(Second Reading Debate)
Vote 9: Public Works, Roads and Transport. R442 547 000
The
SPEAKER: We
then proceed to Motions. Motion 1 reads
as follows:
That the Second Reading Debate on the Appropriation Bill be continued.
The business before the House today is the Debate on Vote 9: Public Works, Roads and Transport.
The hon MEC, Mr Malebo.
Mr S M A MALEBO
(MEC): Hon Speaker, hon Premier of
the Province, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, hon Members of the Executive Council,
hon Members of the Provincial Legislature, comrades, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure to
address the Provincial Legislature at the time when we are left with only a few
months before the second democratic elections scheduled to take place on
This final sitting of the
Parliament and the Provincial Legislature challenges all of us to take stock
and make critical appraisals of the transformation process that the ANC
initiated and has led since our first democratic elections in April 1994.
As it has been repeatedly
said by the Deputy President, Comrade Thabo Mbeki, the first term of the ANC
Government of National Unity was largely devoted to repealing the Apartheid
laws, introducing legislation aimed at meeting the needs of all South Africans
and laying the basis for national reconciliation, reconstruction and
development. The next challenge clearly
is to implement the relevant policies and legislation and thereby deepen the
transformation of the South African society in general and ensure that even the
poorest of the poor continue to benefit from the country’s political miracle.
The programme of the ANC
Government of National Unity has resulted, amongst others, in broad reaching
legislation on Public Works, as well as Roads and Transport. This has led to the institutionalisation of
the Affirmative Procurement System in the Construction Industry, which has
assisted a great deal in the emergence of SMMEs (Small, Medium and Macro
Enterprises) and significant black economic empowerment. The Community Based Public Works Programme
was introduced as a short-term measure to deal with job creation and poverty
alleviation. We have also managed to
create a national vision of Public Works by developing a White Paper on Public
Works, called Towards the 21st
Century, which has far-reaching implications for our National Public Works
and Asset Management Programmes.
With regard to important
issues of Roads and Transport, the ANC Government of National Unity took a new
road. The following are characteristics
of this new road of the Government:
·
The
White Paper on Roads and Transport of 1996;
·
The
various amendments to the Roads Traffic Act;
·
Establishment
of agencies; and
·
Restructuring
of the taxi industry and an investment of R25 million that was recently
invested in Vision 2020, arising from the Moving South Africa Research Project.
The achievements of the
above effort were made possible by the adoption of the new Constitution which
ensures the creation of the provincial governments and which is vociferous on
the promotion of co-operative governance.
Such co-operative governance has allowed this Province, together with
other provinces, to sit together with the relevant National MECs and reach
consensus on national policies to be pursued as part of the transformation
agenda of the ANC Government of National Unity.
This can only make all of
us marvel at the achievement of the Constitutional Assembly, and celebrate the
democratic victory that all the fallen heroes of the national struggle for
liberation have brought this country.
The transformation agenda
mentioned above was not only restricted to the national level. Much was also achieved at Provincial
level. Hon Members of the Legislature
will recall that Provincial departments were only created in 1994, again as
part of the constitutional transformation of the country in general and the
Free State Provincial Administration in particular. In 1996, the Provincial Department of Public
Works, as well as that of Roads and Transport, was amalgamated to create the
present Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport.
Since the beginning of
the political transition, the demographics of the Department have changed
significantly. This will be clearly
illustrated when I deal with the achievements of my Department later on.
However, positive impact
on the infrastructural development of the Province has been severely
constrained by successive budget cuts in the last five years. For example, the Department’s Budget has
declined from an amount of R765 million in the 1996/97 financial year to R653
million in the 1998/99 financial year.
It now stands at R442 million.
This means that the
current budget is only 58% of the 1996/97 financial year. This has severely hampered the ability of the
Department to deliver in the manner expected.
This declining budget trend has, however, challenged the Department to
begin to do more with less as it has become the practice all over the
world. It compels the Department to
establish an organisational culture characterised by:
·
The
efficient and effective management of Government resources;
·
Strict
prioritisation of how the relevant resources will be deployed;
·
A
reduction of personnel costs which will include specific strategies to reduce
the number of personnel on the Central Redeployment Data Base, and encourage
officials over the age of 55 to consider early retirement packages; and
·
Promotion
of vibrant partnerships between the Provincial Government and the private
sector in the implementation of capital projects.
