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ADDRESS AT THE TURNING OF THE SOD OF AFRICAN RENAISSANCE MAIN ROAD 235 BY MR S'BU NDEBELE, MEC FOR TRANSPORT, KWAZULU-NATAL25 June 2001
Master of Ceremonies Today is an historic occasion for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport and the communities of Nongoma, Hlabisa and Nseleni. Main Road 235 is the first road to be upgraded under our African Renaissance Roads Programme. I would like to use this opportunity to explain what makes the African Renaissance Roads Programme so different from any other roads programme and why we have chosen Road 235 as the project to launch the programme. As early as the eighteenth century, King Shaka had already identified Hluhluwe-Umfolozi area as a conservation area because he felt that people were over-hunting. Today Main Road 235 is going to be blacktopped through the nature reserve as Shaka had earlier envisaged. In collaboration with KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife the construction of Main Road 235 will be as environmentally friendly as possible with the beautification of the road reserve as an important objective. What have roads to do with our African Renaissance? Our African Renaissance is about our rebirth and our renewal. It is about taking our rightful place in the world economy and within the cultural diversity of the global village. Ubuntu - I am because you are. This is truly a vibrant, dynamic and interactive philosophical perspective, unique to our African continent. Ubuntu - I am because you are. There is no I am right and you are wrong in Ubuntu. Let me quote from a Jesuit priest named Placide Tempels book, "Bantu Philosophy". "While European philosophy is based on the concept of being, Bantu philosophy is based on the concept of force - it is dynamic not static, the central principle being vital force. Bantu psychology cannot conceive of a man as an individual existing by himself, unrelated to the animate and inanimate forces surrounding him. It is not sufficient to say he a social being: he feels himself a vital force in actual intimate and permanent rapport with other forces - a vital force both influenced by and influencing them. The value of any phenomenon, any physical thing, any act, and any relationship is measured by this influence upon the vital force of the individual. The which enhanced it is good; that which diminishes it is bad." Ubuntu - I am because you are. Our constitution, our mandate to govern and our African Renaissance are based on the principles of participatory democracy and that government uses its budgets and devises innovative investment strategies to secure equity and the abolition of poverty in a transparent and accountable manner. I would like to repeat: It is you, the voting public, who gave our democratically elected government the mandate to use its budgets to devise innovative investment strategies to secure equity and the abolition of poverty is a transparent and accountable manner. This is a non negotiable. If our budgets are not reaching grassroots communities and making a real tangible difference in the lives of poor people - who are our majority citizens and our majority voters - then we, as government, will have failed in the mandate we have been given by the people of South Africa. During the past six years the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport has chipped away at the inequalities inherited from past governments. We have created a variety of innovative programmes such as Zibambele and the Emerging Contractor programme that are designed to create new work and business opportunities for those previously denied them. We have systematically restructured our bureaucracy to ensure that, ever increasingly, our services are provided to those populations and communities that have the greatest need. Over the past six years we have learnt many important development lessons. The past six years of chipping away at the apartheid legacy, developing new programmes and restructuring our department now all come together to launch our African Renaissance Roads Programme. Our African Renaissance Roads Programme is about the upgrading and blacktopping of major transport corridors throughout the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Our African Renaissance Roads Programme is about constructing that transport corridor that will breathe new life into the economy of our province. The upgrading of transport corridors, such as Main Road 235, will result in much more cost efficient and costs effective transport systems and this will facilitate trade within the region, our province and indeed internationally. I am certain that everyone here today realises the importance of linking Nongoma and Hlabisa to the N2 and to the agriculture and tourism potential of the Lubombo SDI and the Richards Bay/Durban/Pietermaritzburg Industrial SDI. In this context it is important to note that the surfacing of the Mtubatuba - Nongoma road will shorten the surfaced busroute from Richards Bay to Nongoma via Nkwalini by 70 km. I would like to emphasise here that when I announced the African Renaissance Roads Programme, in my budget speech on 20 March 2001, I announced the upgrading of Main Road 235 in the context of also upgrading Main Roads 52 and 49. This will provide a blacktop road from Mtubatuba to Vryheid via Nongoma, and from Nongoma to Pongola. I also announced the intention to upgrade other significant transport corridors in the north-east KwaZulu-Natal region. These included Main Roads 15 and 50 extending from Kranskop to Nkandla and Eshowe. This network of African Renaissance roads will contribute to unlocking the massive development potential of the Zululand and Uthungulu District Councils. These districts are home to some of the poorest people of KwaZulu-Natal and indeed South Africa. The prevalence of such deep-rooted poverty is unnecessary. The region has a massive potential to attract investors and to promote agriculture, tourism and enterprise development. There is therefore a massive but undeveloped potential to