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.