The Free State Land
Administration Act (Act 1 of 1998) is one of the achievements in 1998 that we
would like to mention. These, together
with the enactment of the Free State Interim Passenger Transport Bill (2/98)
and the Roads Ordinance (16/98) which was amended by this House, are major
milestones that will determine the future of this Department.
PUBLIC
SECTOR SERVICE DELIVERY TRANSFORMATION
In my Budget Speech of
1997/98, I committed myself as well as the Department to become more service
oriented. The Department has made
significant progress with regard to this.
A Departmental Transformation Unit and Departmental Transformation Forum
have been established. The process of
consultation for the Batho Pele Service
Delivery Improvement Plan has started.
Although there is still much to be done, the foundation for
Transformation of Service Delivery has been established.
The new Head of the
Department started in May 1998 and all but one of the senior manager posts have
been filled. Representation in our
Department of the population’s demographics is continuously evaluated for
further corrections.
We currently employ 6407
people in our staff. The gender
distribution is as follows:
·
Male
– 4663; which constitutes 72,8% of the departmental staff; and
·
Female
– 1744; which constitutes 27,2% of our staff component.
In the management of the
Department - that is from Deputy Director and above - we have 65% black and 35%
white members, with 48% being male and 16% being female.
FIXED ASSETS: LAND AND ACCOMMODATION
About
1110 fixed assets are owned by the Free State Government. This includes 162 undeveloped areas and some
farms. Most of these farms form part of
the nature reserves such as Willem Pretorius, Soetdoring and Tussen die
Riviere.
The Department is in the process of identifying houses that are being
utilised uneconomically by determining the market prices either for rental or
disposal.
In terms of Treasury instructions, all rentals with regard to State
Housing should be market related. The
Department is already correcting some areas where rentals for State Housing are
not determined in terms of the market.
In other areas the Department is transferring houses to Local
Authorities. With regard to Die Bult houses in Qwaqwa, the good news
are that all the houses identified have already been evaluated and the decision
had been taken that the houses will be sold at the price determined by the
evaluator. The Department intends to
sell the houses directly to interested parties.
The lessons we have learned from the Qwaqwa experience will assist us in
finalising the same situation at Gariep Dam.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
The
following Capital Projects were completed or are almost completed:
- Eleven clinics;
- Six
Hospitals;
-
The
Kroonstad place of safety;
-
Tshireletsong
Home in
-
The
Barend van Rensburg offices;
-
The
Government Garage buildings in
-
The
Hamilton and Welkom Testing Centres;
-
The
work at Soetdoring Nature reserve was completed; and
- Nine libraries were also completed.
Forty-five
contractors and SMMEs worked on these projects.
Several maintenance
projects were completed, such as the erection of the granite block with the
Lebohang name, fencing, installation of incinerators, paint work, upgrading of
some air conditioners, reparation of roofs, testing and reparation of lifts and
cranes, water meters and water pipe work.
The
THE PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME
Of the R40 269 080 made
available to date for the Free State Community Based Public Works Programme
(CBPWP) for the financial year 1996 and 1997/98, about R36 961 586,45 has been
spent. The remaining R3 307 493,55 is
expected to be utilized before the end of the 1998/99 financial year.
Almost 114 projects have
been identified in co-operation with various communities in the
Six environmental
projects, such as once-off clean-up campaigns and upgrading of cemeteries, to
the amount of R1 076 245 were implemented.
An amount of R5 208 740
was allocated for nine storm water drainage projects as well as the
reconstruction of a dam. Most of these
projects have been completed.
The
With the change in
Government, the Department modified its policy of providing access roads to
developing communities by including the internal main collector streets within
these communities in the Department’s functions.
In the past there were
several directorates executing the different functions related to transport
planning. However, with the
transformation of the Department, the following functions were grouped under
one Directorate:
·
Road
Planning;
·
Road
Traffic Engineering;
·
Planning
Administration; and
·
Transport
Information Systems.
During the 1998 - 1999
financial year, the following was achieved:
·
Service
delivery has been improved in the field of issuing abnormal load permits;
·
The
more sophisticated Accident Management System is currently leading the way for
other provinces;
·
Eight
access road projects have been planned and designed and the necessary liaison
processes have been undertaken. These
road projects have not yet been constructed.
