Date: 22/06/2004
Source: Ministry of Transport
Title: J Radebe: Opening of AfricaRail Exhibition
REMARKS BY JEFF RADEBE, MP, MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, SOUTH AFRICA, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE AFRICARAIL 2004 EXHIBITION, 22 June 2004
Exhibitions are the showcases of the industry and sector. For it is here that we see firsthand the extent of innovation in the rail community across Africa. Railways are not just wonderful postcard pictures, romance and the echoes of Shosholoza! The sector is highly technical, driven by the requirements of safety and the needs of modern economics, to research and develop new technologies that cross former boundaries.
Modern rail systems are repositories of the most up to date pure, mechanical and applied physics, of mathematics, information technology and communications systems, engineering, design, composite sciences and chemistry, and the newest and best in the construction techniques. The exhibition is where we get exposed to the real fun of the railway sector!
Safety is an ever-present concern. As we design faster train-systems; as we build up traffic and scheduling becomes more intense and important; as we witness greater cross-traffic and the presence of more and more varied types of cargo, much of it highly dangerous and volatile, right next to passenger trains and on lines travelling through growing communities, safety has to be paramount. So, we need greater capabilities to prevent accidents and collisions, derailments, and so on.
Security within the transport sector is growing as an international concern.
We have seen the terrible devastation of chemical and fuel-oil cargo explosions in a number of accidents around the world in recent times. What worse scenario than for trains and cargo to be targeted as time-bombs by terrorists? Governments around the world are moving to beef up security in areas for shipping, ports, aviation and airports. The rail sector cannot sit idly by, and hence this is an area that must also receive adequate attention in the near future.
Allow me one short story on a lighter note. We are all familiar with the wonderful images of the magnificent bridge that spans the gorge between Zambia and Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls, or Mosi oa Tunwa. Next year it is 100 years old, but I was amazed when I heard a little of its history. It was designed by the Cleveland Bridge Company in the United Kingdom, the same company that built the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the bridge over the Nile at Khartoum in Sudan, and the one that crosses the Zambezi at Sena in Mozambique. It was specifically designed to be built without scaffolding, and so the entire bridge was assembled in Britain, then dismantled and shipped to Africa in "kit form", like a giant meccano set, railed up the new railway line to Victoria Falls, and then re-assembled, bolt by bolt, boom by boom over 19 weeks by 30 British and 200 African workers. Not one person fell from those precarious heights into the safety net strung below. And so, the last boom was put in place on 2 April 1905.
This is the type of engineering feat, and development of skill, that we need to develop amongst our own youth across the length and breadth of Africa.
For innovation to flourish requires funding for research and development, and we must make sure that whatever infrastructure investment plans we come up with, or partnerships we enter into, to make our railways grow and strive, these plans must contain specific and healthy R and D components.
Finally, we must also use the promise of the reawakening of Africa's rail to inject new urgency into our schools, our training academies and our institutions of higher learning to build a cadre of rail designers, surveyors, engineers, technicians, artisans and others who will be the brains trust tomorrow of what we plan and build today.
Am I being ambitious? Most certainly!
Am I being too ambitious? Certainly not!
I am pleased to declare the Africa Rail 2004 Exhibition officially open!
Issued by: Ministry of Transport
22 June 2004
Source: Department of Transport (http://www.transport.gov.za)
Source: Ministry of Transport
Title: J Radebe: Opening of AfricaRail Exhibition
REMARKS BY JEFF RADEBE, MP, MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, SOUTH AFRICA, AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE AFRICARAIL 2004 EXHIBITION, 22 June 2004
Exhibitions are the showcases of the industry and sector. For it is here that we see firsthand the extent of innovation in the rail community across Africa. Railways are not just wonderful postcard pictures, romance and the echoes of Shosholoza! The sector is highly technical, driven by the requirements of safety and the needs of modern economics, to research and develop new technologies that cross former boundaries.
Modern rail systems are repositories of the most up to date pure, mechanical and applied physics, of mathematics, information technology and communications systems, engineering, design, composite sciences and chemistry, and the newest and best in the construction techniques. The exhibition is where we get exposed to the real fun of the railway sector!
Safety is an ever-present concern. As we design faster train-systems; as we build up traffic and scheduling becomes more intense and important; as we witness greater cross-traffic and the presence of more and more varied types of cargo, much of it highly dangerous and volatile, right next to passenger trains and on lines travelling through growing communities, safety has to be paramount. So, we need greater capabilities to prevent accidents and collisions, derailments, and so on.
Security within the transport sector is growing as an international concern.
We have seen the terrible devastation of chemical and fuel-oil cargo explosions in a number of accidents around the world in recent times. What worse scenario than for trains and cargo to be targeted as time-bombs by terrorists? Governments around the world are moving to beef up security in areas for shipping, ports, aviation and airports. The rail sector cannot sit idly by, and hence this is an area that must also receive adequate attention in the near future.
Allow me one short story on a lighter note. We are all familiar with the wonderful images of the magnificent bridge that spans the gorge between Zambia and Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls, or Mosi oa Tunwa. Next year it is 100 years old, but I was amazed when I heard a little of its history. It was designed by the Cleveland Bridge Company in the United Kingdom, the same company that built the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the bridge over the Nile at Khartoum in Sudan, and the one that crosses the Zambezi at Sena in Mozambique. It was specifically designed to be built without scaffolding, and so the entire bridge was assembled in Britain, then dismantled and shipped to Africa in "kit form", like a giant meccano set, railed up the new railway line to Victoria Falls, and then re-assembled, bolt by bolt, boom by boom over 19 weeks by 30 British and 200 African workers. Not one person fell from those precarious heights into the safety net strung below. And so, the last boom was put in place on 2 April 1905.
This is the type of engineering feat, and development of skill, that we need to develop amongst our own youth across the length and breadth of Africa.
For innovation to flourish requires funding for research and development, and we must make sure that whatever infrastructure investment plans we come up with, or partnerships we enter into, to make our railways grow and strive, these plans must contain specific and healthy R and D components.
Finally, we must also use the promise of the reawakening of Africa's rail to inject new urgency into our schools, our training academies and our institutions of higher learning to build a cadre of rail designers, surveyors, engineers, technicians, artisans and others who will be the brains trust tomorrow of what we plan and build today.
Am I being ambitious? Most certainly!
Am I being too ambitious? Certainly not!
I am pleased to declare the Africa Rail 2004 Exhibition officially open!
Issued by: Ministry of Transport
22 June 2004
Source: Department of Transport (http://www.transport.gov.za)
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