Chair,
We welcome yet another Transport Minister. We can only hope that Honourable Minister Nzimande will be better than his predecessor. That shouldn’t be too difficult to do. As I stated last year and theyear before, the Democratic Alliance is, and has always been supportive of any initiative that will get South Africa moving literally and figuratively. It is the transport sector that can – in real terms – negate apartheid’s spatial planning as it can bring real freedom to people and enable them to travel easier bringing their place of work to where they live.
In fact, the Portfolio Committee’s report takes transport a step further when it discusses fair universal access which aims at enabling all citizens to reach every destination by not only the traditional transport modalities but by other means which includes bicycle, wheelchair and even walking.
E-tolls
The Portfolio Committee also expressed its concern about SANRAL’s finances as the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, or e-tolls, continues to cripple this entity. The e-toll issue alone has turned an
otherwise efficient and effective state-owned entity (SOE) into one that is suffering economically. SANRAL needs to start facing this issue head-on and listen to the people of Gauteng. The entire e-tolls scheme needs to either be scrapped or be funded differently so that the financial burden is not left
with the already overstretched taxpayer. Now more than ever, the Minister must develop a new toll roads policy.
Experience shows us that a great contributor to the negative public sentiment against the e-tolls project was a deeply lacking public participation process. Until the e-tolls project is scrapped we need to ensure that any future e-toll projects do not repeat these bad public participation processes. My
Private Members Bill, recently tabled, aims at ensuring that affected mayors and premiers affected by future e-toll projects are properly consulted. It also protects motorists who wish to use alternative roads instead of the expensive toll roads, giving them a diversity of options. I hope that at the end of
this process my bill will be supported.
Rail
Just like previous years, PRASA continues to deliver corruption whilst millions of South Africans are left to suffer daily by using outdated and mal-maintained trains. The Pubic Protector’s 2015 over 390page “Derailed” report detailed a total failure of delivery and governance as well as wide-spread corruption within PRASA.
216 contracts all with the value of over R10 million each are being investigated by National Treasury. But we remain concerned about this as written replies I received last month, to questions I posed to Minister Nzibande indicate the following, and I quote:
“The Treasury report was scrutinised by PRASA and PRASA has responded to National Treasury indicating that some of the findings were inaccurate and needed to be reviewed. National Treasury has therefore undertaken a process to reappoint the relevant service providers to review the disputed findings. Once the service providers are appointed, a review will take place and the findings will be finalised.”
The reply thus indicates that the party that is being investigated, which in this case is PRASA, is also questioning the findings against them. The player is questioning the referee. This is plain madness. To top this, the reply also indicated that PRASA is dictating to Treasury to reappoint service providers to
review the findings, possibly because it puts PRASA in a bad light. Added to this is the fact that taxpayer’s money will be used for more investigations. These replies alone demonstrate that the Portfolio Committee’s investigation into PRASA that starts next week couldn’t have come at a better time. We all have a part to play in fighting corruption and rooting out those that corrupted.
We are sick and tired of the continued PRASA cover-up. The first interim Board continued it’s looting as soon it took up office. Questionable payments made as directed by the previous interim Board during their tenure needs to be investigated. In the meantime, we will watch with great interest the
activities of the new interim Board.
In the meantime, South Africans need to be moved by rail. This means that when looking at the PRASA modernising project, all options should be considered, such as, as stated in the committee’s report, the devolution of authority to regions. This must be an option as the modernisation project will not
be able to meet its budgetary obligations as it continues to spend on refurbishments of vandalised and outdated coaches and infrastructure to ensure services are able to run. It is time to consider the devolution of the rail function to cities that have the capacity.
The process needs to start to amalgamate Transnet and PRASA. Until these two SOEs become one so that all assets are planned and used holistically we will never be able to harness the economic and growth potential and opportunities that rail brings to the nation. Minister you need to help stop the
tug-of-war between PRASA and its bullying big bother, Transnet.
Once the fanfare dust has settled about the Moloto Development Corridor, this project is now progressing at a snail’s pace. In particular, the rail portion of this important project is practically at a stand-still. The Minister needs to kick some butt in this regard.
To make matters worse, to date the Committee has still not received PRASA’s annual report and it hasfailed to submit its 2018/19 procurement plan to National Treasury. What an indictment on PRASA!
Road Safety
As I stated last year and every year as member of this committee, if there is one key performance indicator than demonstrates a Transport Minister’s performance or non-performance, it’s road safetystatistics. Thousands continue to die every month yet the same strategies that do not yield positive
results continue to be used year in and year out. Reports by the RTMC confirm studies that the major reasons for road deaths are tyre- and brake-related issues, yet our road safety campaigns doesn’t speak to these concerns. Instead, the same strategy of checking vehicles and driver’s licenses
continues as a campaign yet different results are expected. This was plainly displayed in the recent Easter weekend statistics compared to the same period last year where fatality statistics increased.
Until road safety campaigns are designed against proper empirical research, we will continue to see thousands of motorists and pedestrians die unnecessarily costing the economy billions.
Conclusion
Minister, we are supportive of you fulfilling your mandate and are here to assist in whatever way possible. However, Minister, unlike your predecessor, you need to do the right thing and you actually need to be present and demonstrate leadership by addressing the numerous transport issues that we
face today. Until this is done using the values of Freedom, Fairness, Opportunity and Diversity we will continue to see these continued problems within the Transport sector.