Therefore, eight communities stand in line to be economically uplifted
through the provision of access roads and internal main collector streets when
funds for the construction thereof become available.
Notwithstanding the
achievements with regard to the above, there are an additional 70 community
projects that are still in urgent need of assistance from the Government and
eight road projects have been planned.
The participation of
However, with the budget
cuts, since 1992, there has been an annual increase of approximately 2% in the
length of poor and very poor pavements in the road network. If this trend is allowed to continue, 50% of
the road network will be in a poor or worse condition in the year 2000.
For the period 1994 –
1998, the following was achieved:
·
Nine
new access road;
·
The
22 road bridges;
·
Six
roads were upgraded;
·
Three
roads were rehabilitated;
·
Five
roads were repaired and resealed;
·
The
overloading-control weigh bridge at Kroonstad was completed;
·
The
886 officials from construction and maintenance attended training courses;
·
There
were 45 SMME contractors that were trained in road construction and as trucking
contractors; and
·
There
were 3453 direct jobs that were
created from the above projects by the contractors, subcontractors, joint
ventures and SMMEs.
The Department is
currently working with the Rural Council, which is representative of farmers in
various regions of the Province, to develop joint ventures regarding the
construction and maintenance of roads in the rural areas of the Province.
REDUCTION
IN ROAD FATALITIES (TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT)
In terms of reduction, the credit card type drivers’ licences were
introduced on
To curb motor vehicle crime, a system by which a new motor vehicle can
only be introduced by a registered manufacturer after being manufactured, is in
operation. There is a decline in vehicle
crime.
Very soon NATIS will introduce an accident and contravention module
which will facilitate the process of tracing traffic offenders and the
prosecution thereof.
GOVERNMENT
GARAGE VEHICLES
The abuse of Government vehicles is still a nightmare for this
Directorate. A total of 101 vehicles
were impounded in our Province due to invalid or unauthorised or incomplete
logbooks.
GRADING
STATIONS AND TESTING STATIONS
These are the stations responsible for the examination of vehicles for
roadworthiness. Twenty-seven
applications for Grade A stations were submitted to the SABS, all of which were
approved.
We have one "A" grade-testing centre for drivers’ licences,
five Grade B and 18 Grade D-testing stations.
The
Capacity
building and development of personnel has already been given attention in the
establishment. Sixty officers attended a
workshop on drivers’ licences. Basic
fire fighting was presented to 50 trainees.
Defensive driving was presented to ten trainees and 50 trainees attended
First Aid training course.
Traffic
Policing
Regions and authorities received advanced equipment such as laser (sic)
guns and Dragger breathalysers around November December 1998. A total amount of 6 253 speeding notices were
issued before the use of our advanced technology. After the implementation of the laser gun
during the period January 1999 to February 1999, a total of 3428 speeding
notices were issued. This constitutes an
increase of nearly 147%. In other words,
in two months more work was done on speeding than in the past nine months!
Discipline
I need to inform the hon House that my Department’s performance and
progress were almost seriously stalled by lack of discipline, mainly from a
handful of traffic officers. They have
done all sorts of things such as:
·
Stopping the
delivery of services to our clients as they pleased;
·
Insubordination;
·
Holding
unofficial meetings during office hours;
·
Interrupting
the sitting of the Executive Council;
·
Unprocedural
marches to the Legislature; and
·
Addressing top
management with no respect.
My Department had to act, otherwise, we would find the Department
destabilised by a handful of people with ulterior motives. My Department has restructured traffic
management. There are senior officers
who had to be transferred from one Sub-directorate to another, Chief Provincial
Inspectors transferred from one region to the and charges of misconduct are
being investigated. All these measures
were applied to restore discipline and work ethic.
The Province has managed
to complete the first phase of registration with the issuing of Conditional
Registration Certificates on
·
Details
of 93 associations, and their leadership is based in the
·
Descriptions
of all routes and operators, set out by the Taxi industry; and
·
Particulars
of 14 000 taxi operators, including more than 7 000 are vehicles operated by
them.
Phase one of the
democratisation process has been concluded, resulting in the creation of 86
democratically elected Executive Committees, 86 Dispute Committees and 86 Disciplinary
Committees. To date, more than 1 000
operators have been compelled to acquire roadworthy certificates for their
vehicles.
