 
MEDIA STATEMENT
PLANS AFOOT TO DISRUPT GOVERNANCE IN KZNThe achievements of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport over the past ten years are well known. Some of these achievements have been to bring coherence and order in the taxi industry as well as building roads particularly in rural areas. In 1995 we identified that, even before doing anything, we needed to do away with the backlog of 10 400 kilometres that should have been built before 1994 in terms of the budget available. Since the publication of the Community Access Road Needs Study (CARNS) we have completed more than 6000 kilometres. We are steadily eliminating the backlog that is not of our choosing. The Zululand Observer Newspaper last Monday, led with a story of ward committee two of Ubombo Municipality that threatened to blockade roads unless money budgeted for the rest of the province is diverted to building tarred roads in their locality. A ward committee is a party political structure. If they had done this during the apartheid era we would not have inherited this backlog. Why are they doing it now? Is this how political campaigning is going to be conducted in KwaZulu-Natal? It costs about R1.5 Million to build one kilometre of tarred road. Those who want every road in KwaZulu-Natal to be a tarred road must join us in a call that we made three years ago saying at least R3 billion must be allocated to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport every year for the next three years specifically to deal with the backlog. In that way their demonstrations will be more than cheap politicking. It will not only address what is not yet, but it will also address why it is not yet. We wish to congratulate the taxi industry as a whole in KwaZulu-Natal for refusing to allow themselves to be politically manipulated. Genuine problems existed in the taxi industry these emanated from the national Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) programme of Taxi Recapitalisation. The National Department of Transport together with the Provinces and DTI as well as the taxi industry have agreed to address these problems on an urgent basis. It is, however, unprecedented for political parties, as political parties, to get so involved all of a sudden, in taxi-related matters. We, however, thank the Taxi Industry for choosing a peaceful path to address genuine problems in a proper peace and legal way. We also wish to thank members of the media who did not allow themselves to fan the embers of taxi violence by reporting in a balanced manner. Their reporting made it possible for the industry and the public to make informed choices. The other issue that was of concern to the taxi industry was that of permits. Under the NATIONAL LAND TRANSPORT TRANSITIONAL ACT 4 OF 2000, the radius-based permits have been done away with. In order for a person to be a taxi operator they need to satisfy three requirements:
The legal requirement is that the Board must publish the application to operate in a particular route. After 21 days, the Board must entertain objections followed by hearings. This is time consuming and there are inevitable delays. We reached a constructive agreement with the taxi industry that the department would issue Interim Operating Licences to those that have been accepted by their associations and the municipalities. The Interim Operating Licence will ensure that the operator is able to do business while the passengers will, at the same time, be covered by insurance for purposes of the Road Accident Fund. Genuine discussion between the industry and the department will always bring about constructive solutions. As the KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department we can account for every rand that has been used in the past ten years. Maybe we should begin to account how the budget was used before we came on to the scene. This knowledge may be necessary to dispel illusions and may also assist to enlighten those who have become latter-day development activists who believe that KwaZulu-Natal will be the only place in the world where every road is tarred.
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