poverty levels through growing secure and prosperous communities with jobs, schools, clinics and other services ensure safe communities and create a healthy environment which supports families, social, cultural and volunteer activities.

In an attempt to address challenges within public transport, roads and infrastructure, we will address six strategic priorities, and these are; 1. Provision of a safe, accessible, affordable, reliable, integrated and environmentally sustainable public transport system.

2. Effective management of transport and socio-economic infrastructure related institutions, systems and processes.

3. Support economic growth and investments through the provision of appropriate transport systems and socio-economic infrastructure.

4. Integrate transport systems and socio-economic infrastructure systems in the Gauteng Growth and Development Strategy and development plans of other spheres of government.

5. Implement the Expanded Public Works Programmes in a manner that optimizes employment and addresses economic and social needs of the poor 6. Efficient and effective management of the Department.

These priorities will also include transversal issues such as empowerment of women, youth and people with disabilities, etc. All these will be incorporated into all departmental Programmes, projects and activities. We will set specific targets for each transversal issue in each of its programmes and activities. These transversal issues are; Black Economic Empowerment & SMME development will be addressed through * The Emerging Contractor Development Programme * Implementation of GPG's BEE procurement targets * Women in Construction * Transformation of Departmental Acquisitions Committees and Supply Chain Management Involvement and participation of women are addressed through: * Women in Construction * The Incubator Strategy * Learnership Programme Youth involvement and participation will be addressed through: * Youth training in all departmental programmes * The Incubator Strategy * Learnership Programme * Gauteng Youth Service Project Participation and involvement of people with disabilities is addressed through: * the Incubator Strategy HIV/Aids is addressed primarily on an internal level through: * managing disclosures * training supervisors and managers on legal aspects of managing HIV and Aids in the workplace * information session on rights of employees living positively with HIV * benchmarking with the private sector on an ongoing basis * awareness programmes with stakeholders e.g. truck and taxi drivers In conclusion I call the media to partner us, together with all role-players to ensure that we address the twin challenge of halving unemployment and poverty by 2014.

I thank you.

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