Speeches

SPEECH BY THE MEC FOR TRANSPORT, KWAZULU-NATAL, S'BU NDEBELE, AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT, KWAZULU-NATAL, 30 May 2000

Master of Ceremonies
Members of the Royal Family present
AmaKhosi present
National Ministers present
Ministers from other provinces present
Members of Parliament present
Members of the Transport Portfolio Committee present
Mayors and Councillors present
Members of the Rural Road Transport Forums present
Members of the Community Road Safety Councils present
Members of Taxi Associations present
Members of the Taxi Task Team present
Mr Mbanjwa and Officials of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport present
Members of the Media present
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Let me begin by thanking you for your attendance. It is indeed gratifying for both me and my Department to see this hall so full in what has become our traditional post budget report back rural road summit.

It is my practice to report back annually to the amaKhosi, the Rural Road Transport Forums and the Emerging Contractor sector on the progress made by my Department in the previous financial year and to outline our plans for the current financial year. Indeed, this is the fifth annual rural road summit hosted by my Department. These summits allow you, the public, to judge for yourselves on the progress made by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport in its service to you.

For this year's summit we have extended invitations to include amaKhosi, Rural Road Transport Forums, Community Road Safety Councils, Emerging Contractor Associations and Taxi Associations. We have attempted to make this summit as inclusive as possible because the Department of Transport is undergoing a restructuring process which will shape the delivery of its services to the public for the next decade.

My Head of Department, Mr Kwazi Mbanjwa, will outline for you the details of the new look Department of Transport. My task is to motivate to you the reasons for the restructuring and what it is you can expect from us.

However, I would like to stress that the restructuring task team have stuck to their mandate which was to establish the structures that could streamline all departmental services to the public in the most cost efficient way possible. They have not allowed themselves to be swayed by strong personalities and have produced a framework which is truly revolutionary and truly post apartheid.

We call this framework the "One Stop Shop". It entails streamlining all core functions of the Department of Transport at regional service points under one roof in order to provide a more efficient and more accessible service, particularly to the previously marginalised sectors of our society.

When I became the first MEC of Transport in the 1994 KwaZulu-Natal Government I saw my mandate as one of providing a balanced road network, a safe road environment and, in the process, creating work and business opportunities for those previously denied them. I believe that, under this coalition government, this is still my top priority as MEC for Transport.

In my address to you today I will first report on the Department of Transport's budget allocation for 2000/2001. Thereafter I will address the issue of restructuring and what we call the "One Stop Shop".

Today I am the longest serving MEC for Transport in South Africa and, believe me, it has not been an easy portfolio to manage. Like my colleagues in other provinces I have been required to deliver on my portfolio with a hopelessly inadequate budget. This is by no means a recent phenomenon as successive governments since 1975 have followed a trend of under budgeting for road and transport infrastructure. Indeed, the overall expenditure for roads (national and provincial) was less in real terms in 1995/1996 (R3 190 million) than it was in 1968/1969 (R3 250 million). Since 1975 the number of commercial vehicles on our roads has increased by 7% per annum while that of other vehicles has grown by 3% per annum.

It is almost an impossible task without an appropriate budget to remedy network inequalities that arose during apartheid through policies of separate development and at the same time maintain the established road network to an appropriate standard. Yet we dare not fail. More than 80% of goods and people within KwaZulu-Natal are transported by road. This means that if our road network fails our provincial economy will collapse. This will also impact on national economic performance as our harbours at Durban and Richards Bay are critical links to international trade.

Our 2000/2001 budget allocation has increased from R696 million to R855 million. Even though almost 80% of our budget is allocated through the Chief Directorate : Roads, this budget is not enough. A recently commissioned study has concluded that 40% of our road network must be urgently upgraded to become maintainable. This 40% includes 800 kilometres of blacktop road. Those of you who use the R618 route from Mtubatuba to Nongoma know only too well that as fast as the Department of Transport repairs potholes, new potholes form elsewhere.

This scientific assessment concerning the condition of our road network was made before the floods that caused severe damage to our road network. As you know, during the floods:

whole roads were washed away
road edges were washed away or undermined
sinkholes appeared and potholing became more extensive
bridge walls were damaged
approaches to bridges were washed away
low level crossings were washed away

We believe it will take several hundred million rands to restore our road network to its pre flood condition. This condition, I must repeat, was one in which 40% of our road network was not in a maintainable condition.

We calculate that the Department needs to spend R1 150 million per annum on basic road upgrading and maintenance programmes in order to address our rural backlog within five years and ensure that our entire network is in a maintainable condition.

It is important that you, as the travelling public, fully appreciate what increased costs you will incur if we fail to upgrade our network to a maintainable condition:

Vehicle operating costs will increase by R1 280 million per annum
Road surface related accident costs will increase by R120 million per annum
Our road network asset value will decline by R150 million per annum

In other words, a failure to invest R1 150 million per annum in road infrastructure will cost the motoring public of KwaZulu-Natal R1 560 million extra per annum.

