Minister’s comments confirms her one-dimensional thinking

Recent comments made in the media by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters illustrates the Minister’s one-dimensional thinking when it comes to transport. Obviously we all agree that transport go hand-in-hand and is a catalyst for economic growth. The fact that at present this isn’t happening under her watch seems to escape the Honourable Minister. Her comments confirms my statements I made in the Transport budget debate this year; that her department continues to place emphasis on roads, because roads are used more and more due to lack of a workable alternative. Continuous maintenance is required as a result of excessive road usage and so the vicious on-going cycle continues. Minister Peters only mentions rail as an afterthought despite her existing departmental policy and that of the National Development Plan, being that rail should be the backbone of the public transport system. In reality this is merely a policy on paper. Little is said and less done about combating the inefficiencies of the current rail system so that as much traffic (goods and people) as possible is moved from road to rail. The fact that rail is the most economically efficient and effective transport mode available is undisputed. It takes one litre of diesel to transport one tonne of goods over 100 meters via road compared to the same litre transporting one tonne on rail transport for 4 kilometres. If the majority of traffic were moved efficiently and securely on rail we would find there to be less traffic on roads, which in turn would require less of the national transport budget freeing up funds for transport infrastructure projects and extending the life-span of our roads. Rail would be an excellent counterweight to the limited and expensive apartheid transport planning practices, where despite people living geographically far from their workplaces they would be able to use rail to commute to and from work safely without much effort emotionally, physically and financially. An emphasis on rail would mean economic growth and the creation of jobs which we so badly need in South Africa. Reduced traffic on roads would mean less road accident fatalities on our highways of death. This in itself would contribute to our economy as these fatalities result in a huge socio-economic cost, estimated at R306 billion per annum. Foremost in the mind of people in Gauteng and soon in the Western Cape, is the fact that there would be no e-tolls required to fund these budget draining roads in the first place. Despite all the benefits of rail, which ironically the Minister has on various occasions endorsed, she continues to be led by the people of Sanral whose passion is to build roads. Until there is a political will to emphasis rail and not roads we will continue to stagnate on transport and to pave our roads in blood.

The new eToll dispensation – there is an alternative yet the ANC refuse it!

