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Ladies and Gentlemen,

In opening this, the penultimate link in "modernisation" of route N2 between the Southern and Northern borders of KwaZulu-Natal along its eastern seaboard, I will not misuse the occasion to bore you with facts and figures, relating to the section of road to be opened today, such as how many million cubic metres of soil have been moved and how many hundreds of millions of rand have been spent on its construction.

Rather, I will share with you some thoughts on the provision and administration of roads in general and with particular reference to KwaZulu-Natal.

This province has been particularly fortunate in its share of the National Road Network improvements during the past two to three decades. Within the near future KwaZulu-Natal will possess a high standard national road network traversing the province from North to Sough and from East to West - something no other province has. This national road system forms the backbone of road travel in Natal and I suggest that up to half of all traffic movement in the province (outside of city areas) take place on national roads.

That this situation has been possible during a period of stringent financial exigencies in respect of road funding is due primarily to our toll road policy. When funds for roads began to become in short supply during the late seventies it became apparent that a revised approach had to be adopted towards road financing. Following extensive investigation within the Department of Transport, a toll road policy was adopted at the start of the eighties. Whilst the proposal was not universally popular at its advent, the general public has come to realise that without road tolls, significant new road construction, as well as road improvements would not be possible.

Today there is broad acceptance of the concept of user charging for roads - and even of an additional levy on fuel - provided it is dedicated to road usage.

Our overall financial allocation for national roads has not improved in the meantime and we will increasingly have to turn to road tolls to finance major road improvements and the construction of new national roads. This approach has been very successful in certain overseas countries such as France and Italy, and the concept of user charging for economic infrastructure is rapidly gaining ground throughout the world.

In this province, where I perceive your major road problem, outside of metropolitan areas, to be predominantly one of improving and maintaining access to the more remote and socially deprived areas, you also will have to look at innovative approaches to solving your financing problem. Because traffic volumes on such types of roads is generally inadequate to support pure user charging through processes such as road tolls and fuel levies, a more appropriate source of revenue might be vehicle licences - through which motorists are charged for access to the system.

South African vehicle licence fees are exceedingly low by world standards - about equal to the cost of one tank of fuel for modern cars. Perhaps it might be opportune to investigate the creation of a provincial road fund which could be supplemented by income from a trebling or quadrupling of licence fees. There are also other sources which bear examination - however I leave it to your creativity to address the problem.

Financing of roads is not the only road problem facing us. Improved management of the road network is also an imperative if we are to safeguard our massive investment in the road system. This is a field which has received a great deal of attention world-wide in recent times - particularly in the more developing countries where a shortage of professional skills prevails in government.

The approach to the institutional restructuring of road authorities is generally based on four pillars. These are:

involve road users in management of roads to win public support for more road funding, and to constrain road funding to what is affordable;
establish a clear organisational structure to place the delivery of the primary road programme outside the hands of the bureaucracy;
secure an adequate and stable flow of funds and introduce a secure arrangements to channel these funds to the road agency and
strengthen the management of roads by providing effective systems and procedures and strengthening managerial accountability.

My proposals for a roads agency for the more efficient administration of national roads in South Africa is to a large extent based on these principles. Whilst the problems and issues facing provincial road authorities are not precisely the same as for the national road authority, there are some similarities. Taking into account the grave plight of provincial road authorities in respect of personnel resources, something which has been repeatedly discussed at our MINCOM meetings, I suggest that there is a very fertile field for discussions in respect of the most appropriate way to ensure optimum efficiency in the service delivery for provincial roads.

Whilst on the subject of provincial roads, there is an important issue which needs to be raised. Due primarily to the preceding political dispensation in this country there exists towns of thousands of tertiary roads (or rather, tracks) serving rural communities and townships which have received scant attention in the past. Improvement to these roads, on which, inter alia, sometimes hundreds of commuter bus trips per day are made is a pressing need and an area which I commend you to address.

Returning to the road which we are opening toady which incidentally was the first road contract I signed on behalf of the client on becoming Minister of Transport my department, in its administration of private sector road contracts, has made it a prerequisite that capacity enhancement and development measures be embraced in major road contracts. The five contracts which comprise the length of road to be opened today were the first examples of this approach required by the South African Roads Board.

During the course of this contract our achievements in this direction are as follows:

At the outset the aim was to involve the local communities in the form of job creation for unemployed labourers, development of emerging contractors, supporting local suppliers and so forth. A goal was set at 12% of the total contract value for this involvement. This was not only achieved but was exceeded.

To mention just a few of the success in the empowerment of emerging contractors:

Umduno Foundation - a small company that was formed purely as a result of this project did work on this project in excess of R300 000 and has now obtained several contracts within the local community.

Zungu Construction was initially appointed to do subsoil drainage to the value of R180 000. Due to the successful completion of this, more work was awarded to Zungu Construction to an end value of more than R200 000.

Siyabiya Contractors successfully installed barrier rails and fencing to a value of R1,0 million.

Dube Plant Hire netted about R580 000 on this project.

Sithole & Vermeulen were involved in concrete drainage works to a value of R3,5 million.

Sizabantu constructed guard-rails and gabions to a value of R400 000.

A particularly interesting feature of this road is the crossing of the Tugela River. The new bridge is immediately upstream of the position where the British Army made a pontoon crossing to facilitate the movement of troops across the river. A cable was tied to a large fig tree on the south bank and to s hips anchor on the north bank. The fig tree became known as the Ultimatum Tree because it was on the site where the Ultimatum was read out to King Ceteshwayo's indunas on 11 December 1878.

Unfortunately war and destruction followed that event. However, today we celebrate the opening of one of the largest new bridges in South Africa and this structure joins the old Zululand with Natal and together with the toll road, it will facilitate the generation of wealth along the Durban - Richards Bay corridor.

The floods of September 1987 washed the soil away from the Ultimatum Tree's roots and it died about 2 years later. Some slips of the tree were taken before it died and these have been successfully grown in the Department's nursery. One of the slips will be planted adjacent to the stump of the Ultimatum Tree to commemorate this occasion.

This section of road also forms part of the Lebombo Spatial Development Initiative, which is a joint project of the governments of Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa.

The N2 is strategic to the realisation of improved access between South Africa and its neighbours, and of developing untapped economic opportunities in the agriculture and tourism sectors, in this region.

Through the Lebombo initiative, a number of projects are being investigated which benefit directly from the existence of the N2.

The N2 is therefore significant not only for the people of KwaZulu-Natal, but also for our SADC neighbours and improved regional economic co-operation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure that you will all agree that today's events form a particularly auspicious occasions in the development of the national road network in Natal.

I welcome you all to today's festivities and, with pleasure, declare the New Guelderland to Umtumzini section of National Route 2 open.

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