Date: 04/08/2011
Source: The Department of Transport
Title: SA: Ndebele: Speech by the Minister of Transport, at the 13th African renaissance festival, Durban

Programme Director
Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Dr Zweli Mkhize
Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Rob Davies
Minister of Public Enterprises Mr Malusi Gigaba
Deputy Minister of Finance Mr Nhlanhla Nene
MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Mr Michael Mabuyakhulu
Executive Mayor eThekwini Mayor Cllr James Nxumalo
Members of Parliament
Councillors
Director General of the Department of Transport, Mr George Mahlalela
Heads of Departments
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

INTRODUCTION
We take this opportunity to welcome you all to the13th edition of the African Renaissance Festival. The African Renaissance Conference has been taking place over the past twelve years in KwaZulu-Natal. Over the years visitors from all over the continent and the Diaspora have come together, here to exchange views and ideas over the pertinent issues affecting Africa’s development and progress. This forum has, therefore, proved itself as one of the main platforms for the exchange of ideas, views and programmes on the future of Africa.
13 Years of the African Renaissance
Over the past 13 years together with the people of KwaZulu-Natal we took forward the dreams of those who went before us: Marcus Garvey, Dr John Langalibalele Dube, Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Julius Nyerere and scores of others, alive and departed, who saw the re-birth of Africa as the most urgent occurrence that will give rise to a new world order.
Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, an intellectual and luminary of the early twentieth century, wrote about Africa’s regeneration on 5 April, 1906. Remarkably he wrote that “the regeneration of Africa means that a new and unique civilization is soon to be added to the world.” Modern civilizations are known to share some of the following traits: technological advancement in agriculture, trade that goes beyond the borders, occupational specialization by their human resources, small gap between urban and rural development, a developed transportation system, standards of measurement, contract based legal systems, writing, recognised cultures, arts and heritage, scientific engagements, political systems and social and economic systems that promote seamless connectivity.
The hosting by Angola of the Angola-Namibia-South Africa (ANSA) Spatial Development Initiative Workshop in Luanda on 11-12 August 2011 is another platform for exchange of African ideas.
Cooperation
Asked to outline his vision of the then soon-to-be formed South African Native Congress (now African National Congress), intellectual Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme wrote on 24 October, 1911, that it must be based on cooperation. “Co-operation is the key and the watchword which opens the door, the everlasting door which leads into progress and all national success,” he wrote in the newspaper, Imvo ZabaNtsundu.
Development Agenda
Africa’s regeneration has been debated over many years. The debate led to the formation of the term African Renaissance. While in the past African Renaissance has been associated with the ideas on how to enrich African identity, the dawn of the twenty first century has seen this shifting towards an emphasis on programmes of development and progress. The African identity of the 21st century must be informed by the practicalities of a strong development agenda.
Connecting Africa
The 13th edition of the African Renaissance is based on the theme: “Connecting Africa.” The need for African connectivity has been discussed and debated over many decades and centuries. Whilst, in the past, it could have been easy to dismiss John Cecil Rhodes’ dream of building a railway line connecting the Cape with Cairo as colonial fantasy, over the years everyone has come to realize the need for this dream to be realized.
To connect we must move. To move we must have transport. To have transport we must ensure that our infrastructure is upgraded, expanded or created and maintained.

