Date: 27/09/2010
Source: The Department of Transport
Title: SA: Ndebele: Keynote address by the Minister of Transport, at the launch of the 2010 October Transport Month, Durban

PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
KZN TRANSPORT MEC MR WILLIES MCHUNU
GAUTENG TRANSPORT MEC MR BHEKI NKOSI
HEAD OF TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT FOR KZN MR CHRIS HLABISA
ETHEKWINI CITY MANAGER DR SUTCLIFFE
SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

"TRANSPORT: MOVING SOUTH AFRICA TO DO MORE TOGETHER"

As we launch October Transport Month today we say no more shall
our people die in so many accidents. We say no more shall our
people die deaths which can be avoided. Therefore

· As a country we have signed to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals of cutting crash related deaths by 50% in 2014.

· In October we launch the National Rolling Enforcement Plan -
From October 01 to October 31 we shall have stopped 1 million
vehicles. We will stop a million vehicles every month thereafter.
It is in line with the priorities of the Moscow Declaration and the
United Nations "MAKE ROAD SAFE CAMPAIGN"

· As part of OTM we are moving to implement a programme to Skill
and Reskill our drivers. From October 01 2010 to October 2011, we
will train 1million new drivers. Working together with the Minister
of Basic Education we want every 17-year old to complete high
school armed with a matric certificate on one hand and a learner or
driver's licence on the other. Working together with the Minister
of Higher Education we want every graduate to emerge with a
tertiary certificate on one hand and a driver's licence on the
other. We have the technology for it in the latest simulators. We
have the funding for it. We are ready to introduce a new crop of
driver, a new skill and a new driving culture onto our roads.

· Together with the taxi industry we will in October announce a
Training Academy for the Taxi industry. The Taxi academy will teach
business management and advance driving skills to the taxi
industry.

· Our plan is clear- we want mass participation of women in
transport as owners and operators. We also want our youth to become
the basis of a future in which drunken driving without a proper
licence is shunned in the same manner as smoking in public places.

· In October we launch a massive public education campaign to
educate drivers about the Administrative Adjudication of Road
Traffic Offences (AARTO). AARTO, which was passed in 1998, has been
around for over 12years. Pilot programmes have been completed in
Johannesburg and Pretoria. Ignorance of the law was never an
excuse. We are however going for massive education anyway to ensure
that there is general understanding of AARTO among all drivers. By
the time the demerit system starts, it will only be the unwilling
who will be victims. Others will however be safer drivers.

· We have also started rolling out COMMUNITY ROAD SAFETY
COUNCILS in all nine provinces. These councils are the basis on
which we will implement our commitments to road safety - by making
road safety every body's business. You are your neighbour's keeper.
Let them stand up those who say "Let them die". Let them stand up
those who say the carnage must continue. Let them stand up!

POST - ACCIDENT SUPPORT THROUGH the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
While we reduce accidents, we shall make life easier for the
unfortunate victims of crashes. Services are best delivered at
points closest to those who use them.

We are therefore rolling our RAF centres which are based in
health centres around the country which will bring access to
post-accident assistance closer to them.

· In order to improve service delivery standards we will conduct
spot visit to all service centres to find out which is the best
licensing centre, which is the best traffic officer.

· We will also be rooting out corruption in the issuing of
licences or traffic fines. A drunk and unlicensed driver more than
anything else leads to people being killed on our roads. There is
no basis for believing that an unlicensed or drunk driver is not
going to cause an accident.

· Furthermore the Cross Border Road Agency is going to ensure
that contraband material and human trafficking and poaching should
not be conducted across our borders. The CBRTA is ready.

For the first time this year our department has acquired
enforcement capacity commanded at national level. Up to now this
was left to municipalities and provinces. Up to now other than the
Sea Rescue, the Minister did not have any power to enforce at
national level. Together with the CBRTA which already has law
enforcement and the RTMC we will send a clear message that the tide
has turned, the time for games is over.

TRANSPORT IN OUR LIVES

Whether one is talking about the Exodus, the Great Flood of Noah
or the Great Trek transport has always been part of human endeavour
in the past and will be in the present and the future. It was the
refusal of Rosa Parks to move from her seat which gave birth to the
Civil Rights movement in the United States. It was Ghandi being
thrown out of train that spawned a world wide peaceful resistance
to the injustice of apartheid and racial discrimination. Whether
miners descend to the bowels of the earth in Chile or humankind
takes off to the moon at Cape Canaveral in the US, it is transport
that moves people and goods from point A to B. Transport can
fulfill the dreams of young lovers and family by bringing them
together across distances.