I do not want to sound like a prophet of doom but I must repeat: "If our road network fails, our provincial economy will collapse". We need the support of the KwaZulu-Natal public to motivate an essential increase in the budget allocation to the Department of Transport.

For our part:

We will continue to lobby Cabinet both nationally and provincially to increase budget allocations to roads.

We will continue to access additional funds from special budget votes, especially votes that have been earmarked for job creation.

We will continue to seek public/private partnerships to address mutual road needs. In fact I will be holding a press conference on 6 June with Wesbank First Auto to announce a new deal in fleet management services that will create new opportunities across the board for emerging merchants.

We will continue to rob Peter to pay Paul within a consistent vision to implement policies and programmes that systematically address the massive network imbalances, mobility imbalances and social neglect inherited from the apartheid era.

We will stretch every rand of our budget further than it has been stretched before. This we will achieve by reviewing our structures and programmes until we are fully satisfied that you, the public, are getting value for money.

This, ladies and gentlemen, brings me to the second topic of my address namely the "One Stop Shop".

Political transformation always requires both bureaucratic reorganisation and bureaucratic reorientation. In South Africa this is even more so the case because political transformation is expected by the majority to result in social and economic transformation.

In 1994 we in Government realised only too well that the first serious obstacle to the implementation of our mandates would be our own bureaucracy. As politicians we had inherited a bureaucracy that was by no means user friendly to the majority of our citizens. Can we as a nation ever forget apartheid's transport policies that led to violent bus boycotts and Ghandi being thrown out of a moving train in Pietermaritzburg? Our challenge then, in our first five years of government, was to transform our civil service into public servants and at the same time address the critical issue of representation in terms of race and gender.

In the Department of Transport we responded to this challenge by consciously establishing civil society structures in key performance programmes. These organs of civil society - the Rural Road Transport Forums, the Community Road Safety Councils, the Taxi Associations and the Emerging Contractor Associations - have all played a critical role in reorientating our bureaucrats and ensuring that we have, for the most part, the right people in place to accelerate change in a positive and consultative manner.

Over the past six years solid foundations have been laid through new policies, new budget allocations and new institutional frameworks that now guarantee that our vision to achieve equity and justice will not be sidelined. Prosperity Through Mobility, the Department's mission and vision, has become an irreversible social reality for previously isolated rural populations.

The restructuring process of the Department of Transport builds on the solid foundations already made in providing services and opportunities to meet the needs of resource poor communities. These programmes, with which you are all familiar, - Roads for Rural Development, Emerging Contractors, Zibambele, Taxi and Public Transport services, RTI, Asiphephe - will now be strengthened in the restructured Department of Transport.

I am therefore pleased to announce that our budget allocation to the Development Directorate is R145 million of which R15 million is earmarked for Zibambele and R130 million for Community Access Roads and the Emerging Contractor programme. The people being empowered through our Roads for Rural Development programme are ordinary citizens who have never before been able to access Government contracts. They range from the most destitute families, as in the Zibambele contracts, to contracts for Emerging Contractors that do not exceed R600 000. In the 1999/2000 budget year alone we have given out more than 2 700 Zibambele contracts to destitute households and 418 new contracts to Emerging Contractors (218 Stage One, 86 Stage Two and 114 Stage 3). These Emerging Contractors were responsible for constructing hundreds of kilometres of community access roads and in regravelling nearly 700 kilometres of priority roads to serve the needs of rural communities. They also completed the building of 34 small bridges and causeways while another 32 small bridges and causeways are still under construction. This year we intend to increase the number of Zibambele contracts to 6 000 and we intend awarding contracts to the value of R150 million to Emerging Contractors.

Our Taxi Office continues to ensure the orderly registration of Taxi Associations and routes. To date some 18 000 taxis have registered and route specific permits are being issued. Taxi co-operatives and taxi cities have been established to harness the financial muscle of the taxi industry at local levels. Last year we launched the Umthombo Investment Company which is a financial holding company with the taxi industry as a major shareholder. Taxi co-operatives, taxi cities and the Umthombo Investment Company are all products of our departmental commitment to consult and work with the leadership of the taxi industry in the best interests of the public. Some 60% to 70% of road users are dependent on taxi transport. I am pleased to announce, therefore, that on Tuesday 29 February 2000 I met with the provincial taxi industry who gave their full support to the taxi recapitalisation process.

The taxi recapitalisation plan is designed to replace the country's ageing - often unroadworthy - fleet of 126 000 vehicles with custom made 18 and 35 seater taxis which will have high safety standards. This will make daily travel much safer for the vast majority of road users in South Africa.

I want to stress that 60% to 70% of road users are dependent on taxi transport. Recapitalization of the ageing taxi fleet will undoubtedly reduce road collisions. However, this is not in itself enough to make commuting by taxi a safe form of travel. The industry itself is characterised by violent conflict which often costs innocent commuters and bystanders their lives. Remember the 14 people who died in a single day in the Empangeni bloody taxi rank war. This was not an isolated incident. I don't need to remind you of this because most of you came here to the DLI today by taxi. You know only too well how taxi violence and taxi wars affect your lives and those of your family.

