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Chairperson,
Fellow Ministers,
MECs,
Chair of the Select Committee of the NCOP,
The new President and members of the Executive of SANTACO.

Delegates, I first want to thank all of you. Over the past three days, about 1 000 delegates gathered here in this hall. You did not represent yourselves. Each one of you represented their constituency. So, in a sense what we have witnessed is the parliament or, maybe, the constituency of the taxi industry of this country. You have spoken on behalf of the industry. You were democratically elected. You went through processes in your province, in your organisation. Through those processes you have come out to be the legitimate voice of the industry, and I want to say to you that what you have done is a milestone in the history of the industry. It is also an example of how other sectors can conduct their affairs. This may sound very strange and contradictory because this is an industry where there has been a great deal of conflict, intolerance and violence, and many people have lost their lives. But, that is one part of the story. Throughout that history of division, conflict and violence, there were good people, many of them are here today, who have tried to overcome those problems. Today is the crowning of their success. That voice of peace, democracy, and unity has become the dominant voice in the industry. I want to congratulate you all and to thank you for the example which you have set.

You have gone through a process in which you adopted a new constitution. There were many areas of concern and there were a number of areas which still need to be refined, but you have adopted the constitution. You have adopted a new name for the organisation, the South African National Taxi Council. You also elected an executive. So, you have your leadership, but you yourselves, as you sit here, form part of that leadership. You've gone through a wonderful process which lays the basis for an end to violence in the taxi industry. It lays the basis for an end to conflict and it lays the basis for you to concentrate on those things which will make this industry a great industry.

I would like also to thank those candidates who stood for elections. You have made democracy work. Those of you who stood for positions and did not make it this time, I think you have made a big contribution to this process. You have begun to create a new tradition and a new culture in the industry that we institutionalise the competition that we have amongst ourselves. We have elections to decide who represents the industry and who does not. Because of the constitution that you have adopted, there will be elections next time around. You have time to mobilise your supporters throughout the provinces, all over South Africa so that the next elections will be even better than these elections. So, I want to say thank you to all those candidates and every single person who made himself available.

We have to acknowledge that women do play an important role in this industry. They make it possible for the men to go forward. What we have seen in the last few years is that many women in their own right are participating in the industry and they are doing a very good job. They are giving leadership. I am not blaming you today and I am not blaming the executive, they did not elect themselves. I am sure you will be addressing this issue. We must make sure that all women are given an opportunity to play a meaningful role in the industry, to play a role in business and to play a role in the leadership. I can say that we have the same problem in government. We also need to bring in more women. When the next conference comes along there should be more women participating in our leadership, so that we can truly say democracy has arrived for everybody. In congratulating the executive on its election and wishing them well, I want to say that I recognise that this is a problem which we ourselves need to look at together.

Comrades, you would have seen the role of government in this conference and I want to explain that. The best analogy I can use is that of a midwife. The midwife is called to deliver a child. She can play either a good or a bad role. If the midwife does not do his/her job properly, then the child might be stillborn or the child may be deformed. If the midwife does his her job properly, a good, healthy baby might be born. The role of government has been the role of the midwife, to help you to revamp to this organisation which represents the taxi industry. I hope that you recognise that we may have made some mistakes as we went along. I hope that at the end of the day, when you go home, you will say to yourselves we have been a good midwife. The child looks healthy and it is now your duty to look after that child and make it grow up. The time has come to cut the umbilical cord. In your next conference whoever comes will be through your invitation, because this is your organisation. The time has come for me to say to you that at a certain level our job has been done. It is now over to you. You must make sure that you look after this child and ensure that it grows up to be a strong healthy organisation. That is your responsibility.

Allow me to say a thing or two about the way in which the organisation should work. I am not prescribing. I am simply saying please take this into account. If you do, this child will grow up into a beautiful child. The first thing is the need for transparency and openness. Those who were in SATACO will forgive me, but there was not enough transparency in SATACO, especially when it came to economic issues. We must not make that mistake again. If an executive does something of economic nature, it must be open and transparent and you must know what that executive is doing.

Secondly, your leadership must not confuse its own economic interests with the interests of the organisation. Make sure that it acts in the best interest of the membership. To achieve the best results it is very important that your management council works properly. That is the importance of democracy.

I want to ask you, on behalf of all of us, to reach out to our poor communities of our country who have suffered for so long. When you leave this conference, whatever planning you will do, you must plan how you will reach out to the commuters of our country. There are organisations of commuters. In this same way that it is good for us to have the industry organised, it will also be good for you and us to have our commuters organised. You are in the best position to organise our commuters. They too can form a partnership with you. We must have ongoing road safety programmes. We must make the coming holiday period the most joyful holiday that our people have ever enjoyed. So many of our people lose their lives on our roads. I am not saying that it is the minibus taxi industry that is responsible for the carnage in our roads, but we do make our contribution to that. We do make our contribution to many people dying on the roads. Can we make a resolve that we will reach out to our commuters? We are going to make sure that our vehicles are fit to be on the road. We are going to make sure that, to the best of our ability, vehicles will not be overloaded. We will comply with the rules of the road. To the best of our ability, we are going to make sure that the drivers obey the rules of the road so that we promote and protect life. We have a wonderful opportunity to turn around the negative perception of the industry. You must also preserve the independence of your organisation at all cost. You are independent of government. When you need to criticise government, you can criticise government. Whilst ensuring your independence, you must also make sure that you don't become instruments in the hands of consultants. Where we have to use consultants, let there be transparency.

I want to give you the assurance that we will be meeting to discuss some of the issues talked about in this conference. In the implementation of the Recapitalisation Programme, there will be consultation between government and the industry. As soon as possible after the conference, we will be meeting with the industry to carry on with the process of consultation.

Allow me to conclude by, once again, congratulating all of you. I think this has been a wonderful process. Nobody can help but be impressed by the way, in which you have related to each other. This conference has laid a basis for us moving together in a particular way. My last job is to say to Rev. Farisani that for me, he has been a pillar of strength. From the time he was asked to be administrator of SATACO and to lead the NCPC process, he has dedicated more time in this venture than being in the province. Rev Farisani, comrade, you have done an outstanding job. We are very proud of the work you have done. On behalf of the government team, conference and SANTACO, thank you for the work well done.

I want to wish all of you a safe journey home.

Issued by Ministry of Transport, 16 September 2001