Connecting Africa should also, and more importantly so, be about connecting the people of Africa across the continent. The goal of providing transport infrastructure should be to facilitate the emergence of an Africa which routinely trades with itself; an Africa which routinely exchanges innovative ideas among itself; and an Africa which is empathetic to those among its children who are suffering in Ethiopia, Somalia, Lybia and elsewhere. Connecting Africa should be about re-establishing the African consciousness that once characterized the African personality. Positive people to people relations are the cornerstone for the advancement of the development agenda for Africa.
There are two major issues in the world today. One is peace and the other is development. There is hope for peace, but the problem of development is not yet solved. Today we talk about the development discrepancy between the North and the South. Only a quarter of the world’s population lives in developed countries in the North. A third of the world’s population lives in China and India. Unless India and China are developed there will be no Asia century. Almost one billion people live in Africa. Everyday news networks of the world show these people suffering from hunger, poverty and underdevelopment.
There is a tendency in the affairs of mankind to seek to go through deliberate suspension of belief, making us to be oblivious of the realities around us. When visuals of famine in Somalia and strife elsewhere are shown on our Television screens we are often told that they may be offensive to sensitive viewers. Based on this advice, even the most empathetic of viewers immediately disconnects mentally, with the realities being shown. Somalia becomes yet another African account of failure and the justification of all time stereotypes about Africa. We have to go now beyond Afro-pessimism, and address the challenges before us. Until we do so, there can be little hope for Africa’s development agenda.
The people to people reality in front of us is that as we are assembled here today, millions are suffering from hunger, poverty and need on the horn of Africa. While this can be compared to some of the suffering in our land, we at least have a government which is hard at work seeking solutions to address poverty in South Africa.
Base on this I move that, as one of the resolutions of this conference, we pledge our support for the people of Somalia, and the horn of Africa by mobilising volunteers, Non- Governmental organisations, business, academics, labour and the rest of society to contribute foodstuffs, clothes, medication and other necessities to ease the pain and suffering in that part of our continent. Of course the NGO, Gift of the Givers is already on the ground there, so there will be no need to re-invent the wheel. The Department of Transport, through its network of transport authorities, and based on packaging experience there, will play a role in helping take the initiative forward.
Africa’s most popular practice of Ubuntu must start in this conference. In that way we will all experience internal peace knowing that as we eat the food, it will settle well because our neighbours’ wants have been addressed. In this regard, our government has already shown the way by making a donation of R1 million to the people of Somalia. We could, in turn, and by extension, engage in the same exercise, working with our government, to avail ourselves to the needy households and communities within our borders, and among our immediate neighbour. The African personality is about empathy, and being available for others.
It is, in fact, ironic, that this hunger, poverty and underdevelopment are recorded in an Africa blessed with natural mineral resources which are unequalled in the world. The question is: have the people of Africa stopped to think what would happen if one day they decided to invest more on the continent, by exploiting its resources and using them for Africa’s development? Can we, assembled here for the African Renaissance, pause to think about what would happen if the primary investment destination for our entrepreneurs would be Africa; if the primary destination for our tourists would be Africa; and if among our primary products packaged for exports would be African arts and culture? Unless Africa and the people of Africa begin to think positively about the resources that we have, there will be no African century. Africa needs to form an African identity which is not an extension of its former colonial masters.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Development through Investment in transport infrastructure
There are huge economic and social benefits that are brought about by transport infrastructure. Transport infrastructure consists of roads, bridges, rail lines, sea ports, and airports. It is this infrastructure network which connects firms and farms to international and regional markets. Transport infrastructure also allows people to reach water, fuel, schools, clinics, jobs and other people. Farmers need transportation networks to transport their produce to the market. Without infrastructure, connectivity suffers.
In a study on road conditions in Sub- Saharan Africa, conducted for the World Bank under the topic Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic, transport researcher, Robin Caruthers, and others, advise that most of Sub-Saharan Africa transport network needs upgrade and maintenance. They also advise that for specified connectivity standard to occur it is important for transport infrastructure providers to continuously improve, upgrade, create and maintain transport infrastructure. At the end they conclude by proposing transport renewal model which facilitates the planning of transport investments “by enabling planners, policy makers and financiers, to properly carry out a cost – benefit analysis – on a country rather than on a project basis. Transportation systems are said to be fully integrated to facilitate connectivity in a developmental manner when the following distinguished types of connectivity are evident:
• There must be permanent Regional infrastructure to connect national capitals of all countries in a given region.
• There must be adequate National infrastructure to connect provincial capitals in all member states.
• We should engage in promoting and facilitating rural transportation infrastructure. This we can do very well through complying with the basic minimum standards based on the World Bank’s Rural Accessibility Index (RAI).

