Programme Director
Honourable Premier of the Western Cape, Ms Helen Zille;
Western Cape MEC of Transport and Public Works, Mr Donald Grant;
MECs present here today;
The Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Cllr Patricia De Lille;
MMC for Transport & Urban Development, Cllr Brett Herron;
Members of the Portfolio Committee of Transport;
Acting Director-General of the Department, Mr. Chris Hlabisa;
Deputy Director-Generals;
Chairpersons and CEOs of Public Entities;
Officials of Government and Public Entities;
Political Formations, Trade Unions, Civil Society Organizations;
The Private Sector;
Members of the media;
Ladies and Gentlemen
Honourable Premier
First and foremost, I wish to thank the officials in the national Department of Transport, the province of the Western Cape, the key stakeholders, including commuter organisations, PRASA, the taxi industry and the City of Cape Town for helping towards the convening of this long awaited community engagement. Through this Imbizo we will seek to identify and address the challenges faced by the citizens of the Western Cape, particularly in the public transport domain.
All three tiers of government should play a proactive role in addressing the challenges experienced with public transport both in the Western Cape and nationally, as we are all mandated to serve the communities we lead.
Programme Director
Please allow us to observe a moment of silence as we mourn the death of Mr Luyanda Mbhele, who together with his cousin was tragically gunned down last weekend. Mr Mbhele formed part of the alliance structures I had consulted in the lead up to the Imbizo. We wish to convey our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and comrades.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Cabinet ratified that Consultative Imbizos should take place under the theme, “Together we move South Africa forward.” This year the Albertina Sisulu and Nelson Mandela Centenary Celebrations form a big part of the Imbizo under the sub-theme, “Be the legacy.”
Programme Director
The Public Transport challenges faced by the poor and marginalized communities in the Western Cape, require a collaborative solution, regardless of which side of the political divide we are on.
If we are indeed placing the interests of the communities at the centre of all our efforts, it is critical that we avoid the phenomenon of cheap political point scoring, which works to the detriment of our people. It is for this reason that this Imbizo must not be a single event, but an important moment in the ongoing mobilisation of commuters, our communities and all stakeholders, in our struggle to be an affordable, reliable, accessible and safe public transport system. It is therefore important that as much as we are faced with some very urgent problems in rail, our approach and focus must be on our public transport system as a whole. Government’s commitment still remains that of building a rail based, integrated public transport system where’re all modes are integrated to facilitate safe and comfortable mobility for passengers and commuters.
This is not to say that other modes of public transport are not important. In fact, we need to look at our public transport model and look at seeing how the taxi industry can form part of key stakeholders of rail, with their years of experience in the public transport sector.
Ladies and Gentlemen
On Thursday, the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa officially launched the ground-breaking, innovative, state of the art Gibela Train Manufacturing Plant in Dunnottar, Ekurhuleni in Gauteng province.
The President lauded the plant as a key component of our investment into infrastructure that will boost the economy by becoming the gateway for the manufacturing of trains and train parts on the continent. The President further underlined the importance of this investment for skills development for the industrialisation of our economy.
During his keynote address the President also pointed out that R400 billion has been set aside for infrastructure developments, and that the building and modernization of rail infrastructure is a top priority of government in this regard.
The African Union has designated South Africa to be the main country for the manufacture of trains and rolling stock. We must embrace this opportunity and position ourselves properly as the spin-offs are endless.
We however have serious challenges facing our public transport system, especially rail passenger transport. Almost weekly we are required to respond to deliberate acts of theft, vandalism, and sabotage.
Ladies and gentlemen and comrades
It is clear that the Western Cape is set to become one of the main beneficiaries of the production of train sets at the Gibela Train Manufacturing Plant. In the meantime we are also working with Prasa on how to use the trains that have already been delivered from abroad as well as those that have already been paid for in order to increase the capacity of Metrorail in a place like Cape Town and other parts of our country.
However, this does not mean that PRASA must not deal with the corruption that may have accompanied the acquisition of these trains.
However, it would be an exercise in futility to continue capacitating this corridor should these hideous criminal acts of torching trains and sabotaging of our passenger rail system continue.
There are also trains lying idle in this corridor as there are not sufficient funds for maintenance of the trains. I would like to receive a report from PRASA explaining to me why some trains are lying idle.
The City of Cape Town has a booming, often illicit, copper industry, although this region is not known for mining any copper. This is due to the lines being tampered with and the cable theft that is costing millions, and contributing to an inefficient train service.
There are also a number of scrapyards in close proximity to where these trains are being torched. The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, has assured me that he will work with me to ensure we deal with these criminal activities. Who are the real beneficiaries of these acts?