The recent announcement on the dispensation for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), commonly known as the e-Tolls, by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was received with much anticipation. Most of the residents in Gauteng were expecting for this unjust system to simply be scrapped. Instead, the Deputy President announced nothing more than “smoke and mirrors” – as if motorists wouldn’t be able to see through this. These tricks were essential for the ANC as they dramatically lost a record 11% support in Gauteng during last year’s General Election. This was staggering reduction in the ANC’s support from 64,4% in the 2009 Election to 53,59% in last year’s General Election. The voters of Gauteng have made their feelings known with their peaceful resistance campaign of not paying for the e-tolls system. The message from Gautengers is simple; we saw the gantries being built on our existing freeways. We weren’t consulted. We didn’t ask for them. Now were are expected to pay. We will not. After all, we are simply following the attitude of our President: he saw the construction being built at his Nkandla homestead. He wasn’t consulted. He didn’t ask for them. Now he is expected to pay. He says he won’t. Why should Gautengers have a different attitude? Ramaphosa and the rest of the government genuinely believed that they had come up with the perfect e-toll “deal”. They just don’t get it! It’s no longer about the best “deal”. It’s about the ANC government, its abuse of power and continued upward trend at corruption and raping of resources at every sphere of government. The citizens are quite simply gatvol! Their attitude is simple: government expects us to pay for e-tolls which money will benefit a European state. Yet Zuma and his cronies continue to ride the crest of the corruption wave benefiting from South Africans hard earned earnings yet treating the population like simpletons even to an extent that the President last week joked and laughed in Parliament about the public’s response to Nkandla! The sad part of this is that there are cheaper, more efficient and more effective alternatives to funding the e-tolls. The latest announcement by Ramaphosa clearly illustrates that government has had the capacity to subsidise the e-tolls from their inception but has tried to squeeze every cent out of its citizens instead. Ramaphosa was clearly uninformed when he made his assurances that there was wide consultation before his announcement on e-tolls, since Cosatu has come out against these new measures and organisations such as OUTA were not even approached for comment. Clearly the wrong people if any have been consulted. An Ipsos study conducted in April showed that an overwhelming 74% of Gauteng motorists believed the government should find an alternative to the e-toll system. Speaking to officials in the Department of Transport, I got the impression that the department thought that they will now blackmail motorists into paying for this unjust system by linking it to the payment of motor vehicle license discs. Apart from the fact that at present this would be an illegal practice, legislative amendments would be required to affect this change. It will take time for these changes to become a reality – probably around 18 months! This fact in itself leads me to believe that the e-toll announcement was premature. The consequence is simple: motorists will simply rather pay a R250 fine for driving with an outdated license disc. This is much cheaper than paying for e-tolls! Those that can afford to pay their e-toll bills will not pay in protest. Another question of concern is if withholding the issue of licence discs would pass constitutional muster as it would be tantamount to forcing a person who has in fact paid licence fees to renew their licence, but to whom a licence disc has been refused, to contravene the National Road Traffic Regulations by not displaying a current licence as required. Not displaying an up-to-date licence disc is, under the AARTO Act, a minor infringement which results in a R250 fine, discounted by 50% if paid within 32 days. The consequence of not paying such a fine could, after the prescribed period and processes have ensued, lead to an enforcement order being issued, thereby blocking licensing transactions on the eNaTIS system against the person. In other words, the motorist would not only have unpaid e-tolls and no current licence disc, but would also have one or more unpaid traffic fines which can currently proceed no further than an enforcement order and would therefore constitute no real inconvenience to the person. So if this new provision is passed and people continue their resistance campaign, it may be found that the Gauteng Provincial Government and all licensing authorities in Gauteng will suffer negatively as their licensing income revenues drop dramatically. Considering that Gauteng has the largest vehicle population in the country currently at 38.87% which equates to 11,493,608 vehicles as at 31 March 2015, this is not small change for the Gauteng government. This intended “blackmail” by government will have unintended consequences including an opportunity for the development of a new underground illegal license disc and number plate industry in South Africa. All this can be avoided but this won’t be apparent to the many politically connected people have too much riding on this financially. The financial alternatives are as clear as day and funding the GFIP through the fuel levy is the most obvious solution. Government would enjoy 100% compliance from motorists and administrative costs are minimal. This year the fuel levy generated R55 billion, up from R24,8 billion in 2008 when this projected was initiated. Ironically, the Apartheid government created the fuel levy in the 1970’s to fund road-construction. Today this fund goes into the various departmental coffers never to be used for their intended purpose. The GFIP bonds require approximately R1,9 billion annually to finance over their required 24 year lifespan. This only equates to about a 10c per litre rise in the fuel price! Sadly the fuel price has risen by R1,22 per litre since the advent of the GFIP in 2008. This is equivalent to more than 12 times of what is required to fund the GFIP bonds over their lifetime. Simple economics would suggest a 10c increase in the fuel levy would be the optimal solution. It’s a no brainer!! Yet our cloak and dagger government will ignore the fuel levy route instead insisting on e-tolls to hide their inefficiencies and corruption and expecting Gautengers to cough up more of their lifeblood. I will be tabling a private members bill against urban tolling. The DA will not give in to an inept system. The final fight must now take place at the polls in 2016 when voters have the opportunity to demonstrate that if the ANC wishes to ignore public sentiment through its e-toll announcement then it must deal with the consequences of its actions.

Transport not taken seriously by the Department of Transport!