It is clear that the history of transport cannot be divorced
from the history of mankind. If so, why is it that in South Africa
we appear to be concerned more about studying criminology and less
about studying Transport?

We are likely to know the dictionary definition of a Tsotsi -
defined as a black youth who is prone to hooligan behaviour then we
are to know what carbotage means - i.e. the act of picking goods
from one country and leaving them in a third country along the sea.

For this reason we will soon be announcing a study which will
look at among other things the contribution of transport in the
transformation of South Africa, provinces and communities. That
research will show the place of transport in the social psyche your
folklore, your poems, folklore about love, death and resistance and
the role it can play in the deracialisation of South Africa.
Apartheid was spatial. It created artificial distance and based it
on race. Our role is to bridge that gap.

In his book India 2020, Abdul Kalam, the celebrated scientist
and former president of India writes thus about the importance of
transport in developing economies. This applies to South Africa and
I quote:

"A simple truth is that a modern developed economy cannot be
built on a large number of people living just above the poverty
line, producing agricultural products alone and cut off from the
rest of the manufacturing and business centres. This means that
every production centre in the country should have speedy economic
activity with other parts of the country",

RAIL AND THE 2010 FIFA WORLD

Three months ago, through our transport infrastructure we gave
the world the clearest signal to date about where we want to be as
a country. We stated, not only through words, but mostly through
deeds, that we want to move very swiftly from being a developing
country to being a development one.

Importantly, we also said that transport would play a leading
role in driving and sustaining that developmental growth path into
the future.

We entertained 3.1 million spectators who attended 64 matches of
the FIFA World Cup in 2010. This attendance was the third highest
behind the United States in 1994 and Germany in 2006. The transport
family ensured that our rail, road and aviation infrastructure and
services played a significant role in the transportation of
domestic and visiting fans.

This we did on time, on schedule, efficiently and in safety. By
all accounts we hosted a world-class event, in a world-class
country and in a continent that has the potential to become
world-class. Nothing is impossible if we all work together hence
the theme for this year's Transport Month- "Transport - Moving
South Africa to do more together". From defeating apartheid to
hosting the World Cup we are certain that we can attain anything we
set our minds to.

For the World Cup the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa
(PRASA) upgraded existing stations and built new ones while
expanding key rail infrastructure.

This was aimed at increasing mobility and accessibility for
commuters during the tournament and beyond. As a legacy of the
World Cup many train stations in the vicinity of most stadiums such
as the newly-constructed Moses Mabhida Station here in Durban are
now approximately a five-minute walk from our stations. Through
Metrorail we transported a total of 1,467 million passengers and
ran a total of 2, 256 trains.

GAUTRAIN SUCCESS

It is also with great pleasure to note that Gautrain on
Wednesday celebrated carrying one million passengers since opening
phase one of Africa's first rapid rail project. This milestone
coincided almost exactly with 100 days of operation. The next big
milestone in the life of the R25bn project will be the opening of
phase two which is scheduled for the latter half of 2011. The
"North-South" line, which comprises the remaining two thirds of the
project, will link the Johannesburg CBD to Pretoria and Hatfield
via Rosebank, Sandton, Midrand and Centurion.

Preceding the opening of Phase Two will be the finalisation of
construction works, the testing and commissioning of all systems
and sub-systems and the trial running of both the trains and buses.

We take this opportunity to congratulate Ms Ulindi Krull from
Reiger Park in Boksburg a regular commuter from Rhodesfield to
Marlboro stations who was the millionth passenger on Gautrain.

During the World Cup Gautrain was transporting about 80 000
passengers per week. Post-World Cup, the train service has
stabilised at about 50 000 passengers a week, with bus passengers
at about 4 000 passengers weekly and showing steady growth. The
introduction of the Gautrain has clearly transformed passenger rail
travelling in the Gauteng province.

We identified public transport as a key legacy project for the
World Cup and beyond. This development includes customer-focused
and world-class airports, upgraded train stations and refurbished
coaches to luxury buses, taxis and integrated rapid public
transport networks such as the bus rapid transit system.

SOUTH AFRICA AND RAIL TRANSPORT

Ladies and Gentlemen today we launch the 2010 Transport Month
(OTM) here at Bridge City in KwaZulu-Natal. OTM showcases Transport
activities in all nine provinces and that carries out by the
Agencies of DOT. We are launching OTM here in order to emphasize
the importance of rail as a key part of our transport plans into
the future. Rail remains a pillar of our strategy to move towards
safer roads and to reduce accidents on our roads. Rail is a key
part of our strategy to reduce transport related emissions into the
environment and to reduce our country's carbon footprint.

