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15 June 2007

Honourable Madame Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier Dipuo Peters
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I feel greatly honoured to present this budget speech on behalf of the collective in the Department of Transport, Roads and Public Works for the 2007/08 financial year. The African soil is drenched with the blood of those, who through the centuries of oppression, have sacrificed their lives fighting for a better life; who left the security and comfort of a mother's arms; who were forced to live as aliens in a land that gave birth to them. Many of these freedom fighters have been forced to leave the maturing African sun behind them; they were forcefully separated from the refreshing mountain streams and sinuous African rivers to seek refuge in other continents amongst people who were not their own.

It would be sacrilegious to allow the blood of these heroes and heroines to have seeped into the rich African soil without it producing a bountiful harvest of the fruits of freedom. To honour the historical giants like Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Sol Plaatjie and Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, the Department of Transport, Roads and Public Works seeks to embrace the vision of a better life for all.

We remain committed to the noble principles embodied in the Freedom Charter adopted many years ago on a cold and dusty June afternoon in Kliptown in 1955. What was then a dream is now a reality. The time has come to realise the ideals embodied in this document and to personify the Batho Pele principles. No more shall our people be allowed to go to sleep in poverty and wake up to a sunrise called desperation.

Honourable Madame Speaker the call to war has sounded. It has urgency to it. It is calling us to battle. We are called to battle poverty, unemployment, prejudice, corruption and the historical imbalances of race, gender and class.
As a department we are committed to serve the people of our province. This means that we should serve them with honesty, loyalty, integrity and commitment. Disloyalty to ourselves, the province and its people is a betrayal of self and is a commodity that we cannot accept in our values of sacrifice and service. We once again reaffirm our commitment to the noble ideals of the Freedom Charter. We commit ourselves to assist in job creation and the maintenance, upgrading and development of infrastructure for the benefit of all.

I am delighted to stand before you and report that we have made remarkable strides since we have visited with all units in the department to develop a turnaround strategy and deepened the commitment to rebuilding a strong culture of work ethics. Madame Speaker, we have set ourselves realistic goals and we achieve them in order to better the lives of our people.

Amongst our achievements, we saw a dramatic improvement in terms of financial management. The department has spent 99% of its total budget when we closed our books during the previous financial year. Surely this is the greatest achievement considering the fact that government takes financial management seriously. This improvement ladies and gentlemen, was as a result of better planning and the implementation of effective internal control systems within the department.

Honourable members, the importance of skills development cannot be overemphasised; we have the responsibility to develop employees in order to improve service delivery in the public sector. In line with the Northern Cape Human Resources Development Strategy, this year we have awarded 27 bursaries internally to the employees to further their studies in courses such as: Public Management, Transport and logistics Management, Civil Engineering, Quantity Surveying, Project Management, Human Resource Management, Employee assistance programming, Financial Management, Internal Auditing and Fleet management.

It goes without saying that the training and development of the employees remains a high priority. In the past years and even now, the department is offering courses to employees from management level to lower ranks. The training ranges from electrical and mechanical fields, quantity surveying, management and leadership, etc. The brain drain in the engineering profession in the department has compelled us to put great emphasis on skills development. In the past year, we have seen a number of engineers as well as technicians resigning to join the private sector and this move have really affected the functioning of the department.

The boom in the infrastructure economic development forced the department to intensify their effort in retaining technical and engineering skills through:

* reviewing the salaries of engineers
* utilisation of state owned houses for employees identified as scarce skills
* appointment of mentors to assist the technical personnel to register with relevant councils. In order to realise this objective department has recently advertised for retired engineers
* introduction of scarce skills allowance
* lastly the department aims to increase its investment in skills development through the offering of bursaries.

In the Road Section, our road-workers have enrolled for the Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) to improve their literacy to enable them to graduate from the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and to the Further Education and Training programme. We believe that this will equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills thus enabling them to apply for better jobs in the department and in the public sector as a whole. For the past years we have been paying skills levy to Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA). In this financial year we intend to pay skills levy to Transport Education and Training Authority Transport (TETA) as this will allow us to utilise the discretionary grants from TETA to up-skill our taxi drivers.