Once again the Minister, and the Deputy Minister in particular, spent a considerable time with the Portfolio Committee during this budget process. My experience tells me that this is a rare occurrence and the Democratic Alliance therefore appreciates your presence during our deliberations. However, it appears that this is where it ends. Daily one encounters transport-related problems and the Minister and her deputy are nowhere to be found. E-tolls As I stated last year in the Budget debate, by far the biggest transport issue presently on the lips of South Africans are the e-Tolls which the public continues to almost unanimously reject. Despite Sanral’s massive multi-million rand marketing spend throughout 2014, we see that the scheme’s compliance levels peaked at around only 45% in June 2014, this is confirmed by statements made by the Minister in Parliament. This translates to R120 million per month, confirmed by Sanral in a media statement. This was well short of their original target of R250 million per month. In July 2014, Sanral and the NPA had indicated their intention to begin prosecuting e-toll defaulters, however, Minister Peters wisely instructed Sanral to halt such plans, because of massive billing problems and chaos in the system, and maybe also due to possible anticipated wide-scale negative public reaction. During the Gauteng E-Toll Panel hearings between September and November 2014, virtually all business and civil society entities denounced the e-toll scheme and blamed its existence for the high negative impact on the socio-economic conditions in the region. In addition, on 3 October 2014, Honourable Paul Mashatile, the Gauteng ANC’s Chairperson, launched a scathing attack on Sanral’s management of the e-toll scheme and their disdain toward the work of the Makhura’s e-toll advisory panel. Courageously, the Honourable Mashatile made it clear that the ANC in Gauteng did not support the scheme in its current form. On 4 November, Sanral did an about turn and decided to engage with the Makhura’s e-toll Advisory Panel. This resulted in a series of blunders heightening public anger, particularly Minister Dipuo Peters’ comment that a fuel levy increase of R3.65 would be required to fund the GFIP (Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project). This intensified when Dr. Roelof Botha announced that the poor should “shut up” and remain out of the e-toll debate. Later in November 2014, during an inquest into a fatal crash collision on the M1, the State subpoenaed electronic data from Sanral recorded by the e-toll system’s gantry cameras. The information supplied by Sanral was grossly inaccurate and proved to be “inconsistent and unreliable”. The absence of Sanral’s ability to enforce the e-toll policy and the growing public anger has reduced the scheme’s monthly e-toll revenue collections to around R60 million by the end of February 2015, estimated to be less than 23% of users paying for the use of the freeways. But wait, it doesn’t stop there! Sanral has been embroiled in other cases which point to a questionable conduct of public engagement programs. The one is with the Amadiba community on the Wild Coast N2 Toll Road plan where we understand that Sanral’s CEO, Nazir Alli’s affidavit that seeks to challenge Attorney Cormac Cullinan’s representation of the community, contain allegedly false statements. If this is indeed true, this could be seriously damaging for Mr. Alli’s reputation and the image of Sanral The other is regarding the Western Cape’s Winelands freeway Toll plan. The Supreme Court’s ruling on 30 March 2015 asks serious questions around Sanral’s lack of transparency relating to their tolling model, the costs of the project and tenders awarded to the “preferred bidder” or appointed concessionaire. When one considers all this, there must surely be enough evidence to suggest that something is amiss with the leadership and performance of this State Owned Entity. Rail It is clear that although government is saying the correct thing: in that rail is the backbone of public transport, its actions contradict this. Just like last year, the largest amount in the budget is still allocated to roads and its infrastructure. Rail continues to be treated as a side issue. Road Safety And again I repeat myself; I bring up one of the Minister’s other monumental failures; her inability to stem the tide of deaths on our roads. A prime example was the cancellation by the Minister of the 2014 Road Safety Summit on very short notice to avoid being embarrassed because the recommendations that emanated from the 2013 Summit had not been implemented. On the 14th of March, I wrote to the Minister an open letter about this subject. I pointed out to her that she should take heed of Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity; that being as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Indeed, what road safety “strategy” you may have is insane as it yields little positive results year after year. Besides not having the plain courtesy of an acknowledgement of my letter or at the very least taking up some of my internationally proven suggestions, at a recent Portfolio Committee meeting the Minister chose to chastise me for daring to write to her! Rebuke me as much as you want Minister, the reality is that South Africa last year was ranked 177th out of 182 countries studied for road fatalities. These fatalities result in a huge socio-economic cost, estimated at R306 billion per annum. We would be the first to support and congratulate you when we see more results and less rhetoric. Deal with the overlapping functions within the RTIA and the RTMC and Provinces and with the fact that we do not have anyone collecting data. When only 17% of fines in South Africa are paid one can safely say that this doesn’t even cover the cost of having enforcement! Minister, do something! Anything to reduce deaths on our roads. We as the DA are here to make transport and its potential to our economic growth work. We need to become single minded in everything we do so that this can become a reality.

DA launches helpline for victims of alleged RAF fraud

Numerous phone calls with allegations of corruption and fraud at the Road Accident Fund (RAF) Administration have followed since the DA’s announcement last week of evidence that appears to document large-scale fraud allegedly taking place at the RAF. The high volume of additional information that we have received since making public the first two examples last week has prompted the DA to establish a toll free help-line (087 233 9188) and an email address (problemswithraf@gmail.com) for the public to report cases of fraud and corruption. RAF employees, lawyers and victims who have information or have been mistreated by RAF can also report cases. In one of the latest cases reported to the DA, supporting documents allegedly indicate that a victim was employed at the time of their crash. According to a letter from their lawyer, the victim was seriously injured. He therefore had a bona fide claim with the RAF, as he is no longer employed or employable for his occupation following the crash. Despite this, his claim was denied. In another case, allegations are made that a crash victim was underpaid despite proving that she is entitled to greater compensation. The latest evidence seemingly provides additional proof that the RAF do appear to not have crash victim interests at heart. With this additional information, the DA will lay fraud charges at 1:30 pm today at the Brooklyn Police Station in Pretoria. The DA has also requested Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters, to suspend RAF CEO Dr. Eugene Watson and to launch an investigation – something which she to date has chosen to ignore. We hope that she will reconsider her stance after the latest allegations. A complete information pack containing copies of the documentation of the latest evidence will be delivered to the Chairman of the RAF Board as well as the Minister today.

