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Date : 20/04/2006
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: Radebe: Eastern Cape Transport Summit


  Address by Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe, MP, at the Eastern Cape Transport Summit, Regent Hotel, East London

Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela,
MEC Thobile Mhlahlo,
Executive Mayor – Buffalo City Councillor N Peter,
Chairperson of Transport Portfolio Committee Mr Cronin,
Programme Director,
Members of the Media,
Ladies and Gentlemen

According to the Construction Industry Development Board, a total of 698 contractors are registered in the Eastern Cape, out of which 542 are Grade one, more than 77%. Grade one means that these companies are new and have no experience in construction, very little equipment, and can only be granted work to the value of R200 000. Only one is registered as Grade nine, which means no limit to the type of work they can do. In between these grades is the rest of the more than 22%, with varied experience and capacity.

Government has over the past years announced huge infrastructure projects, under public works programmes, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), our roads programmes, and these amounts to billions of Rand, broken down into projects that cost millions of Rand. For the 2006/07 financial year, more than R1.54 billion has been allocated to the Eastern Cape for roads.

This clearly would exclude the majority of contractors in the Eastern Cape if they were to tender for these projects on their own. During 1996, government embarked on a project to renovate police stations.

This project also ran into millions of Rands. At that time Grade one companies were even fewer than they are today. We broke the projects down into different packages that could be performed by different entities, thus not forming one big project, which by definition would have excluded these companies from participating meaningfully. We cite this example not because it suits all situations, but to demonstrate that there is a need for innovation and deliberate government intervention to promote small businesses to capacitate various sectors to respond to the infrastructure needs of our country.

The National Freight and Logistics Strategy released last year projected that the Port Elizabeth Corridor would carry 39% more freight than it did in 2003 by the year 2020 and the East London corridor 31% more. In both instances more than 90% would be carried by road and between 6 to 9% by rail.

In the choices provinces make on which mode carries what types of cargo, the capacity of the networks, future investment and maintenance plans need to be taken into account. In 2004 we announced that the Eastern Cape Government was planning the Kei Rail project, whose aims were to encourage seamless operations and integrate formerly isolated areas of the country and regional economies into the national network and reduce travelling times between East London and Umtata.

Through the work done in the Kei rail project, we have seen the potential benefits of properly planned transport projects that take into account spatial development and other sectors of the economy. The challenge now is to ensure that the lines are operated at full capacity.

Increased operations on the rail network, especially, the movement of timber and minerals, should alleviate the pressure on our road network.

We are also encouraged by the work done to revive the Bisho Airport. It is our view that this initiative should be aligned to freight and passenger movement strategies in the province, through the Provincial Freight Task Team among other structures. In the same vein we must also mention that we are still committed to the development of the East London/Bloemfontein rail project. However, further investigations on funding models are done to meet the cost of the project, which is quite substantial.

We are gathered here to witness one of the most important and crucial summits this year in meeting the objectives of economic development through strategic interventions in transport. We cannot boast about our economy and hope for its best performance if our road network infrastructure and public transport systems are not performing optimally.

The theme of this summit, ‘Towards Acceleration of Transport Infrastructure’ – implies that we must go an extra mile in promoting growth and development in all spheres of transport and infrastructure development regardless of how much we have done before.

There are positive developments in the South African economy, GDP growth has been recorded at five percent, putting us on course to reach the AsgiSA objectives. We cannot be complacent with the current progress but must explore all channels of further growth to make every South African’s life better than it was three years ago.

We must make sure that at the end of this summit tangible and implementable interventions, especially in the areas of public transport, infrastructure development, opportunities in maritime and aviation in the province, and road safety issues, are outlined.

I would therefore emphasise that as government our aim to achieve our vision has always viewed ‘Integration’ as key in the public transport context. Integration needs to be assessed in terms of its relevance to achieving our long term passenger transport vision. This vision is about ensuring that all South African citizens have access to high quality transport services that enable them to be mobile so that they can live productive and dignified lives and participate in the economy actively. We are engaged in the process of putting together a Transport Mater Plan. This Master Plan, once finished should be able to tell us what capacity we have in transport, the future needs, and investment requirements in the different modes of transport. In some areas enough planning and discussion has happened already, the focus should be implementation. The success of the public transport projects we announced few years ago rests with provinces and municipalities. Critical in this area is the transformation of bus contracts to bring new and small operators into the system and extending the service, including services to rural areas.

With regard to passenger rail, we are proceeding with the consolidation of the three passenger railways entities, which would also include a railway economic regulatory body. This consolidation process as well as the development of a National Passenger Rail plan this year, will streamline the institutional arrangements and will also provide the basis for decisions on recapitalising the commuter rail fleet.

The implementation of the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme (TRP) has gained speed after the publication of the Safety requirements through the amendment of Regulation 233 of the National Road Traffic Act. Since the publication of the Safety requirements we have experienced entry into the market of New Taxi Vehicles (NTVs) that meet some of the Safety requirements.

Most of the vehicles are not fully compliant with the safety requirements but can be said to substantially meet the basic requirements. With minor adjustments, these vehicles can become 100% compliant within reasonable time. Taxi vehicles fitting the profile of semi-compliant vehicles are those with a bigger seating capacity of between 22 and 29 (midibuses). Over 10 types of new taxi vehicles currently exist in the market. The challenge remains in the category of minibus taxis.

As part of the roll out strategy and implementation plan of the TRP, the Department is now in the process of finalising the appointment of the service provider to undertake the function of establishing, setting up and managing the TRP Scrapping Administration Agency (SAA). We are confident that an announcement of the successful bidder would be made at the end of this month.

The immediate scrapping of the targeted 10 000 Old Taxi Vehicles in line with our approved strategy would be effected through the SAA. We call on the province to play its part in the implementation and are confident that it will. In few months from now Cabinet will be considering a rural strategy to be presented by the department. The importance of roads, access and mobility in rural areas does not need further elaboration in his gathering, but strategies of how to construct and maintain these objectives, funding, and sustainability need attention and further deliberation.

Exciting work is being done in the area of research and development in roads. This research includes labour intensive methods for constructing roads, non-motorised transport, and rural roads that have a longer life span. Non-motorised transport remains a key pillar of our public transport strategy for both urban and rural areas.

Ladies and gentle this summit’s deliberations should be able to address most of these challenges. Wee need long term solutions that we can implement to streamline and bring into perspective all our AsgiSA and Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) perspectives.

We can only look forward to a brighter future and that of the coming generations by making sure that we utilise our current opportunities to plan ahead and to make hay while the sun shines and reap the benefits of our commitment to socioeconomic development.

The real value of this summit is hearing the solutions different experts sitting here will provide to us today. We wish the summit success and look forward to its outcome.

I thank you – Ndiyabulela.

Issued by: Department of Transport, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
20 April 2006

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