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is also our collective civic responsibility as commuters and communities to ensure that these acts of criminality are brought to an end. Let our communities be the eyes and ears of our people and government to identify and ensure that the perpetrators are prosecuted. It serves absolutely no purpose to torch trains or to vandalize property. In fact, we regress as a society, as those that rely on rail transport are no longer able to travel to school, work, and access other public facilities.
When we launched October Transport Month on 05 October 2018, I got to witness and experience first-hand what commuters encounter on a daily basis. I took a train from Pienaarspoort Train Station in Mamelodi to Bosman Train Station in Tshwane city centre.
The safety of commuters is highly compromised with overcrowded coaches that also make travel very uncomfortable and a haven for criminal activities. I have heard that in some cases women are sexually harassed and even raped on trains.
Despite these safety concerns rail remains the most affordable form of transportation for the majority of the citizens of the country.
The reason that this community engagement is taking place is that the solutions to the train challenges should involve the working class and all our communities. I am convinced that the community could lead us to the perpetrators of these crimes and we should create platforms for them to report these acts, whilst safeguarding them.
We therefore also support the work of the Railway Safety Regulator in ensuring the safety of our commuters. We cannot compromise the safety of our people, and thus adherence to the Railway Safety Regulator Act is non-negotiable. We however need the Rail Regulator to be explicit about what it expects of train operators and also engage and educate commuters and communities about their role in ensuring safety in our rail passenger system.
In order to turn around the challenges facing PRASA I have received the Recovery Plan from the Board of PRASA to address the sustained decline in the business performance of PRASA.
? The plan is operational, engineering and financial in its outlook.
? It provides immediate, short and medium term interventions, which will ensure that we wholly turn-around PRASA.
? The plan includes the appointment of senior management to critical vacancies in the organisation.
Ladies and Gentlemen
This morning, we officially launched the Joint law enforcement unit at the Cape Town Station. Their duty is to focus on keeping commuters and infrastructure safe.
This Joint Law Enforcement unit will help us to clamp down on the so called "bucket shops" – illegal scrap dealers who continue to trade, providing cash for copper. They will also safeguard commuters and staff working at the stations.
Honourable MEC and comrades,
The Western Cape was once the best performing province for commuter rail business. The performance has declined quite drastically over the years. There has also been a decline in passenger patronage as the gap between trains operated and cancelled widens. Train sets available for service have also declined with the highest national average rate of 13% decline in the Western Cape since the 2015/16 Financial Year.
In order to tackle the vandalism of trains the following measures are going to be undertaken:
* As Minister of Transport I am going to appoint stakeholder relations managers from my office based here in Cape Town, as well as Gauteng, eThekwini, and East London (where Metrorail has operations), to act as a direct link between my office and various stakeholders, including commuter and community organisations
* The vandalising and torching of trains has now been escalated to the Security cluster of Cabinet so that we deal decisively with this criminality
* I will also be working to change laws to including the torching of trains to be part of arson, which is a more serious offence in law
* PRASA is undertaking extensive infrastructure work focusing on, amongst others, fixing of perways and signalling
* I have further received a recovery plan from the PRASA Board to arrest and turn around decline in rail passenger services through operational, engineering and financial interventions
* PRASA Ari’s starting with process of filling senior management positions, as part of stabilizing the organisation
* The Cape Town Corridor needs about 110 full train sets. In next 20 months PRASA has assured me they are planning to operate 88 fully configured trains
However, in order to achieve and sustain the above it is also important that communities in Cape Town organise themselves to launch a mass based campaign for a safe, reliable, and affordable public transport system and to defeat the vandalising of transport public infrastructure. Whilst NGOs have a role to play but such a campaign must be based on activism of the mass of the people on the ground.
Other public transport interventions include the funding of the George Integrated Public Transport Network run through a company 100% owned by the minibus taxi operators. We also welcome SANTACO’s Hlokomela campaign whose aim is to promote road safety in the minibus taxi industry.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We have not done much to address the apartheid spatial planning that ensured many people still live far from their places of work and other public amenities.
The development of housing projects is still done outside public transport considerations, making it difficult for the majority of commuters to travel to and from their areas of work and school
Ladies and Gentlemen
The country still faces gross inequality in the provision of services. There is a tendency of services being taken to affluent areas that do not really require the services, and neglecting areas where the services are most needed.
National government funds a number of services in the provinces and municipalities that are mostly in affluent areas. From now onwards I shall be intensifying the monitoring of how funds provided by the Department are being used to address the challenges of transport in various areas. For example, with MyCiti Bus that runs in the city, are we focusing on capacitating areas where there is a need for such services or is it oriented towards the elite? We need to have a deliberate bias in favour of the marginalized, the poor and the working class.