Train collision brings issue of rail safety centre stage

I will today write letters to both the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, and the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Transport, Dikeledi Magadzi, requesting that a Parliamentary Inquiry be launched into the cause of the train crash in Johannesburg this morning that killed a Metrorail employee and injured hundreds more. In addition to the safety officer who was killed, up to 240 people were injured when a stationary Metro Plus train carrying 700 people was rear-ended at about 07:00 by a Business Express train with about 200 people on board. The Democratic Alliance would like to extend our deepest sympathies to all those injured, as well as to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased Metrorail employee. The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) will need to be brought before the portfolio committee to give answers as to how a moving train could crash into a stationary one. When a large number of commuters make use of rail, we need to ensure that their safety is of paramount concern. Early reports suggested that at least two of the cars from the Metro Plus train were derailed. One landed on the platform, its entire front crushed, while the other went into a building, crushing some of the passengers. Faulty signalling has been suggested as a possible cause. Prasa cannot evade accountability in this matter and must be forthcoming with all the facts in an open and transparent fashion. The DA will continue to push for affordable, efficient and, most importantly, safe public transport infrastructure in the interest of the millions of South Africans who make use of our national rail network monthly.

Transport Minister objects to DA’s request for RAF investigation

At this week’s Transport Portfolio Meeting the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, chastised the Democratic Alliance (DA) for laying criminal charges against Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO, Dr Eugene Watson. This week the DA laid criminal charges and also wrote to the Minister requesting for her to launch an investigation into the RAF and its CEO. These charges and the letter were as a result of evidence in the possession of the DA that appears to document large-scale fraud allegedly taking place at the RAF. The evidence, in the form of letters from complaint attorneys to claimants, illustrate how the RAF essentially appears to sue itself in order to maintain a certain cash flow. This delays claims made by road crash victims. Based on the documents leaked to us, as well as investigations that we undertook, appears to be fraud and injustice at the highest level. Although the Minister admitted in the Portfolio Committee Meeting that she had not yet seen the DA’s letter, she reprimanded the DA members of the Committee for laying the charges and for even writing to her. This is of great concern as she is clearly protecting Eugene Watson without even considering the evidence that we have provided her as she claims that the DA is “governing through the courts and the police”. Unbelievably, the Minister stated that any fraud allegation “should be handled in the Portfolio Committee and not in courts with charges and waste the time of police” and that they (the police) “are going to take ten years to investigate this case”. Considering that these statements were made without being prompted by the DA, we will be again writing to the Minister asking her to confirm that, based on what she said, if she will not be following our recommendations to launch an investigation, particularly as she appears to have made up her mind without considering the evidence. If this is indeed the case, we are even more concerned that she has made such a decision in such an uninformed manner and will request her to explain her reasons for this.

Government is responsible for the xenophobia violence-and they can turn it around!

Not since the height of the dark days of the State of Emergency have we need the pervasive violence that we have had in the last two weeks. I never dreamt that we would revert back to those dark days. However, all this is completely understandable and logical thanks to the Zuma administration. The truth is that when other countries, such as Mozambique, Mauritius and Angola are showing good economic growth, South Africa continues on a downward trajectory. This is thanks to the Zuma government and its policies which ensures that corruption goes up whilst unemployment goes down. As in other countries quality education is delivered and emphasised, our education system continues to disadvantage our youth with bad quality education. So the ordinary unemployed South African “on the ground”, sees minimal opportunities and prospects for employment and becomes increasingly frustrated. At the same time, the ordinary South African citizen sees those in the ANC, and those connected to it, getting richer and richer through questionable means; Nkandla immediately comes to mind! Foreigners come into our country, and appear to thrive economically because of their knowledge, education and skills advantage. The poor unemployed South African sees this and, from his or her perspective, cannot understand how this is possible when he or she cannot develop in his or her own country. Add the violence encouraged and sponsored by the ANC government against Members of Parliament and unaccountable comments from royalty and members of the Zuma clan and we have the scene set for violence against innocent people. So over a week after this violence erupted government makes official public statements in this regard. The President used his answer to questions Parliamentary session as an opportunity to address this issue. In itself this was a good thing, however what came out of this emerged a lost opportunity for the President. His address on this issue came across as insincere and emotionless, President Zuma’s body language reflected this too. The President mentioned nothing about statements made by the King in Kwazulu-Natal and, even closer to home, Xenophobia comments made by Edward Zuma, son of the President. The root of this violence can be laid directly on the lap of government. The Zuma government is doing little to deal with our growing unemployment rate, at the same time our economy continues to spend more time in intensive care without immediate prospects of improving. Our suffocating labour laws contribute to the retardation of our economic growth, as Cosatu dictates government’s policy. Government needs to start dealing with this core issues, stop looking at introducing apparent “quick-fix” solutions which will have little impact. Before millions are allocated to “recruiting inspectors to detect companies and businesses employing undocumented migrants” malfunctioning systems in Home Affairs first need to be fixed! Government needs to prioritise the growth of our economy and job creation, actually do this and communicate this with South Africa. The reality is that South Africa can be a country of open opportunity for all where we can all enjoy the sunshine together, whether one is South African-born or not.