Enough Failure – ANC government must introduce effective transport reforms

Allow me to start off by thanking the Minister and Deputy Minister for the time that they spent with the Portfolio Committee when it analysed the budget. It’s most unusual for a Minister to spend much, if any time, with the Committee. Thank you for respecting the important oversight role that we have. However, I query whether in future our Minister and Deputy Minister will be as present, as in her Department’s own Annual Performance Plan it indicates that spending on travel and subsistence is expected to increase to R31,8 million in the 2016/17 financial year, and I quote from the plan, “as a result of the minister and deputy minister’s needing to travel more often”. The budgeted amount for the Minister and Deputy Minister’s travel could cover 90 857 potholes! The mind boggles at where the Minister would need to travel so much to considering the many urgent and pressing issues she must attend to right here at home. By far the biggest transport issue presently on the lips of South Africans is the e-Tolls issue which the public almost unanimously rejects. This issue has been handled poorly from the very beginning. The voters of Gauteng have been making their feelings felt with their peaceful resistance campaign by not signing onto the e-Tag system. Their feelings were clearly further demonstrated when they reduced the ANC’s support from 64,4% in the 2009 Election to 53,59% in this year’s Election. The ANC is Gauteng is now desperate to show its voters that it is on their side on this issue and is now trying to fool them into thinking that they are doing something positive for them here. The partly failed SANRAL bond auction on 2nd July which only raised R275 million out of the total bids of R465 million shows that investors are nervous. Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s announcement of the Gauteng Provincial Government review of the E-tolls system is nothing more than a public relations stunt. The E-tolls system is governed by national legislation, therefore the only body that is empowered to legitimately review the system and make pronouncements on its future is Parliament, through the Portfolio Committee of Transport. The review panel must therefore be a Parliamentary Committee. Why is Minister Peters remaining silent on this while Premier Makhura continues with this charade? The DA now calls for the Minister to show leadership, and support the need for the review of E-tolls to take place in Parliament. The terms of reference for the Gauteng E-tolls Review Panel announced by Premier Makhura clearly indicates that the panel is not empowered to take any action against E-tolls. The people of South Africa need to see action on E-tolls, and not just a “talk-shop” in Gauteng that has no legal powers. The cost of this Review Panel will take public funds away from other critical needs, yet it can make no meaningful changes to the E-tolls scheme. The DA will continue this fight against E-tolls, which are an economic burden and were imposed upon South Africans without any meaningful consultation. Watch this space. To add insult to injury, SANRAL branding and vehicles are utilised at roadblocks conducted by other traffic enforcement agencies. Motorists are being intimidated to buy e-tags. This is being done without any legal basis to do so. I have already written to the Head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), Robert McBride, to request an urgent investigation into the utilisation of the traffic enforcement agencies by SANRAL for the purpose of coercing motorists to purchase e-tags. The DA opposes the abuse of policing services - which should be spending their time upholding the law and keeping South Africans safe. It appears that SANRAL’s abuse isn’t stopping here. The Minister needs to tell this House and indeed the citizens of South Africa if SANRAL still intends to pursue the prosecution and criminalization of people who have not paid their e-toll bills. To do this will only serve to aggravate the implicit conflict between Government and the public. The ANC’s indifference to rail transport, which should be the backbone of public transport, caused a massive swing towards trucking and it is no coincidence that the road fatality rate went into an upward direction starting in 1998 as the number of trucks on our roads exceeded the traffic police’s resources and competence. For example, the paucity of weighbridges and preferences to enforce speed instead of moving violations were directly responsible for the complete destruction of the N3 to Durban by overloaded trucks, resulting in it being rebuilt and tolled so heavily that it’s now cheaper to fly to Durban than to drive. Rail networks exist across our country and the efficiencies of rail verses road transport are well known. It takes one liter of diesel to transport one tonne of goods 100 meters compared to the same liter transporting one tonne on rail transport for 4000 metres or 4 kilometers. So why are we even allowing this to happen? It appears that government is starting to understand that rail must be the backbone of any public transport system. This is confirmed in the National Development Plan. This we have seen to be the case in many instances internationally. However, until we see the lion’s share of the budget being allocated to rail and its development I remain skeptical about government’s seriousness about getting people off the roads. Currently the largest amount in the budget is still allocated to roads and its infrastructure. With making rail the backbone of transport must come the assurance that indeed using rail is safe. However, reports in the media allege that the CEO of the Railway Safety Regulator spent taxpayers’ money to hire his friends. Has this been investigated, Minister? But this is not the only issue that government is slow to realize. The National Transport Master Plan (Natmap) is still outstanding and Minister Peters called for industry input only in October last year. How much longer will this take? I remember talking about Natmap back in 2009 when I first joined the Transport committee. It was highlighted in our Portfolio deliberations that the Scholar Transport Policy has been outstanding for years and has still not been finalised. In fact, during a presentation to the Transport Portfolio Committee in the last Parliament, the Department of Transport’s Chief Financial Officer, Collins Letsoalo, admitted that after eight years the Department still has not finalised its National Scholar Transport Policy. Furthermore, after five years the policy for Shova Kalula, a programme which is meant to provide an estimated 1 000 000 bicycles to rural schools, has not been implemented either. It’s pilot programme demonstrated a number of deficiencies. The Department, it seems, has been unable to resolve these problems. In every Transport Budget speech I have delivered to date I have spoken about road safety. More than 14 000 people lose their lives on South Africa’s roads annually and despite a target of 30% reduction in road fatalities, the Minister only achieved a 0.79% reduction. The Western Cape Transport Department however has managed to achieve a 31% decrease since 2009. South Africa is rated the worst, out of 36 other countries, when it came to the number of road fatalities. South Africa's road fatalities per 100 000 inhabitants was at 27.6 deaths in 2011 according to The International Transport Forum's (ITF) Road Safety Annual Report and international report for 2013. This is a mortality rate of 28 per 100 000 citizens dying as a result of road fatalities. These fatalities result in a huge socio-economic cost, estimated at R306 billion per annum. The Minister must explain why, as reported in the World Health Organisation's report into road safety released last month, South Africa ranks 177th out of 182 countries studied for road fatalities? Why are road deaths increasing despite having a dedicated body, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), at its disposal, and it mounting several high profile road safety campaigns? The previous Minister Martins recognised the need to shut down the RTMC yet Minister Peters’ new plan for the troublesome entity seems confusing and unclear despite our unacceptable road death figures year after year. The RTMC’s under-reporting on road deaths is compromised. It is clear that the RTMC is largely ineffectual in stemming the annual tide of these deaths. A major shift is therefore needed in how we approach road safety. Why do the figures released by the Transport Department over the last 5 years for road deaths differ vastly from mortuary death studies performed by the National Institute of Mortality Studies (NIMMs) and the October 2012 report by the Medical Research Council into Death certificates at Mortuaries? I can’t help thinking that the statistics provided by the Department are “massaged” before being made public. The Minister and her deputy have their work cut out for them. I hope that by this time next year we will have more to celebrate as there is little to celebrate at the moment. Her first step would be to travel less and sort out these problems right here.