The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by the DA’s Shadow Deputy Minister of Transport, Chris Hunsinger MP, during the Budget Vote on Transport.
The core problem with Transport under this ruling government, is not a lack of money, but organisational dysfunction. The distresses that millions of people are facing daily is echoed by a range of red signals.
Chairperson, the review of the past three years in audit outcomes indicated that there has been a regression in reliable performance reporting.
The level of accuracy and reliability of entities is deteriorating with no focus on consequence management.
Sadly, Transport is adding to the current negative fiscal and credibility image, mainly because the fundamentals are not in place.
This being the main reason why former Minister, Dipuo Peters, could not be trusted behind the wheel any longer.
During this budget review, each entity confessed loyalty to the National Development Plan (NDP), Medium Term Strategic Framework and the State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2017. However, in the case of Transport, this is clearly mere lip-service.
For instance, we have one rail network, yet the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and TRANSNET cross-invoice each other annually way beyond one billion rand. This ridiculous dual ownership scheme on rail-assets should be stopped immediately.
Yet, with more than a billion rand conveniently “floating” between the two entities, our commuters are battling to keep their jobs with daily delays on our railways – not to mention the challenges around scholars and homes that are equally affected.
Public Transport in general, is not on time, not safe and not clean.
Train delays are detrimental to the whole economy. Every average train-set delayed for 40 minutes attributes to a loss of 400 person-hours per event.
This is not acceptable and not fair to our users.
The 157 coaches lost, due to vandalism between January and April in the Western Cape this year, is one thing; not having a single fence around it, definitely something else; and Minister, don’t even think to blame this on budget constraints. If you could find R42 million for 70 toilet seats, like PRASA did, you can find money for a fence and make it safer for our commuters!
Will you, Minister, allow the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to get away with tender requests before a bill has been approved?
The RAF called for several Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS) related service provisions, like Medical Treatment Protocols and RABS Corporate Branding Services. This, while the RABS Bill has not been approved.
Words like “insolvent” and “financial constraints” are used in relation to the terrible state of management of the RAF and then tenders for nearly 100 car ports and for fancy offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg are disclosed.
Minister, I’m sure you’re not aware that most, if not all RAF claims, are processed by Medscheme on behalf of the RAF. But the illusion-specialist Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Eugene Watson, mesmerises everyone with fairy-tale phrases like, the “RAF is doing well”.
The recent arrest of Traffic and Licencing Department officials in Johannesburg by the new DA administration was a step in the right direction.
The loss of income due to this fraudulent activity has cost the City of Johannesburg an estimated R14,7 million in revenue.
This result of corrupt actions is hardly the full picture of the rot.
Vehicle roadworthy test stations have no standardised system to prove that a vehicle has been there. In many cases, only the paperwork and a wallet ever gets to the test station.
Most importantly, Chair, whether it is road, rail or air or sea, we cannot afford divided and duplicated safety regulation in its current form. The DA would immediately unite all current safety regulators and agencies and position them in the Department of Transport as a direct function of the Department, get rid of the senseless tariffs and valueless registrations and direct the enormous saving towards safety and reliability for our commuters and travellers.
We simply cannot afford the current structure.
In conclusion, Minister, our citizens require reliable information that not only describes how taxpayer contributions are spent, but explains how key policies and decisions are implemented to their benefit.
I thank you.