Cape Town, 13 August 2002
"THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT AS A COMPONENT OF SUSTAINED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WITH EMPHASIS ON SEA, ROAD, AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT"
Chairperson,
ladies and gentlemen.
Transport is a basic necessity for sustainable social and economic development. The efficiency of the transport function is a design logic based on a clear understanding of service demands and expectations placed on the system by both current and future needs.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
The white paper on national transport policy adopted by government in 1997 set a target of not more than 10% of disposable income to be spent on transport. This target is not yet met in spite of the fact that public transport is a key basic necessity for access to socio-economic amenities by south african communities who do not have alternative means of transport.
Whereas we have set our objectives to promote public transport over use of private vehicles, our intentions can best be met if we acknowledge and put an intensive drive on setting a platform for an effective public transport service which is rationalized for integration on a sound transport planning arrangement.
The national department of transport is pursuing a process which promotes integrated spatial and development planning approach and has consciously crafted a 5 year national strategy which will guide transport planning for south africa.
Our processes are also tied up to the formalisation programme of the mini-bus taxi industry. Provinces are currently completing strategies on operating licences, which will concretize our approach to route-based operations. Once all the related administration arrangement are completed it will not create any major problem for us to have new recapitalised taxi vehicles operating along routes and corridors with the supporting volumes of passengers.
This will affirm our objective of having the appropriate mode on the right route.
Our good intentions of promoting an integrated public transport system will not be completed if we do not address transport infrastructure inclusive of the advancement of intelligent transport systems (its), and the promotion of multi-modal facilities responsive to needs of people with disabilities.
Those who are supposed to drive the process or are affected by these new ideas need to be well informed so that they could respond appropriately in enhancing the programme. For this reason capacity-building will be implemented for transport planning and implementation. We will disseminate requirements, guidelines and planning support tools for transport planning, especially targeting rural areas. Workshops for land transport politicians and officials will be conducted so as to fortify correct decision-making.
FREIGHT TRANSPORT
On the side of freight transport the two key strategic challenges facing south africa are: (1) the lack of export competitiveness and (2) low levels of system sustainability. These were identified and selected in our moving south africa (msa)-action agenda as the principal challenges because of their significant impact on the ability to achieve pressing national and firm-level goals and priorities.
The National Land Transport Transition Act (NLTTA) put into implementation broadly responds to the need for land-use planners to effect integrated transport plans (itps) as part of the integrated development plans (idps). The intention is to further enhance spatial flow patterns of, amongst others, freight transport to meet the identified strategic objectives.
In order to align a value-added export system supported by the freight system, the department as part of government played a big role in the process of restructuring spoornet, has led a process of developing a commercial ports policy which has since being approved by cabinet due to be gazetted later this month, and currently together with provincial departments of transport is designing a road development plan, a transport overloading strategy and a national rail policy and plan. Further more the built-operate and-transfer principle, what other people call the toll-road system, on national roads development has assisted in shortening distance and thus time in transporting goods from production to their destinations.
While by large government has a role in providing enabling environment for freight transport for the benefit of growth in the national economy, through measures of defining the freight network, managing infrastructure levels of road, rail, sea ports and airports, and charging road haulers for road use and externalities; industries and companies should primarily see to providing best services responsive to market demands, set competitive prices and comply to government set regulations and requirements.
For us as a country to be able to manage the entire supply chain which include physical distribution of goods, proper choice of positioning of warehouses and storages, and good production-planning interface, we need to have an ever more reliable transport system as well as a greater use of information technology. Though we have set some platforms for dealing with freight related issues, still lacking is a consolidated source and tool for data management for decision making related to freight flows.
Various government strategies exist at a sectoral level to achieve national development objectives. Some of the more salient strategies include the industrial manufacturing strategy, integrated industrial strategy and the strategic plan for south african agriculture. What has become of critical importance for the national department of transport is to craft a national freight transport policy and strategy which will respond to:
The freight transport policies and strategies will become an extension of our policies as reflected by our new white paper on national commercial ports policy emphasizing,
The policy and strategic framework should assist in closing the "missing link" between performance of freight transport as to how it relate to the economic performance of the country at all spheres, and to the international level both present and future. The NLSTF endorses the critical role of freight transport and lift up the importance of the private sector in partnering with government towards mobility of goods inside south africa and beyond its borders.
As transport professionals, business and experts we will collaborate with you as we go through the process and I am eagerly looking forward for robust views on issues of common interest.
RAIL TRANSPORT FRAMEWORK
A draft national rail transport policy framework, which is currently being finalized in government en-route for public participation in the coming month or two. The key issues which the draft policy will address include, amongst others:
The rail policy framework is intended to be supported by a "10-year strategic plan" for rail which will set out priorities for the short, medium and long-term vision for the railway system.
ROADS
As a department, along the principles of an integrated transport plan we are interrogating the current south african road network, inclusive of national, provincial and local roads. We want to re-affirm the main road network artery, identify and prioritise strategic countrywide road network which will have to be managed by appropriate institutions in the national, provincial and municipal spheres of government. Our road network is by far the largest proportion of land transport, including public transport, and more than 70 percent of all freight and passenger movements take place on roads.
This countrywide road network will be needs based, and it must support development priorities.
The network may include some toll roads where they are financially viable and where they can contribute substantially to the funding of sections of the network while taking into account the cost carried by local communities usually affected by the introduction of public-private sector partnerships of our built-operate and transfer approach.
By the end of this calendar year we expect to have researched sufficiently to produce a road development plan that will identify constraints in the delivery of roads and would propose more effective road delivery mechanisms. In the overall the road network will be based amongst others on,
CROSS-BORDER ROAD TRANSPORT
The delivery of cross-border regulatory and administrative services will continue to be managed by our agency, namely, the cross-border road transport agency (cbrta).
For passengers, cross-border permits must be based on users' needs, and for freight, stricter road-based safety regulation must be instituted.
An equitable needs-driven basis will be established to improve cross-border demand -and-supply strategies. We thus see an opportunity for us as a country
FUNDING REQUIREMENTS
Funding will remain a key strategic yardstick of performance for all spheres of government throughout the five-year period of the national land strategic transport framework.