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31 October 2008

Our province is now home to more than ten and a half million people, bringing with it even greater awareness on the part of government to create a broad social safety net for all. Tied with this positive challenge is the need create a broad skills base while also ensuring that we create an environment for people to take active part in the life of our country's economy.

We also believe that the creation of new economic hubs is part of a broader and more sustainable solution to attendant challenges. Equally so, our government seeks the creation of a better Gauteng for all through the implementation of people driven projects that will help address historical imbalances in the extension of government services in the motor vehicle sector. In this regard, concrete steps are being taken respond to the growth in the motor vehicle population in Gauteng province through the creation of jobs and the imparting of skills to all communities.

We are also aware of the accelerating demand for transport services in our province, especially public transport and we believe that public transport is the only sustainable mode of transport. We also believe that public transport must move away from being a mode of force to be a mode of unlimited choice, based on the quality of service.

Our government believes that the answer also lies in the continuous development of strategic planning that will help our province in providing world class transport services to local and international tourists.

We also note the need to ensure the success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup through the provision of comfortable, reliable, safe, accessible and affordable public transport, something that is now an issue of major international interest, as much as it must also help us leave a lasting public transport legacy especially for all our communities.

The Motor City Project
Today, Gauteng Provincial Government is proud to unveil a project known as the Motor City Project that will help our province to address the demand for motor vehicle repair by creating a broad skills base in historically disadvantaged communities that are now experiencing significant changes in car ownership statistics. This project also includes a new drivers license testing centre that will for the first time be constructed in historically disadvantaged area in Gauteng.

This project will help create an enabling environment for township based entrepreneurs to formalise their business in the motor vehicle repair and maintenance industry so that they may become sustainable business concerns.

The Motor City Project will also help us achieve our objective of establishing local economic hubs through the combination of transport services with other forms of economic activity such as tourism and hospitality services. This project is being implemented in the twenty prioritised townships as first announced by Gauteng Provincial Government more than two and a half years ago.

Motor City is also aimed at ensuring equitable access to government services to all communities in Gauteng through the broadest extension of basic infrastructure for vehicle registration and licensing.

We are confident that the programme will create opportunities for the facilitation of strategic business partnerships between government, the established franchisors and emerging local entrepreneurs. We are encouraged by steps taken by the Automobile Association in partnering with the small players in the industry and we are confident that this will help contribute to the growth of the economy of Gauteng province.

To date, we have conducted recruitment workshops in areas such as Mamelodi, Soweto, Sebokeng, and Vosloorus, so that we may give them a chance to participate in modernising the motor vehicle repair and maintenance sector in Gauteng.

We are glad to turn the sod for the construction of the first township based drivers license testing centre in Sebokeng and small farms. We hope the communities of Boitumelo, Sonder Water, Evaton and Lakeside will be able to use this facility to the maximum.

The Yellow Cabs Project
On the other hand, our objectives regarding the metered taxi industry, in Gauteng, are quite clear. We would like to use our partnership with this industry, through the Gauteng Provincial Metered Taxi Council and its regions, to help build a fully professional and corporatised metered taxi service that will give the residents of our province value for money. We would also like to help change its ownership landscape to reflect the demographics of our province and those of our country.

We are glad to say that the Meyerton Taxi Association are to receive their share certificates, today, as proof of their shareholding in the corporate structure they have established with a view to access the benefits flowing from participation in tendered bus routes. This sets the tone for others to follow.

We are also aware that metered taxis are currently the only public transport service that is available 24hours around the clock. Besides this fact, we also believe that this industry constitutes the very face of our province through its first hand reception and transportation of local and international visitors. More than 100 metered taxi operators have also undergone customer care training and they will be our ambassadors during the 2008 Soccerex, the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. All yellow cab drivers are also being taken through first aid training and we encourage the whole industry to do likewise.

The branding has also been chosen such that it is in line with international trends in terms of easier and global identification of city cabs, such as in the developed cities in other highly urbanised parts of the world. Therefore, we are proud to unveil our own brand of Gauteng based Yellow Cabs. Besides the 126 unveiled last year, a further 200 cars will be added to the service so as to address the demand across Gauteng.

The area of Sedibeng District Municipality is very rich in heritage, it being the very fountain of historic struggles of the peoples of our country and defined the destiny of South Africa. We are confident that both the Motor City Project and the Yellow Cabs initiative will play an important role in helping this community use its own history to change the lives of its people for the better.

For more information:
Alfred Nhlapo
Cell: 083 376 8496
Tel: 011 355 7532

Issued by: Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works, Gauteng Provincial Government
31 October 2008
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.transportandpublicworks.gpg.gov.za/)