More than 400 people have
been trained in the taxi industry, including operators and drivers. The training programme mainly covered:
·
Driving
skills;
·
First
Aid;
·
Road
safety; and
·
Business
skills.
For the sake of time, I
will not refer to the scholars’ transport, which I think this hon House knows
about. I will rather refer hon Members
to the initiatives we have taken on scholars’ transport and on bicycle
transport for scholars.
BUS
SUBSIDIES
On bus subsidies, I wish to mention to this hon House that
the tender process for bus services in the
TRANSPORT
FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
In an endeavour to help
people with disabilities, a once-off grant of R598 000 has been allocated for
transfer to the Association for People with Disabilities. A task team has been established to
investigate the existing public transport systems to make it more accessible to
all.
4. THE 1999/2000 BUDGET
In order to have an
understanding of the performance of this Ministry, it is important to realise
that the Budget of this Department declined from an amount of R765 million in
1997 to R653 million in 1998 to only R442 million for the 1999/2000 financial
year. This means that the Budget is only
58% of what it was in 1997. What
aggravates this, is that personnel expenditure rose by 5% during the same
time. The result is that the
professional service’s budget used for capital projects, contracts, SMMEs
development and empowerment was cut by 74%.
The consequences of the
cuts are as follows: I am to conclude my
Speech. I raised the point in the
restructuring of the Department to deliver the core services at an affordable
price and acceptable level.
Notwithstanding the fact that certain functions were devolved to the
Province, the social and road infrastructure budget for the Department declines
every year to this extent. The Budget
for the financial year is only 50% of that provided for in 1995/96. This had major implications for the
programmes.
PROGRAMMES ENVISAGED TO BE EXECUTED IN THE 1999/2000
FINANCIAL YEAR
The budget cut of more
than 42% in the Departmental Budget over the last two years, without allowing
for any decrease in personnel costs, has forced the Department to cut on
capital expenditure. The situation has
now deteriorated to the extent that some functions cannot be maintained any
longer and will have to be sacrificed and to continue only the most important
functions, which are mentioned below.
Only in cases where a
user department supplies the funds, will new capital projects be
undertaken. Although the need still
exists, almost no new funds can be committed to the Community Based Public
Works Programme (CBPWP).
PROFESSIONAL
SERVICES
The Tsiame Clinic and
libraries at Fauriesmith, Paul Roux and Fouriesburg will continue in the next
year.
PUBLIC
WORKS PROGRAMME
In terms of the Public
Works Programme, two access roads will continue as well as community halls in
Boshoff and
All the projects where
allegations of mismanagement were made have been referred to the Heath Special
Investigating Unit and charges of fraud were laid with the SAPS.
ROAD PROJECTS
We will continue with the
projects in Thabong, Qwaqwa, and
Bothaville and with the bridges in Thabong.
I will not go into the
implications of the Budget with regard to Transport, but allow me to conclude
with this point:
Next to
education, an effective and efficient Transport system is the second most
important catalyst in a country’s social and economic development. Someone in
It was not our
wealth, which made our good roads possible, but rather our good roads that made
our wealth possible.
This is an
important message for us in the
With the severe budget
cut, as well as the challenges that confront us, I am of the opinion that the
Department is at a crossroad. We think
that for us to be able to survive and serve our people, we have two options:
- Either to stay as we are and deliver a
service based on the availability of funds; or
-
To
see the budget cut as a challenge whereby we commit ourselves to do more with
less.
In the last instance, it
is important that the Department be restructured in order to achieve this
objective.
Unless
we take drastic steps, irreversible damage will be done to the condition of our
roads. I do not want to go into that, as
I have already spoken about it. I am of
the opinion that the limited funds are the major constraints for our proper
functioning. If we want to address the
problem, it is important that we should have an understanding of the external
as well as internal challenges.
The
SPEAKER: Your has expired, hon Member.
Mr
S M A MALEBO (MEC): In conclusion, we have approached
Cabinet with two proposals in order for us to obtain either a loan or to
establish a dedicated fund for infrastructural development that can be derived
from revenue generated by the Province.
I will conclude the rest
of my Speech when I respond to the other points of the debate. I refer hon Members to the points that are in
front of them. [Applause]
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