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Chairperson, Mr Zwelakhe Mayaba,
MEC for Transport in Mpumalanga, Comrade Jabulani Mabona,
His Worship the Mayor of Nkomazi Municipal Council, Clr Khumalo,
Honourable Councillors,
Representatives from Afribike,
Visiting delegates from other provinces,
Members of the media,
Members of the Mzinti community.

It gives me great pleasure to join you for the provincial launch of the Shova Kalula (pedal easy) Bicycle Transport Programme. Shova Kalula is a partnership between the national Department of Transport and local and provincial government that aims to promote bicycle transport amongst our people. Our gathering here in Mzinti today is a beginning. It is the start of a campaign to re-introduce safe cycling in order for it to play an appropriate role in a more balanced transport system.

Shova Kalula aims to promote awareness of bicycle transport through a demonstration approach. Our philosophy is to learn by doing, to start small but to ensure that the effort is sustained. I have instructed my department to take a chance, to get its hands dirty and to find a low-cost way of putting bicycle transport back onto the development agenda.

Why the need for bicycle transport, you may ask? The answer is simple. From Holland to China to South Africa, cycling is the cleanest, cheapest and most appropriate form of transport for short to medium distances ranging from 1 to 10 kilometres. Cycling is for everyone, for both rich and poor, women and men, girls and boys.

It is for both rural and urban areas. Hey, cycling is even good for Ministers, MECs, Members of Parliament and Mayors. It is efficient, healthy and contributes to a liveable and safe community.

Shova Kalula is a beginning and must be viewed within the context of a South African transport history that has neglected the role of the so-called "slow modes" - walking and cycling. That is why, even though we have world-class urban roads in our cities and suburbs, we do not have adequate facilities and infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. South Africa's transport planners have historically provided high speed car use for the rich, very basic public transport for the working poor and totally inadequate facilities for the millions of urban and rural people with no option but to walk or cycle.

Walking long distances is the only means of getting to work and school for the great majority of rural people; and this is the case for 20% of people in our urban areas. Many people walk, not for choice, but because they have no available and/or affordable transport option.

Our plan is to promote cycle use quickly in selected areas with low motor vehicle volumes. Over 60% of our six million motor vehicle registrations are in three of our nine provinces; or - to put it differently - over 60% of motor vehicles are used predominantly in the metropolitan areas of our four largest cities.

Our approach assumes that in the short-term, cycling will be promoted as an alternative to longer distance walking or to not travelling at all, especially in rural and peri-urban areas and in our smaller town and city areas.

We aim to serve these lower-traffic areas and to address the affordability of bicycles and the skills required to use and maintain them, through establishing micro-business shops that are run by people selected from local communities. These shops are here to serve the community; they will provide new and used bicycles at affordable prices. They will also provide training in how to ride and how to maintain your bicycle.

Through the national Shova Kalula programme, we hope to implement at least 80 of these shops throughout the country by the end of 2003. Already, we have implemented container shops in Muden and Izingolweni in KwaZulu-Natal, in Witpoort, Hamatiza, Mokwakwaila and Bakenberg in the Northern Province, in Ivory Park and Temba in Gauteng, in Theunissen and Edenburg in the Free State, and in Langa and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape.

Through this tactic, we are confident that we will be able to demonstrate effective demand for affordable cycling in these neglected areas. We also hope to grow the bicycle market to encourage lower-cost supply as well as more localised assembly and possibly manufacturing.

The biggest challenges to address in order to promote widespread bicycle use are safety concerns, affordability and lack of awareness of the advantages of cycling on the part of both transport planners and potential users. If we are to put bicycles back on the transport agenda in South Africa, we will need to provide proper facilities for cyclists to travel safely. This is a big challenge for all of us from local to national government. Without well-designed and safe bicycle infrastructure, we will continue to be under-achievers when it comes to the use of the bicycle.

In order to promote safe cycling, especially in areas with large numbers of motor vehicles, we will need well-designed bicycle infrastructure and facilities. To promote this, we are implementing Demonstration Bicycle Infrastructure Projects in Ivory Park township in Johannesburg and also in Atteridgeville, Tshwane.

Over the next 2 years, my department will also assist with a few more Bicycle Infrastructure Demonstration Projects. Mzinti is one area that shows good potential. With community and local council support, our common goal should be to promote mobility within Mzinti through the use of the bicycle. Bicycles are also an ideal feeder mode to public transport such as buses and trains. Indeed, I want to issue a challenge to our transport planners and railway providers to encourage bicycle feeders to train stations.

Ultimately, we would like all local road development and upgrading to cater for safe pedestrian and bicycle use.

It makes little sense to upgrade a road or to build a new road without including pedestrian and bicycle facilities up front. To achieve this will require a change of mindset in the transport profession. I would like to remind my transport colleagues that private motorcars are not the only transport mode in South Africa and in a place like Mzinti most households do not even have access to a car. Therefore, we need to cater properly for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users as well.

For inspiration and advice, we only have to look at the increasing importance that countries in both the developed and developing world are giving to the role of cycling in the overall transport modal mix. The achievements of the Netherlands and Denmark as global leaders in bicycle transport are well known.

If I compare my personal experiences of riding a bicycle in both Holland and in South Africa, the benefits of the Dutch system of well-planned bicycle transport infrastructure as an integral part of overall road design, is glaring. But it is not only the Dutch who are catering for bicycle transport infrastructure. How many of you are aware that the city of Bogotá in Colombia has completed a network of "ciclo-rutas", 300 kilometres of bicycle paths, the most extensive dedicated bike path network in the world.

The new paths, coupled with other bike promotion measures, have caused a 900% increase in cycling. In 1997, only 0.5% of the population used the bicycle as a means of transportation, today more than 5% do it.

The Bogotá model has been studied with interest by other Latin American capital cities such as Lima, Quito, Santiago de Chile, Panama City and Guatemala City.

A further project that my department is exploring is to team up local and international bicycle infrastructure planning experts to conduct a strategic assessment of our current transport infrastructure standards and practices and to recommend bicycle-related infrastructure packages tailored to the specific conditions of South Africa's rural, peri-urban, and small town populations.

Having dwelt on our tactical campaign to get bicycle transport moving again in South Africa, it is perhaps necessary to state that the medium-term goal is to target not only lower-income walkers but higher-income car users as well - but only if the appropriate infrastructure and support systems can be put in place to effect the switch from car to bike as preferred daily transport mode.

In this regard, the challenge will be to build on the initial promotional campaign and to establish a few "flagship" projects with cities willing to encompass a large-scale city-wide bicycle transport programme like the one in Bogotá, Colombia.

In conclusion, let me stress once again the hybrid first-world/third-world reality that is South Africa today. Though parts of South Africa have world-class road systems, we have no world-class bicycle transport systems.

The situation is lamentable, but can and must be turned around, even if slowly and within our current constraints. We have made a start, and over the next two years, we have two major goals: to roll out a network of bicycle shops in lower-income areas; and to develop clear recommendations to guide transport and road infrastructure planners. Once these are in place, our medium-term goal is to go after the car users in the bigger cities - but only with a carefully planned and well-funded campaign.

I would like to wish the Shova Kalula shop in Mzinti all of the best and to commit my department to ongoing co-operation with the local council and province to grow this project from strength to strength.

In conclusion, allow me to take this opportunity to call on all road users to be vigilant on our roads this festive season. I wish to call upon all our drivers to take an extra care for our cyclists and pedestrians. Let us all make a personal commitment to saving lives on our roads. I wish you and those near and dear to you a safe and happy festive season.

Arrive alive.

Issued by: Ministry of Transport, 13 December 2001