Public Works

In relation to the Public Works Section of the department, which aims to provide and maintain functional and accessible buildings and office accommodation, a national decision has been taken that as from this financial year that all Provincial Departments will be responsible for the management of their own lease contracts and also budget for it. The Department of Transport, Roads and Public Works is now utilising the old Floors Hostel as their offices. This move will realise a total saving of R155 million over the next 15 years on leases.

Madame Speaker, the Infrastructure Development Improvements Plan (IDIP) is now being implemented following the appointment of the technical advisor for Education. The infrastructure plan for education was received for Education and subsequent to that we have prepared a project plan and submitted it to Education. The technical advisor for Health will be appointed towards the end of this month. Service delivery agreements are being developed between Public Works and other client departments.

In order to ensure that IDIP is effectively and efficiently managed at a strategic level, Provincial Programme Committee meetings are being held for the successful implementation of the IDIP in the Northern Cape province. In 2006/2007 financial year, the Department completed these projects on behalf of the following client departments:

Social Services

* In Groblershoop Multi Purpose Hall with a 200 seating capacity, was completed to the tune of R988 000. The project provided jobs for sixty people.
* Calvinia Multi Purpose Hall was completed at a cost of R1,5 million. The project employed thirty people. The following projects are currently under construction:

The Springbok Secure Care Centre is 20% complete and is employing 52 people. A centre of the similar nature is being built in De Aar and has created fifty jobs. In the same breath, a 200 seater Multi Purpose hall in Strydenburg is almost complete. Two multi purpose centres will be constructed during the course of this financial year in Louisvale and Calvinia. Sites have already been identified for the development of these centres. Preliminary plans and cost estimates have been completed.

Health

I am pleased to inform this honourable house that the department has completed four new clinics. Just approximately a month ago, the Honourable Premier officially opened the Garies Hospital which was completed to the tune of R20 million.

The following projects are currently under construction in the Health sector:

* The Barkley West hospital is 55% complete.
* The construction of the Kimberley Mental Health facility is at 40%.
* As directed by the client department, the construction of Upington, De Aar and Postmansburg hospitals, are on hold.

Education

We have completed the building of the school in Douglas, whilst on the other hand, the first phase of the ten class roomed school in Schmidtsdrift is in the final stage of completion. We are also building another school in Postmansburg, and it is currently 80% complete. The department will also construct a school in Galeshewe at an estimated cost of R7 million. The contractor has already been appointed.

Madame Speaker, this year alone, the department must implement 302 projects on behalf of the Department of Education. The total Provincial Infrastructure Grant (PIG) budget for these projects is R57 million and it will be used for the construction of science laboratories, administration blocks, classrooms as well as repairs and renovations. We have agreed during our meetings that some EPWP initiative will be taken on board.

Lastly, under Public Works, Madame Speaker, as part of our efforts to ensure that small contractors get the opportunity to participate in the procurement offers that the department makes available on a regular basis, we have embarked on a joint process, together with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), of ensuring that small contractors register with the CIDB. This commenced with the first road-show that was held on 11 May 2007 in Kimberley. These road-shows will be held throughout the province over the next month.

Roads

Honourable members, you will note that the bulk of this department's budget expenditure, almost 63%, was allocated to road infrastructure since this is the core mandate of this department. The budget for this programme is committed to provide and maintain integrated road and infrastructure that is safe and functional to support social and economic development in Northern Cape. Our road infrastructure development plan for this year has been a culmination of strategic consultations processes with the five districts with the focus on Economic, Access and Project roads.