Transport Investments
Infrastructure investment through private equity is fast becoming the new way of doing business in the infrastructure development sector. Two important events aimed at promoting infrastructure investment through private equity have taken place in 2011. The first, the Americas Infrastructure Investors Forum, which addresses infrastructure investment generally, took place on 23 February 2011, in New York City, USA. The second, specific to transport investment, the International Transport Investors Conference, took place in Cape Town, South Africa, On 13 -14 June 2011.
In the case of the Americas Infrastructure Investors Forum, a panel discussion concluded that infrastructure investment has again picked up from 2010, following the credit crises two years earlier. This investment cuts across the various infrastructure sub-sectors, including transport.
There are emerging trends towards embracing post – acquisition recapitalization.
For transport investments to become the way of doing transport business in South Africa and the rest of Africa, there is going to be an urgent need for public authorities to be realistically aware about what it takes to attract private investments – in terms of confidence in the process and deal structures.
It was against this background and reality that on 13 – 14 June, 2011 the Ministry of Transport hosted the International Transport Investors Conference, in Cape Town. The theme of the Conference was: “Creating Winning Partnerships through Investment”. The conference host and its partners tabled various strategic transportation projects, intended to update and create an investor confidence around the Transportation Sector opportunities in South Africa. The motivating factor for transportation in South Africa stems from the national requirement of the Department of Transport to provide:
“Safe, reliable, effective, efficient and fully integrated transport operations and infrastructure that best meet the needs of freight and passenger users.’’
South Africa is mindful of the continental imperatives of transportation renewal and development.
Africa’s Transportation Improvement Initiatives
Over the past three decades Africa has taken strides in promoting the ideas, projects and programmes of connecting Africa through transport infrastructure. These include:
• The two decades from 1978 to 1988 and from 1991 to the year 2000.
• The Trans – Africa Highway system.
• The Sub – Saharan Africa Transport Policy Programme (SSATP), which is a partnership between 35 African countries, 8 Regional Economic Communities and a number of African institutions.
• Implementation of the United Nation’s Almaty Programme of Action which addresses the special needs of landlocked countries (2003).
• The NEPAD Short Term Action Programme (STAP).
• The Yamoussoukro Decision on Air Transport in Africa which calls for a “Single African Sky.”
• The Consensus Transport Master Plan developed by Central Africa and adopted at Ministerial level in 2003.
In playing its leading role in the renewal of transportation systems in Africa the African Union Commission has committed to working towards developing, “An Africa with reliable, efficient and affordable integrated transport infrastructure systems that can promote continental integration and ensure Africa’s participation in globalization.”
Africa is putting an emphasis on placing environmental issues at the centre of every development programme.
In February, 2009, the 12th African Union Summit on Infrastructure Development was told by the EU Commission, that the transport sector is a driving force for Africa’s integration and sustainable development. The ensuing debate noted that infrastructure development in Africa must be market driven, and that there must be a search for creative financing systems.
Africa Regeneration
“The regeneration of Africa means that a new and unique civilization is soon to be added to the world.” Pixley ka Isaka Seme, 5 April, 1906. These words stand true today as they were then, 105 years ago. John Cecil Rhodes’ dream of building a railway line that links Cape Town remains unfulfilled. However, with forums like this, and with initiatives such as the Transport Investors Conference, as well as various continent- wide initiatives on transport renewal, there is no doubt that we are on track to cement the foundation of Seme’s idea of a new Africa as well as John Cecil Rhodes dream of a true African connectivity through transportation infrastructure.
It has been 150 years since South Africa started its rail systems. The motor vehicle has been around in the country since 1904. The South African Airways was founded in 1934. The 1951 Merchant Shipping Act formalizes the administration of the maritime industry in our seas. We have all the necessary instruments to cement our quest to connect Africa through transport infrastructure.
Conclusion
By talking the language of African connectivity and development, this African Renaissance forum has entered the centre stage of the global discourse of the 21st century. We are one with the world in promoting inter- modal transport systems, transport corridor development, transport investments through partnerships, paying attention to sustainable development imperatives, and promoting transport infrastructure development for social and economic growth and development. We learn from such international forums as the Americas Infrastructure Investors Forum and we are mindful of the need for parity in transport infrastructure development in Africa. It is hoped that our deliberations in this edition will bear concrete fruits of cooperation and progress.

THANK YOU.