We have invested over R38 billion in the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRT), but seemingly we do not have any conditions. Are we not deepening class divisions and inequality? We need to improve our oversight capacity by ensuring that there is improved monitoring of initiatives we continue to fund.
I have started a process of re-examining the manner in which the public transport subsidy is being distributed across the board. For instance it is completely unacceptable that the minibus taxi industry carries about 68% of our commuters daily, yet they hardly get any subsidy from the public purse. Our public transport subsidy system is still oriented towards the better off and not the workers and the poor.
Ladies and Gentlemen
To demonstrate our commitment to innovation and research, I will announce a team of prominent professionals, who will form part of the Panel of Transport Experts, to advise me on strengthening the role of all the modes of transport in the social and economic development of our country.
Part of the scope of these Transport Experts will be to look into how to address the inequalities within the sector, including little or no provision of adequate services for people with disabilities, as well as the safety of women commuters.
Ladies and gentlemen
Cabinet approved the National Road Safety Strategy which is a blue print for South Africa to deal with road carnages.
The primary contributory factors in fatal crashes or serious injuries in South Africa includes excessive speed, driving under the influence of alcohol, fatigue, usage of electronic gadgets and non-wearing of seatbelts. Distractive driving is now the leading cause of motor vehicle accidents. Yes, texting whilst driving has become the leading cause of accidents.
Motor vehicles, light delivery vehicles and minibuses are the top three vehicle types highly involved in crashes, with pedestrians accounting of 50% of these crashes. This costs the country billions.
Sadly, the single largest category of road fatalities is the youth. We must mobilize youth to be part of road safety programmes. Today we call upon young people to be in the forefront in the campaign for road safety and an integrated and safe public transport system.
We will continue to work with our roads entities, namely Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) in educating and enforcing the rule of law.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We need to ensure that our law enforcement officers are on high alert 24/7 and that we provide the necessary support to them.
We need to pay special attention to all regulations and laws that we should change for us to work better and smarter. This includes the reclassification of road traffic offences and others.
On 30 August 2018 we launched the ground-breaking, remarkable, game changing eNatis online driver’s licence and related booking service in Gauteng, and now I am looking forward for its rollout to other provinces.
Ladies and gentlemen
Through the Road Accident Fund, we continue to take services to the doorsteps of previously marginalised communities.
This is done through the community outreach programme, ‘RAF on the Road’. The programme is an exemplary service delivery project that reached 54 000 claimants and also aids rural communities who do not have access to these services. The programme has also led to RAF having its presence felt in provinces.
Ladies and Gentlemen
The Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bill (RABS) is a move away from insurance-based system of compensation, which has been largely unchanged in South Africa since 1946. Through the RABS Bill we will root out the middleman who prey on unsuspecting beneficiaries and hold them to ransom.
Ladies and Gentlemen
During the BRICS Summit 2018, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the other member countries. The MOU is on a Regional Aviation Partnership to expand and deepen the cooperation among competent authorities in the field of regional aviation.
The agreement was signed between the Department of Transport, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Civil Aviation of the Republic of India, and the Civil Aviation Administration of the People’s Republic of China.
The agreement was signed on the basis of understanding and mutual benefits in order to bolster our regional aviation transport sector, to share good practice and open socio-economic and development opportunities amongst the member states.
We wish to use these relationships we are building to learn best practice, stimulate the economy, and ultimately creating new jobs.
Ladies and Gentlemen
As Government our mandate is clear. It is to transform the lives of the majority of our people by creating an enabling environment. We are all messengers sent to listen to and address the concerns and basic needs of this community.
Through the Revised Taxi Recapitalization Programme, we will continue to engage with the taxi industry regarding matters that are of concern to both government and the industry, including the issue of subsidies for the sector, vehicle financing, taxi violence, as well as cooperatives supporting the industry. I find it peculiar and unfair that the taxi industry has not been a beneficiary of the public subsidies despite them transporting 68% of commuters.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Whilst the aviation and maritime sectors remain beacon of hope and are rated highly in continental and world standards, we will play a significant role in breaking down entry barriers to unlock opportunities for young people in these two sectors.
There are certain professions that are the preserve of a few, on the basis of race, class, and gender. The sector needs to transform so that we see more Black and Women pilots, engineers and artisans. I am engaging with the Departments of Higher Education, Basic Education, Science and Technology, and Defence.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would like to once more reassure you all that this Imbizo is part of ongoing engagements between the government and the other Transport sector stakeholders. The issues identified cannot be solved immediately. I do have hope though, that through our collective efforts, we can resolve the challenges confronting the transport sector, particularly in the Western Cape.
Ladies and Gentlemen
I apologize for having taken longer than expected, but I have shared my bit. Now it is time to listen and engage with you the community to lead us on a path to finding solutions to our challenges.
I thank you.
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