The following projects were completed during the 2006/07 financial year:

* The 11,3km road between Springbok and Komaggas, 75 people were employed.
* In February, Premier officially opened the R14 million Mamatwan road
* The Teekloof pass which entailed the stabilisation of the mountain slope to prevent rockfalls.
* The rehabilitation of twenty-four bridges throughout the province.
* The shoulders of the 60 kilometres road between Upington and Groblershoop were widened. Furthermore, an amount of R1,2 million was spent to make single lane bridges pedestrian friendly. The Holgat Bridge which was damaged by the floods has since been repaired and completed this year. The departmental construction team conducted an extensive rehabilitation work on the Hopetown-Orania road.

Madame Speaker, the department is now in the process of constructing a new surfaced road between Grootmier and Rietfontein. Construction has started and the project is estimated to come to an end in April 2008. Also, a gravel road section between Britstown and Vosburg will be upgraded to a surfaced standard and the envisaged completion date is July 2008.

In a partnership between us and the Department and Environmental Affairs and Tourism, 260 jobs were created from the upgrading of the road between Andriesvale and Transfrontier Park. This road will increase the opportunities for local and international tourism to the park, spanning over South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. Phase one of the road has been completed. Projects for the next three years are as follows:

Through initiatives from National Treasury through the IDIP programme as well as improved long term planning the following projects is in the pipeline for the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period:

Vosburg and Carnarvon

A gravel road section between Vosburg and Carnarvon will be upgraded to a surfaced standard at a total cost of R84 million. The designs for this road are at the final stage and the draft tender document was received during April 2006. The construction is planned to start late 2008/2009.

Norvalspond and Colesburg

This road is currently in urgent need of rehabilitation and claims were already received from the public. The feasibility study is completed and remedial works by the departmental team commenced during August 2005. More specialised work need to be done therefore an amount of R1 million is budgeted for the designing of the rehabilitation. The construction is scheduled only to commence during 2009/10.

Tsineng and Ntsweng

A gravel road section of 22 kilometres between Tsineng and Ntsweng is already designed and construction will commence during the next financial year. The upgrading of this road will improve access and improve levels of mobility for several communities in that area. We became aware that the yellow fleet has reached the end of its life cycle and developed a replacement strategy. An auctioneer has been appointed for the period of two years to assist in this regard; the first auction took place on Tuesday, 12 June 2007, in Upington with promising financial results. In the strategy that we developed, we have indicated that ten graders will be refurbished and we will purchase forty new graders over a period of three years.

Public Transport

Honourable members, the issue of public transport is giving us sleepless nights. We are concerned that our people still do not have access to public transport. One of the biggest challenges we encountered is ensuring that transport functions are carried out at a local government level. Madame Speaker, we have observed that in Northern Cape there is a shortage of taxi ranks. To tackle this problem, we have set aside an amount of R3 million to assist municipalities with the construction of ranks. To date 12 municipalities were assisted with the development of designs and business plans for the construction of public transport facilities. For this financial the construction of taxi ranks will commence in the following towns:

* Pampierstad
* Barkley West
* De Aar
* Spingbok
* Kimberley.

Ladies and gentlemen, in October 2006 we hosted our Transport Month campaign where we had an opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our public transport system. We were able to determine that levels of mobility, especially in our rural areas are still very low and intervention is required to create opportunities for access and improved mobility levels. The department has prepared and submitted a Business Plan as part of our bicycle project to the national Department of Transport. The national Department of Transport has committed to donate 500 bicycles for each bicycle shop we establish in the province. It is our intention to establish six bicycle shops over the next three years in support of the "Shova ka Lula" bicycle project.

These shops will enable easy access to spares and maintenance for beneficiaries of these bicycles. This project is run in close consultation with the Department of Education and the municipalities who will take responsibility for the shops. It is for this reason that we jointly hosted the Transport Consultative Conference with the Department of Safety and Liaison in December 2006. The aim of this conference was to chart a way forward, together with our stakeholders, on the future of public transport, special needs transport and road safety. The result of this conference was a draft Action Plan that was approved by the Executive Council (EXCO).

