7 August 2008
Programme Director,
MEC for Housing Safety Liaison, Your Excellency Mr Thobile Mhlahlo;
MEC for Roads and Transport, Your Excellency, Ms Gloria Barry;
Provincial Legislators;
Mayors Councillors;
Traditional Leaders;
Religious Leaders;
Industry Players;
Presenters and Panellists;
Ladies and Gentlemen
I am honoured to be invited to address you today because I know that the Eastern
Cape Provincial Government and its local municipalities are concerned with many
of the same rural issues as we are in the National Government. We share many
agendas, albeit at different geographical levels. You are actively grappling on
the ground (as it were) with many of the rural problems which we are also
addressing at national level. This became abundantly clear as we were developing
the Rural Transport Strategy – approved by Cabinet in December last year - which
involved a wide consultation process across the spheres of Government.
I have had the honour to share common insight with the previous MEC, His
Excellency Mr Thobobile Mhlahlo at various MINMECS And forums. I am looking
forward to continue these common insights with the new MEC at our next and
forthcoming MINMECS.
This Conference therefore provides a valuable forum for us to reflect on the
issues of common interest. I guess the major question is how do rural transport
strategies and Conferences - such as this one - translate into practical and
sustainable rural transport solutions? Let me hasten to say that our Rural
Transport Strategy shares more great localized insights, and offers a number of
opportunities and examples of good practices - but how do we ensure that these
opportunities are utilized to uplift our people from abject poverty. That is a
question we must answer!
We are all aware that rural communities are basically unsustainable unless they
enjoy full access to services – such as schools, clinics, shop, post office,
public transport and so on. As the democratic Government, we therefore cannot
promote a self-perpetuating spiral of service decline to our rural people and
create a vicious cycle of poverty we inherited from the past. Today, what I would
like to do is to move that debate on and to share some of our developmental
thinking and strategy on the broad issue of sustainable rural transport and on
how we face up to what we believe are the very real challenges of rural
transport development. As you are well aware, the biggest challenges we are
facing relate to the wide diversity of rural areas characterized by varying
climatic differences; the historical backlogs and under-investments on
infrastructure as well as sheer physical remoteness and low population densities
of some areas.
Through our rural transport strategy we have begun to promote coordinated rural
nodal and linkage development – but are also developing a demand-responsive,
balanced sustainable rural transport system within the context of strengthened
Integrated Delivery Programmes (IDPs). Our assumption is that the delivery of
such a rural transport system should include among other things:
We have emphasized that our projects must be aligned to the Integrated
Sustainable Rural Development Programme, as well as local Integrated Development
Plans projects - which are mainly infrastructure projects. We are also
emphasizing that particular attention needs to be given to projects that are
part of the government’s Local Economic Development (LED) programme, being led
by the Department of Provincial and Local Government. This is mainly to ensure
that rural transport makes a more cost-effective contribution to the internal
linking of rural markets as well as the linking of rural economies to the
economic mainstream.
It is our view that we need to support and improve the functioning of the market
for rural transport services, so that we concretely reverts the town ward
migration of the best skills from the rural areas. Our focus should be to
improve the current set of government interventions for rural transport services
such as public transport regulation, freight logistics, subsidization and re-capitalisation
which are mainly peri-urban bias. We therefore need to investigate and address
relevant safety and regulation issues as well as explore the possibility of
introducing rural/multi-purpose vehicles. We should also highlight the urban
bias of the current public transport subsidy system and promote the
consideration of subsidization of options that would be more responsive to
typical rural conditions.
One of the priorities we have identified is the overwhelming need to promote
non-motorised transportation and its infrastructure as a low cost mobility
solution to low-income households, targeting mainly scholars, rural women, and
farm workers. As government we, have embarked on a number of projects to promote
non-motorised transportation, including the Shova Kalula project. However, we
need to provide infrastructure for non-motorised transport including improved
paths and tracks as well as bicycle supply depots and pedestrian bridges. We
have therefore broadened Shova Kalula into a more comprehensive Non-Motorised
Transport and Intermediate Means of Transport (IMT) programme that incorporates
cycling, animal drawn carts, NMT infrastructure, safety issues and the promotion
of these initiatives. We have decided to specifically promote animal drawn carts
and other low-technology solutions with the aim of improving the mobility of the
vulnerable groups.
Logistical infrastructure is also the main priority for maintenance and
development in the various rural areas. The rail branch-lines in particular have
been identified as critical for connecting rural areas with main corridors in
order to stimulate growth in areas of under-investment. Some of the projects
already implemented include the Kei Rail project here in the Eastern Cape, the
Nkwalini Branchline in KZN, and Douglas Belmont in the Northern Cape. These are
lifelines of some agriculture and forests products and we therefore say more
money should also be invested in this area of our work.
We have also set aside R3.8bn for the Expanded Public Works Programme,
particularly for the maintenance of the rural road infrastructure and the
development of access roads. This is mainly to ensure access to economic
opportunities and public transportation. Our focus in terms of funding is
through the Provincial Infrastructure Grant (PIGs) as a funding mechanism for
scaling up of the EPWP. There is good progress that has been made in some
Provinces and municipalities to develop access roads, using labour-intensive
methods and small contractors. At National level, through SANRAL, we continue to
allocate more resources to job creation through labour intensive methods in the
rural areas.
However, much can be achieved through improved monitoring, information sharing
and targeted “gap-filling” infrastructure delivery. In particular, the
development of feeder or access roads associated with key nodes and linkages -
and the development of road and off-road maintenance programmes - are important
and should be instituted for non-motorized transport infrastructure.
We have also set aside R3bn for the implementation of Integrated Public
Transport Network in six rural districts with specific focus on the technical
planning of strategic interventions such as the;
We therefore believe that all these areas of intervention will ensure that we
promote a co-ordinated rural nodal and linkage development and a
demand-responsive, balanced and sustainable rural transport system. Our view is
that there is need for a widespread understanding and recognition of the nature
of rural economies in terms of the impressive contributions they make to the
regional and national economy. A more positive and pro-active view of rural
transport planning should recognise the role and potential of rural economies,
the ongoing opportunities for growth in tourism, and the need to build on the
dynamic entrepreneurial spirit found across rural South Africa.
We believe it is our collective role to take the Strategy forward at all levels
of government, with specific support of the efforts at local level, such as the
work of the Provincial Department of Transport. Be assured that at the National
Level, we do not intend to let this matter rest.
The wise choice of this particular venue presents us as local, provincial and
national political leaders with the opportunities to understand the peculiar
conditions that are represented by different rural communities, and these
peculiarities would need to be understood from a structure of governance that we
have never fully engaged – that of traditional leadership an governance. I am
therefore heartened today that as we deliberate on these issues, we have been
graced with the presence of our traditional leaders, among the many identified
stakeholders that I see today and I am sure that as we move forward, their input
and insights into how we can develop rural areas through transportation and
accessibility interventions, and their wise counsel on these matters will stand
us in good stead.
No longer can rural transport solutions be hatched from the cloistered
environments of the air conditioned offices, for the loss of the views of
important people who stand to benefit from these solutions can no longer be an
option.
And so to conclude; as I said at the beginning, I believe that we all share a
big challenge to address some of the problems of South Africa’s rural
communities, and to help solve them. We know the key problems. In many cases, I
believe we collectively know the solutions too.
What we now need to do is put
more effort into ensuring that such solutions are adopted as widely as possible.
I therefore hope that the deliberations of this Conference will bring us closer
to meet that formidable challenge. We therefore look forward to the outcome of
this Conference, more so, the practical solutions towards resolving rural
transport challenges.
I thank you!