create new jobs, new businesses opportunities and to diversify the region's economy so that our children need not have to leave home to find work. I would like to assure you today that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport is serious about putting an end to your physical and social isolation. We are serious about using the African Renaissance Roads Programme to develop important transport corridors that will provide the necessary kick-start to realising the full development potential of our province. We are serious about uprooting poverty and we are committed to working co-operatively with District Councils and local government to establish a local development agenda that resonates with the Rural Development Strategy Framework. We are committed as spheres of government - national, provincial and local - to work together to raise investor awareness and to ensure the maximum impact of local economic development initiatives and poverty alleviation strategies. In turning the sod today at main Road 235 we are launching not only the upgrading to blacktop of a critical transport corridor, we are committing ourselves to a new formula for constructing large road projects in KwaZulu-Natal. Our intention in all African Renaissance road-upgrading projects is to unbundle contracts in such a way that well established contractor enterprises would team with emerging contractor enterprises to build the roads on independent contracts but as interdependent contractors. To create opportunities for emerging contractors with various levels of experiences and expertise it was decided to subdivide the project into seven contracts 3 structures and 4 road contracts. Further smaller contracts will be used to also maximise the work opportunities for local emerging contractors under out Stage Advancement Emerging Contractor Program. Six of the seven contracts will be awarded to emerging contractors. In monetary terms, roadworks and structures to an estimated value of at least R25, 7 out of a total of R35, 0 (or 66,3%) will be constructed by emerging contractors. The three road and stormwater drainage contracts are to be awarded to emerging contractor's will vary between an estimated R6, 5 million to R7, 3 million. The roadworks and hard rock quarry contract to be awarded to the established contractor will cost and estimated R12 million. An emerging contractor constructs the Nyalazi Bridge at an estimated cost of R2, 2 million. Two box culvert contracts to be awarded to emerging contractors will cost an estimated R900, 000 and R700, 000. An integral part of the African Renaissance Road Construction program will be the mentoring/training component. The supervision and construction program of the roads and structures contracts are specifically structured to provide the emerging contractors (although involved in independent contracts) with the required support (in terms of staff, expertise and equipment) from the established contractor. Suitable training consultants will also be appointed to carry out training of the following disciplines that require training:
It was in the Hlabisa district that the first all ladies SMME team made history and successfully constructed a river crossing structure (causeway). What made this achievement even more remarkable is the fact that this team did not have any previous experience in this field of endeavour. Similar opportunities will be created during the construction of Main Road 235 to maximise the involvement of local entrepreneurs. The following are some examples of activities that will be reserved for SMMEs
Some aspects of the road beautification initiative and others.
We intend therefore to include a road beautification programme that will accommodate rest stops with clean toilet facilities and landscaped indigenous gardens. These rest stops will be maintained and kept clean by Zibambele contractors. They will undoubtedly become a focal point to market handcrafts, garden produce and refreshments. I realise only too well that Hlabisa is famous for its handcrafted baskets. I realise only too well that it has been the handcraft skills of local people that have allowed families to survive and indeed to prosper and hope. I realise only too well that the marketing of handcrafts from Hlabisa has often proved difficult and exploitative. I believe that the upgrading of Main Road 235 will open up new avenues for the marketing of handcrafts and create the type of competitive market that will ensure a better deal for local craftsmen and craftswomen. Our African Renaissance Roads Programme is not a dream. It is a vision and visions can turn dreams into reality. It gives me pleasure to announce that the site meetings for the structures contracts will take place on the fifth of July 2001. Before closing I would like to address the issue of why we have chosen Main Road 235 to launch the African Renaissance Roads Programme. To put it quite simply, the fact that Main Road 235 is not yet
a blacktop road is unacceptable to all those who understand and
appreciate the hardships that the affected communities have had
to endure for so many years because of the poor condition of Main
Road Indeed, the hardships they experienced are so pronounced that two years ago the Nongoma, Hlabisa and Nseleni Rural Road Transport Forums joined hands with amakhosi and business leaders to motivate the Main Road 235 become a toll road. Think on that! The community volunteered to pay, in instalments through tolls, for the upgrading of Main Road 235 to blacktop. Such motivations are hard to resist. However, it is only now through the introduction of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework that we, as a Department, are in a position to finance such large projects. I would like to commend and thank all of you who have contributed towards the development of the African Renaissance Roads Programme. Ubuntu - I am because you are. Let us use the happy occasion of today to rededicate ourselves to working together to ensure a better life for all. Thank you.
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