The taxi recapitalisation programme honourable members, was launched in last year in December with the opening of the scrapping depot in Kimberley. Five taxis were scrapped during the launch and to date a total of 85 taxis have been scrapped. We have put in place the necessary support structures to deal with problems encountered by the Scrapping Agency. We will continue to intensify our efforts to ensure that the recapitalisation programme gains momentum throughout the province.

We have also renewed our commitment to the taxi industry by consolidating our relations with the provincial taxi council. During this financial year we will be assisting the Taxi council with their Economic Empowerment Strategy that will chart the way forward for economic benefits for the taxi industry. In order to ensure the success of the recapitalisation programme, we have now consolidated the functioning of the Law Enforcement Forum in conjunction with Department of Safety and Liaison, Justice, the South African Police Service and municipal traffic. The aim of this Forum is to deal with all forms of instability within the taxi industry as well as the increasing number of illegal operators.

The Northern Cape Provincial Government has recognised the need to revitalise rail operations in terms of both long distance rail passenger transport and rail freight transport in the province. The need to revitalise rail operations has, to a large extent, been influenced by the decline in the economies of local towns, especially in the Pixley Ka Seme District and the need to stimulate these economies through interventions that are aimed at using existing strengths and infrastructure in these areas.

The department will embark on a consultative exercise with all the relevant stakeholders to come up with ways of revitalising unused infrastructure in order to create job opportunities for the communities in those areas. In consultation with the various role players in the tourism industry, we will develop proposals for the introduction of tourist rail services linking the various tourist attractions in the province.

The inefficiency of any transportation system, and thus the constraints it puts on economic activity in some parts of the province, forms the basis of the need to remove existing inefficiencies in the rail sector. This is clearly outlined in the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) of the province which calls for the promotion of an efficient and effective transport system as one of the strategic interventions needed to attain the objectives of the PGDS. In terms of the upgrading of the Douglas-Belmont rail line, the first phase has now been completed and phase two will commence during this financial year.

The 850 people employed for the first phase will continue with phase two. Ladies and gentlemen, the team from the department has been tirelessly working on a Freight Logistics Strategy. Various stakeholders took part in the development of this strategy which will amongst others; provide an efficient freight transport network to ensure that the province offers a competitive environment in which firms can invest and operate.

On the other hand, the Freight Data Bank has also been finalised. At the moment the focus has been on the finalisation of the White Paper on Transport Policy as well as the Transport Master Plan. In July, we will be launching the Green Paper on Transport Policy. We are delighted to inform the house that the Aviation Forum has been established and is in full operation. The Aviation Forum consists of provincial departments, Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), municipalities as well as representatives from the private sector. With regard to the Upington Cargo Hub initiative, the national department has committed to assist with the development of a Nodal transport Strategy in support of the Cargo Hub initiative. In addition we have established a support team consisting of provincial departments that will be responsible for guiding the process and advising the Political Committee tasked with leading the project.

EPWP

Madame Speaker, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is gaining momentum. In his 2007 State of the Nation Address, President Mbeki stressed the importance of up-scaling EPWP this year. As the EPWP champion in the province, our responsibility is to ensure that there are opportunities for skills development and creation of jobs across all the sectors. We intend to award the President's statement a necessary attention. In Northern Cape, we have set a provincial target of 15 000 job opportunities during the 2007/08 financial years across all sectors i.e. the Economic, Social, Infrastructure and Environmental sectors.

The department will spend R96 million for this financial year on EPWP projects. Currently, on the roads section, 12 learners are involved in the practical training in the construction of access roads in Noupoort, Norvalspont, Vaalharts, Soebatsfontein and Hopetown. In order to strengthen the development of our youth, we intend to launch "Learnership 500" through which 50 new ventures will be for the development of entrepreneurial and business skills.

The remaining (450) learnerships will be as skilled artisans, technicians and professionals within the Built Environment sector. Vuku'uphile programme will be implemented to establish cadre of labour-intensive contractors. In the past weeks, we placed adverts in the local print and electronic media for the National Youth Service Programme (NYSP). Plans are underway to launch the Provincial NYS Programme which will see 500 youth from all the districts participating in refurbishing, repairing and renovating of a number of provincial buildings. This programme will equip these youths with skills whilst empowering them in the process.