Rail is a key part of preparing our country for the inevitable
reduction and end of fossil fuels which the world is also preparing
for. Rail is also a key part of our plans to move both our freight
and passengers from road to rail. The strategy to move to rail does
not mean that we are working towards a county without any roads or
cars on our roads.

The strategy is about ensuring that the most appropriate form of
vehicles sits on the right mode. Our future will therefore see more
taxis and buses on our roads carrying passengers and fewer
privately owned vehicles. Together with rail, our public transport
system which includes taxis and buses must ready itself to carry
more and more people and not fewer.

For South Africa and Africa to grow and take their rightful
places in global trade and movement, it is important that our rail
transport remains effective and efficient. It has to play a much
bigger role in a global competitive environment to provide our
companies and people a competitive advantage in the global markets.
For this sustained growth that we aspire to achieve, rail transport
must play a sustainable economic role. We are committed to a
greater integration and interconnectivity between rail operators
and other systems especially taxis.

This is in order to enable the joint delivery of a
cost-effective, provincially, regionally integrated, seamless and
predictable South Africa and Africa rail transport service.

Our aim is to make travelling an exercise in convenience and
safety thus removing the need for use of private motor vehicles. In
time, our public transportation will become one seamless system,
with the commuter at its centre.

THE BRIDGE CITY RAIL PROJECT

This R5 billion Bridge City initiative is another development on
the road to delivering a true and better life for the people of
eThekwini and the rest of the country. After the completion of this
centre townships such as Phoenix, Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu will
enjoy the benefits of a better public transport system, increased
access to economic opportunities and job creation.

As a Transport family, we had to ensure that we would complement
this excellent initiative by establishing a grand public transport
system in and around the Bridge City Precinct especially as part of
our National Passenger Rail Plan. We are therefore delighted to
announce that:

· Through PRASA, the Transport family has invested more than
R350 million on the underground Bridge City rail station

· The rail extension that will serve 40 000 commuters per day
and handle 14 000 passengers in peak hours

· A further amount of more than R360 million was invested on the
new roads, road upgrades and public amenities within and
surrounding the Bridge City precinct to further augment the R750
million shopping mall within this precinct.

· A further amount of more than R360 million was invested on the
new roads, road upgrades and public amenities within and
surrounding the Bridge City precinct to further augment the R750
million shopping mall within this precinct.

· This project is playing a major role as a catalyst for
economic growth and integration of local communities and has
created more than 60 000 job opportunities

Once complete this station will help deliver many social,
economic and environmental benefits to all who use it both locally
and nationally. At the same time our passenger rail initiative will
reduce journey times and give greater journey certainty to all
those travelling to the Bridge City. It will also add capacity to
cater for future growth in the Northern corridor. Significant
public transport interventions and road infrastructure improvements
have been identified to cater for the trips generated and attracted
by the development of surrounding areas.

These include:

· Provision of a new rail link with a terminal station at Bridge
City
· Provision of a bus/taxi intermodal facility at the station
· New half-diamond interchange on the M25
· The uBhejane Road extension

As the Department of Transport, we therefore want to ensure that
we create a public transport network that will promote regional and
national economic competitiveness.

PRASA- BRIDGE CITY NETWORK PLANNING

The PRASA has been associated with the Bridge City Development
from the onset and has as part of the process provided the
necessary rail planning. However, the provision of a future rail
corridor to serve the "Greater Inanda" area was identified long
before the Bridge City Development proposal came to the fore. The
desirability and need for the provision of the future Inanda Rail
Corridor was in fact acknowledged by all major stakeholders in the
process since the early 1980's.

SOUTH AFRICA'S RAIL NETWORK

Our country's passenger rail system requires that we balance
investment between refurbishing existing stock, acquisition of new
stock and the construction of new corridors. Our department is
working towards a comprehensive Rail Investment Programme for South
Africa. We are adopting an approach which suggests a sequenced
delivery process for the rail sector over a 20-year period.

Through South Africa's National Transport Master Plan (NATMAP),
we have identified three high-speed rail projects
· Johannesburg to Durban
· Johannesburg to Cape Town and
· Johannesburg to Musina

Furthermore PRASA has identified the need for the
re-capitalization of their fleet over the next 18 years and there
is a R98 billion financial allocation for new rolling stock.
Jointly with the provincial governments of Gauteng and Mpumalanga,
we have identified the need for a commuter rail corridor between
Tshwane and Moloto.