I have now taken drastic measures to end taxi violence and to guarantee the KwaZulu-Natal communing public a safe road environment and safe public transport. Years of mediation - even by King Goodwill Zwelithini - have failed to end the taxi violence and the taxi wars. I have now established a Judicial Commission of Inquiry under Judge T Aboobaker which will work with hand-picked investigation teams. The commission will have all the powers of a court of law.

It will be the Taxi Industry's equivalent of the TRC. It will begin its work in June. It will end the taxi violence once and for all, and expose those who profit from this evil.

Road collisions in South Africa cost our economy more than R17 billion per annum. This is equal to our entire provincial budget. Road collisions in KwaZulu-Natal cost the province more than R2 billion per annum. This is more than double the provincial budget allocation to the Department of Transport. The way we drive is a product of the old order. It is not a new thing. What is new is the determination of Government to reduce road collisions and to provide a safer road environment for all road users.

In KwaZulu-Natal we have introduced a Zero Tolerance campaign and given it teeth by introducing booze buses, high speed camera technology and increased surveillance and enforcement.

In October 2000 AARTO (Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences) will come into effect. AARTO will remove the responsibility for collection of fines from the courts and will be an administrative process that we ourselves will oversee. KZNDOT as the AARTO agency will be responsible for the collection of fines and for issuing demerit points on driver's licences. Our Zero-Tolerance campaign now has new teeth.

No one is compelled to incur a fine - everyone is compelled to pay this their fines.
We anticipate that the recently formed Community Road Safety Councils will play a critical role in assisting the Department in its work of promoting a culture of road safety and ensuring that the values necessary to guarantee a safe road environment will be internalised by all KwaZulu-Natal citizens.

Although the Department of Transport has made steady progress in redistributing its budgets and services to meet the needs of the poor and in creating an enabling environment for black economic empowerment, we are now expected to do better and to speed up the delivery of critical programmes.

Our President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, has made it clear that during his term of office he expects his government to be judged on its record of uprooting poverty - especially rural poverty - and the delivery of basic and essential services to all.

All government departments have now been charged by President Mbeki with reviewing their services to the public and with reconciling their budgets, their structures and staff allocations to meet service objectives. These objectives include improved financial accountability in service delivery, eradicating corruption and abuse of public resources, increasing the proportion of public funds actually spent on public investments and professionalising the public service.

In his State of the Nation address to Parliament on 4 February 2000 President Mbeki announced that the year 2000 would initiate the Government's Integrated and Sustainable Rural Development Programme which will frame this decade of service delivery to rural populations.

In announcing the implementation of this new initiative President Mbeki emphasised, and I quote: "Rural roads are of critical importance to the success of our rural development strategy".

I accordingly instructed my newly appointed Head of Department, Mr Kwazi Mbanjwa, to restructure the Department of Transport with the view of guaranteeing integrated service delivery to the public. I posed the question to him then and I pose the question to you now: "How can a department whose services to the public are so dispersed act to integrate rural development unless it first integrates its own services to the public?".

We call our restructured integrated service delivery the "One Stop Shop". Mr Mbanjwa will outline the details of what you can expect from our "One Stop Shop". For my part let me say that it is well established in development literature that the more scattered government services are the more difficult and the more expensive they are for people to access; and the poorer the population is the more difficulty they experience in accessing government services. People centred development advocates bringing government closer to the people in such a way that it is more easily accessible, more easily understandable and that it is less of a drain on the meagre resources of poor families.

The "One Stop Shop" will bring the Department of Transport closer to where you live. It will ensure more effective communication and will certainly minimise you being passed from one office to another without ever being able to get a straight answer to your needs. The "One Stop Shop" will result in a saving both in time and in money. Government time, tax payers money, your time and your money.

I realise from Mr Mbanjwa's recent tour of all our Regional Offices, that the restructuring process has kindled new hope for exciting careers within the Department of Transport. We want to build on these hopes and I am particularly pleased that our various unions have been fully consulted and are fully on board. The tour has of course also uncovered deep rooted fears. We would like to allay these fears without compromising the restructuring process.

Exciting career opportunities will be introduced as we streamline the delivery of core functions through the "One Stop Shops".. For those public servants who still fear transformation, I would like to echo President Mbeki who concluded his Response to the Debate on the State of the Nation Address with the following words:

"Let those who will, work together to bring the gift of hope to us all".

In conclusion, over the past years the Department of Transport has developed strong consultative programmes with all road and transport stakeholders. This has allowed us to develop working systems that create jobs, business opportunities and wealth, especially for disadvantaged communities. We now intend to streamline all our services to ensure that the public get better value for money and that our services become more easily accessible to the public. We will continue to invest our hopelessly inadequate budget to provide a balanced road network, a safe road environment and we will create more work and business opportunities for those previously denied them.

Issued by the Office of the MEC for Transport, KwaZulu-Natal, 30 May 2000

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