Our ultimate objective is to ensure that all Expanded Public Works Programme is linked to an effective exit strategy. The department secured R244 million over the MTEF period from the national Department of Transport for the implementation of the "Scaling-up" initiative designed to build and maintain road infrastructure on EPWP principles.

The focus will be on access roads development because the only access to many poor communities is through access roads, and access roads provide tremendous opportunity for the creation of many labour intensive job opportunities. This initiative forms part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and will be implemented as part of the broader initiative of increasing the scale of the EPWP Programme. In partnership with the Kgalagadi District Municipality, the department will this year start projects which will benefit 90 people in that area. Some of the projects include road fencing and building of donkey carts for the domestic market. In other areas, the following projects will be done:

* McDougall's Bay Beach Improvement Project (Project has commenced)
* Honderklip Bay Beach improvement project
* Pampierstad Taxi Rank
* Road signage project.

Access roads in:

* Mapoteng-Ellendale Access Road
* Hartswater at North-West Border (Christiana)
* Longlands Access Road
* Victoria West Access Road
* Schmidtsdrift Access Road
* Garies hospital Access Road
* Uap road.

EPWP in the Environment and Culture sector

In terms of the Environment and Culture Sector of the Expanded Public Works Programme, programmes are implemented through labour intensive methods and contribute significantly to short term job opportunities whilst they also offer learning and skills development opportunities to the majority of the unemployed people that are trapped in the second economy. Through the partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), the "Investing in Culture" programme, jobs opportunities have been created. This has increased the potential of participants to earn a future income by providing work experience, training and small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) development.

The Environment and Culture Sector of the Expanded Public Works Programme comprises of the programmes that are reasonably established. These programmes are implemented through labour intensive methods and contribute significantly to short term job opportunities whilst they also offer learning and skills development opportunities to the majority of the unemployed people that are trapped in the second economy.

Madam Speaker, We need to understand that two fundamental strategies underpin the government's approach to reducing unemployment. Firstly, to increase economic growth so that the number of net new jobs created starts to exceed the number of new entrants into the labour market and secondly to improve the education system such that the workforce is able to take up the largely skilled work opportunities which will be generated as an outcome of the economic growth. Short to medium-term strategies have been put in place to contribute towards these strategies. The EPWP forms one of government's short to medium-term strategies.

This has increased the potential of participants to earn a future income by providing work experience, training and SMME development. The challenge amongst others for these funded projects is infrastructure as all projects need an operational area. Founded on the fundamentals of integrated planning in dealing with the challenges of local economic development and poverty reduction, the Department of Public Works is committed in dealing with this challenge by forming partnership a with Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to ensure accessibility of available infrastructure for the benefit of funded projects. I have requested our EPWP unit to study the outcomes of the Cultural and Heritage conference held last year in Victoria West and see how we can explore opportunities of enhancing jobs in the EPWP strategy.

With the incorporation of the Kgalagadi area into Northern Cape, the department received an additional 172 staff. Honourable Members, I need to inform you that there is a huge backlog on infrastructure in that area. At the moment, we are reclassifying the roads in that area and have already identified three roads that will be upgraded over the next five years. With regard to state houses, they are currently being rented out at nominal value and not market related rental.

In terms of roads, 41 kilometres paved roads and 915 kilometres gravel roads have been added to our network. The total amount of paved roads in the province is 3 025 kilometres, including the portion in Kgalagadi District Municipality. The overall condition of paved roads in the Northern Cape has deteriorated from 85% in 1991, to 66% in 2006.

