Department of Transport

ANNUAL REPORT 1997 - 1998

Contents

• Introduction by the Minister Mac Maharaj
• Organogram
• Mission Statement
• [ Reports of the Chief Directorates: ]
  • Management Services
  • Civil Aviation Authority
    • report of the International Air Services Council
    • report of the International Air Service Licensing Council
  • Shipping
  • Land Transport
  • SDIs
  • Road Transport and Traffic
    • Report of the National Transport Commission
  • SA Roads Board

The past year, the fourth in the existence of our democratic government, has been an exciting and exacting one for my Department. It has been a year of dramatic restructuring firmly based on the foundations laid over the previous three years. The first of these was spent analysing what we had inherited and beginning a major review of policy. The second year saw the completion of our White Paper on National Transport Policy and the start of its implementation. The third year was spent deepening the implementation programme, especially in priority areas like public transport, roads and the design of more appropriate institutional arrangements for delivery.

Having completed the fourth year, we now find ourselves in an organisational environment so fundamentally changed that I feel justified in talking about a New Department of Transport. The Report you are reading is both an account of the maturing of our delivery programme and a living record of these institutional changes as they played themselves out in every area of departmental activity.

Highlights of the year have included:

• completion of the first phase of privatising the Airports Company;
• the establishment of three of four planned Agencies commercialising maritime safety, cross border transport regulation and the provision of national roads;
• completion of phase 1 of the restructuring/right-sizing of the department to enable it to discharge its new role of policy development, strategic planning and regulation. In this exercise our staff numbers have fallen from 1 400 in 1995 to 803 as at 31 March 1998, and are set to fall further still, to 240 by close of the 1998/99 financial year ;
• completion of our first major public-private partnership exercise - the Maputo toll-road - and an extension of that experience into the tenders put out for the N3 De Beer's Pass and N4 West Platinum toll roads;
• the successful completion of the initial phases of our road safety campaign, Arrive Alive.

The foundation has been laid for the fifth and final year of this term of Government, during which our efforts will be concentrated on consolidating the work of the last four years in order to provide a well-developed launching pad for the next term. The five priority issues for the coming year will be:

1. Condensing our main policy guidelines into a detailed, implementable strategy. The Moving South Africa project, initiated in 1997, will be completed by August 1998, and its final report will set out a twenty-year strategy for the key challenges the South African transport community needs to meet in order to maximise its contribution to our country's economic and social development.
2. Deepening the focus of implementation of the Land Transport Act and beginning to put in place the institutional and regulatory mechanisms required to sustain the long term development of a more socially appropriate and responsive public transport system.
3. Translating the lessons we have learnt from Arrive Alive into a more permanent solution for road traffic management in South Africa. The idea of a Road Traffic Management Corporation as a means of achieving this is currently under intensive study and we expect further conclusive steps towards its establishment to be taken during year five.
4. Further accelerated restructuring of state-owned assets in line with the strategic directions emerging from the Moving South Africa project.
5. Working to build an effective partnership with the provinces in order to provide support in depth for their significant legislative and administrative responsibility for delivery.

Real, measurable progress in these five areas will greatly reinforce our capacity to build on the work of the first four years, bringing us closer both to the vision described in the White Paper and the strategy emerging from Moving South Africa. More importantly, it will represent a small but important step in the right direction for transport as a catalyst for growth, development and social equity in South Africa.

Mac Maharaj
Minister of Transport
11 June 1998

The vision for South African transport is of a system which will: "provide safe, reliable, effective, efficient, and fully integrated transport operations and infrastructure which will best meet the needs of freight and passenger customers at improving levels of service and cost in a fashion which supports government strategies for economic and social development whilst being environmentally and economically sustainable."

A Note on the Timing of this Publication

Last year we broke new ground by releasing the Annual Report for the financial year 1996/97 in June 1997 - i.e. within three months of its close. This was done in order to present our readers with a reasonably current account of our activities for the year, rather than holding back publication until the completion of the process of auditing the financial statements.

At the time of publication we noted the logistical changes gradually being implemented between the Auditor-General's Office and national government departments with a view to shortening the audit cycle; and we expressed the hope that we would be able to publish our own financial statements by September/October 1997. In the event this turned out to be over-optimistic. The final amendments to the Financials were only completed in May 1998, so we decided that the obvious course of action would be to publish the 1996/97 Financials simultaneously with the 1997/98 Annual Report.

We do so today, releasing the 1996/97 Financial Statements document using the same cover as last year's Annual Report to prevent any confusion. We expect that we will follow the same procedure next year, with the 1998/99 Annual Report being accompanied by the 1997/98 Financial Statements.

Department of Transport
11 June 1998