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25 April 2008

Yesterday, we tabled the Budget Vote for the Free State Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport. This was the last tabling of a budget vote in this five-year political term. So inevitably, we highlighted major priorities for concluding the term on a high note of business unusual. The main theme of the budget vote was: Business Unusual: All hands on deck to speed up infrastructure delivery for faster development.

Our total budget allocation as the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport is R1,9 billion. This represents a 21% increase compared to the past fiscal year. The R188 million that constitutes a repayment amount for our accelerated infrastructure delivery will be immediately processed from this appropriation.

Our major achievements over the four years include the following:
* Expanded Public Works Programme: We created a total of 64 049 jobs and trained 30 contractors and 60 supervisors through the Vuk'uphile Learnership.
* Access Roads: We have used access roads in rural roads as major infrastructure projects for the application of the EPWP principles of labour intensiveness, contractor development and skills development. Our experience over the years has led to the development of best and sustainable practices.
* Capacity for infrastructure delivery: The Infrastructure Summit of 2005 was instructive in mapping-out the way forward for accelerated infrastructure delivery in the province. The summit also led to the improvement of planning, co-ordination and supervision resulting in integrated infrastructure plans and improved in shortening the cycle of delivering capital infrastructure projects. We now deliver almost all of our projects on set schedule.
* National Youth Service: In the past financial year, we had an intake of 841 young people in National Youth Service Programme.
* Contractor Development Programme: We have recruited a total of 200 emerging contractors to be mentored through a contractor development plan that will be implemented in this financial year. Hundred (100) of these contractors will be for civil works and the other 100 for general building works class of works of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Contractors Register.
* Taxi Recapitalisation Programme: We have scrapped 1 540 old taxi vehicles and paid R77 million to taxi operators in the Province. Ninety three percent (93%) of all taxi operators in the Free State have applied for conversion of radius based permits to route based operating licenses.

We have currently advertised for 56 internships in various scarce and technical fields. There are 134 bursary holders who enrolled in various technical fields including civil and electrical engineering and some are beginning to graduate and were absorbed into the department. To illustrate our commendable success in accelerating infrastructure delivery, Kopanong Secondary School, which is a new school in Bloemfontein as well as EE Monese Primary School in Senekal were completed on an accelerated pace.

We have completed 11 projects of the Department of Education. And our monitoring of 28 schools projects indicates that we are on schedule and will complete within contract period. The major public works projects this financial year will be the continuation of construction of the Roads Office in Bethlehem. We will continue with the second phase of the provincial government offices in Bloemfontein. We will also build offices for the Department of Social Development in Kroonstad.

The following are some of our priority roads currently in planning stage which will help reduce the road infrastructure backlog in the province the:
* Refengkgotso Access road in Fezile Dabi
* Bultfontein-Wesselsbron Road rehabilitation
* Standerton-Vrede-Warden Road Rehabilitation
* Vrede-Memel Bothaspass
* Mangaung Inner and Outer Ring Road
* Ficksburg- Fouriesburg Road Rehabilitation
* Olivershoek Harrismith Road Rehabilitation

We will vigorously implement the disposal plan for immovable assets by passing over some tuck-shops and other trading facilities to the Department of Tourism, Environmental and Economic Affairs for the promotion of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) development. We will transfer housing units to the Department of Local Government and Housing for sustainable human settlement. Some land will be transferred to the Department of Agriculture for agrarian reform.

We have received 621 applications from taxi associations for upgrading of the drivers' licenses to bigger recapitalisation vehicles. Concerns relating to the Operating Licensing Boards turnaround strategy, quantum on the scrapping allowance, and the moratorium on the issuance of operating licenses are receiving attention and we are confident that the Minister will give unyielding political leadership in this regard.

We will soon be inviting the public for nominations of persons to serve on the Operating Licenses Board in our renewed efforts to improve the turn-around times for fast-tracking the Taxi Recapilisation Programme. We will work closely with Mangaung Municipality to ensure the success of the integrated transport system in the wake of 2010 through the imminent rollout of the Bus Rapid Transit in Mangaung. The Traffic Law Enforcement function is going to be transferred to the Department of Public Safety, Security and Liaison.

The Government Motor Transport and the Road Building Equipment, will be merged and restructured into one unit, called Fleet Management. This will be done in order to better fulfil the objectives of government as enunciated in the Free State Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (FSPGDS). We are going to implement Expanded Public Works Programmes (EPWP) massification measures of the five access roads we announced last year. We have set aside R267,9 million for this purpose. We will also partner with municipalities in accelerating massification measures in the construction of other access roads in the rural areas of the province. These include:

* Thaba Nchu Bus route-Mangaung Municipality
* Rouxville-Mohokare Municipality
* Huntersvlei in Viljoenskroon- Moqhaka Municipality
* Maluti a Phofung – access roads outside the rural area

We are using National Youth Sports (NYS) to build a formidable base of artisans, given the skills needs in the economy, which will benefit the entire country. We will strengthen our engagement, co-ordination and partnership with Further Education Institutions and Skills Education Training Authorities (SETAs) with a view of improving on challenges identified.

The economic classification of the budget is shown in the chart below.

Transfers: R4,5 million: 0%
Compensation R500 million: 26%
Capital R871 million: 46%
Rates and Taxes
R125 million: six percent
Goods and Services: R426 million: 22%

The programme distribution of the budget is shown in the chart below.

Administration: R 113,238 m: 6%
EPWP: R 27,938 million: 1%
Traffic Management: R 177,224 million: 9%
Public Transport: R46, 970 million: 2%
Roads Infrastructure: R 982,382 million: 52%
Public Works: R 579,143 million: 30%

For enquiries contact:
Gunnett Kaaf
Cell: 082 771 4931

Issued by: Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, Free State Provincial Government
25 April 2008
Source: Free State Provincial Government (http://www.fs.gov.za)