Madame Speaker, we are concerned that the condition of our roads is deteriorating and there is limited budget allocation for the next three years for resealing of roads. The insufficient funding will result in lack of maintenance or the delays will cause further deterioration of the surface condition of the paved roads. The department has a budgeted R52 million for the maintenance of gravel roads and R23 million for surfaced roads. This financial year, we will design the following projects with the road infrastructure funding:

* Black Rock and McCarthy's Rest
* Tsineng-Ntsweng road (Design Completed)
* Square Kilometre Array
* Vosburg and Carnavon (Design Completed)
* Norvalspont-Colesberg
* Verlatenkloof Pass
* Pofadder-Onseepkans Road
* Churchill-Bendel
* Barkly-West-Hartsrivier (Design Completed).

With the identification of tourism roads and economic routes within the province to enhance infrastructure for economic growth and social development the Douglas-Campbell road was selected for upgrading. We are pleased to announce that the construction of the upgrading of 28 kilometres Douglas-Campbell road at the cost of R45 million will commence later this year.

Meanwhile ladies and gentlemen, the department has developed a new Road Maintenance Strategy due to the shortage of road workers resulting from ill health and retirement. We will develop contractors from within the community to do the maintenance on roads on EPWP principles. Twenty five million rands will be distributed according to the identified poverty pockets in the province to create an estimated 1 500 jobs. The work will consist of rest areas shoulder re-gravelling, re-gravelling and drainage structure.

A decision was taken at the stakeholders meeting to create an alternative N12 route through Kimberley after an observation that the Big Hole, next to the road, is caving in due to the high traffic volume. After looking at five options for the traffic to be used through Kimberley, the bypass, a new road through Kimberley was decided on as the most favourable option to release the current load on the stressed road.

The Sol Plaatje Municipality is busy with a disaster management plan to address risk of the Big Hole caving in, in the short term. As part of the Big Hole development a 2 500 seater conference centre, at an estimated cost of R118 million will be constructed.

Organisational structure

After discussions between the executive management of the department and taking into consideration political mandates and the changing environment in which we are working, and thereby re-aligning the strategic direction of the department it became necessary to re-align the organisational structure of the department, to meet its strategic goals. In addition to the latter we as a Department also had to make provision for the incorporation of the North West departments of Transport and Public Works. In due course a new proposed organogram will be forwarded to Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and the Governance and Administration committee.

In addition to the above, the proposed organisational structure of the Department of Transport, Roads and Public Works was scrutinised to assess the current number of posts attached to the department and to further look into the number of posts that would be necessary to deliver on the new mandates of the department. The proposed organisational structure has been a process of consultation with all stakeholders within the department and we are convinced that the new structure will assist the department in delivering on its mandates and reaching its strategic goals.

Honourable members

I therefore take this opportunity to table an amount of R519 million for 2007/08 financial year, as follows:

* Administration: Seven percent of total budget R38 million
* Public Works, ten percent of total budget R54 million
* Road Infrastructure, 70% of total budget R363 million
* Public Transport three percent of total budget R13 million
* Community Based Programme, ten percent of total budget R51 million.

The annals of history faithfully record great battles waged by great generals, from Alexander the Great, to Napoleon Bonaparte to Shaka. These men are often credited with the victories. Great generals may plan great battles, but is it the soldiers who actually determine the outcome. History fails to bestow on them the honour that they so richly deserve. History fails to honour the faithful soldiers who selflessly sacrifice their lives for the greater good. I do not want to fail my "soldiers" by selfishly basking in the glory.

Hence, I would like to thank the men and women in my department, under the leadership of the acting Head of Department (HOD) Ruth Palm, for their dedication and commitment to better the lives of the communities of Northern Cape. Words of gratitude are extended to the members of the Portfolio Committee for their unwavering support. I also want to pay homage to my ministerial staff marshalled by my personal assistant Nico Fourie, "Malume" thank you for your commitment.

I want to thank the Honourable Premier, Ms Dipuo Peters, you for the political guidance and for always reminding us of the oath we took to serve the masses. This is also extended to my colleagues in the executive. Finally, I would like to thank my wife and my family for their support, patience and commitment.

Ke a leboga! I thank you! Baie dankie!

Issued by: Department of Transport, Northern Cape Provincial Government
15 June 2007
Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.northern-cape.gov.za)