GLOBAL RAIL INVESTMENTS

We are developing rail as part of a world wide rail renaissance
that is taking place globally. This renaissance is necessitated by
to rapid urban migration, economic development of the Asian tigers
and the emergence of mega-cities all over the world. In
geographically spread countries with long-distance commuting on a
daily basis, rail presents the best option.

Having noticed that rail transport is the backbone of our
economic development, we have invested over 40billion in passenger
rail infrastructure and services in South Africa. This involved
R25billion in the Gautrain Rapid Rail Project and almost R1.3
billion on rehabilitating PRASA coaches and signaling systems. The
challenge we are facing is that most of our commuter rail systems
have reached the end of their lifespan. We believe that a carefully
thought out and ambitious programme of introducing new rail stock
and technology in our system is an absolute necessity and will
protect our historical investment in the sector.

There are major socio-economic spin-offs from a comprehensive
rail investment programme.

A sustained programme over a 20-year period will create
certainty and will enable input manufacturers to re-tool their
factories and therefore create sustained local industrial
activities. We are also developing a rail development plan template
which has four outcomes that will assist us to plan and move
forward.

These outcomes are:
· Urban Transit Systems
· Long Distance Transit Systems
· Key strategic freight corridors and
· Rural Access and Mobility

Ladies and Gentlemen part of our rail plan is to identify
critical inputs through a cost-benefit analysis based on our
competitive advantage and through the creation of economies of
scale. This approach is important for the creation of sustainable
jobs and growth of our economy

HIGH SPEED RAIL IN SOUTH AFRICA

The Moloto Long-distance commuter service is presently operated
by a contracted bus service, with an additional few commercial bus
and taxi services. As we look at various options within transport
modes, we are convinced that a rail service is the best option for
Moloto Corridor. Our plan is to conduct the necessary feasibility
studies for the high speed rail projects.

For the Durban to Johannesburg Rail Project by next month we
will commence with the dual process of concept development and
testing the market for a period of six months. We anticipate that
concept development and testing the market will take six months.
The Durban-Gauteng corridor is the busiest corridor in the Southern
Hemisphere both in terms of value and tonnage. It also forms the
backbone of South Africa's freight transportation network.

It is also vital in facilitating economic growth for the
country, the region and the continent. It is therefore against this
background that the 2050 Vision for the Durban-Gauteng corridor has
been institutionalized. It was adopted on 15 September 2010 to be
politically championed by the Minister of Transport in conjunction
with decision-making Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is
chaired by the Director-General of Transport.

The Steering Committee has various work streams which are
Planning and Infrastructure, Communication, Funding and Policy,
Legislation, Regulation and Compliance.

Its main objectives are:
· To streamline freight logistics within the corridor, related
corridors and sub-corridors

· To lower logistics cost within the corridor, related corridors
and sub-corridors
· To Improve efficiencies within the corridor, related corridors
and sub-corridors
· Provision of capacity ahead of demand
· Short, medium and long term economic objectives

The Steering Committee constituted the following key
stakeholders:
· Department of Transport (Lead Department)
· Department of Public Enterprises
· Department of Trade and Industry
· National Treasury
· Provincial Premier's Offices (DGs)
o KwaZulu-Natal
o Free State
o Gauteng
· Provincial Departments of Transport of the above-mentioned
provinces
· Municipalities/Metros of the above-mentioned provinces
· SANRAL
· Airports Company South Africa(ACSA)
· RTMC
· Transnet, and
· Secretariat

This process will focus on the following key nodal points within
the corridor:

· Port of Durban
· Cato Ridge
· Harrismith and
· City Deep(JOHANNESBURG)

The above-mentioned nodal points will be linked to the following
key developmental points:

· Road and Rail freight corridors
· Logistics Hubs and Terminals, and
· Land-use plans

A process is underway for the establishment of a dedicated
Project Management Unit to ensure the implementation of the various
work stream programmes and projects. This process should be viewed
as a pilot project because of its capacity and integral role it
plays in the Region, Continent and Internationally.

In conclusion Ladies and Gentlemen, South Africa's future lies
in being able to move people and goods faster, efficiently and in a
cost-effective manner. We can only succeed in this venture if all
of us work together-government across all tiers, business big and
small, civil society and all formations of our people. We require
more dedication, hard work, cooperation and a continued willingness
to learn and to sustain delivery. In time our country will be able
to move from being a developing country to being called, rightly
so, a developed country. We therefore declare the 2010 October
Transport Month officially open.

THANK YOU