From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report. The Department of Transport is in the process of developing the Multimodal Transport Planning and Coordination Act as well as the Transport Databank, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said at the launch of Statistics South Africa’s latest National Household Travel Survey, in Pretoria, last week. Anine Vermeulen reports.
Anine Vermeulen:
The new legislation will enforce the filing of transport information and will make it easier to collect transport information for planning and decision-making.
The Minister also stated at the launch that the University of Johannesburg’s State of Transport Opinion Poll, which was conducted last year by the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, states that transport is the third-highest overall priority in South African society.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters
Anine Vermeulen:
The poll also found that the outlook for the future was good, with 43% of South African’s thinking that transport in their local areas will improve in the next year and 57% believing it will improve within the next five years.
Dipuo Peters
Anine Vermeulen:
The Minister also called on the media to advocate the use of the Gautrain buses, in particular, stating that these were becoming “wasteful expenditure” of money that “could be deployed elsewhere”.
She noted that people preferred using their personal cars to get to Gautrain stations, which caused traffic congestion, stating that this had never been the plan. When the system was developed the bus system was designed in a way to feed into the train stations from various areas, thus decreasing private car travel, she said.
Dipuo Peters
Shannon de Ryhove:
Other news making headlines this week: The new Brics bank could meet funding gaps for Africa’s infrastructure projects; Public–private partnerships and interregional shift needed to roll out Pida; And, Gauteng will pilot a ‘transparent, open’ tender bidding model.
With financing being key to moving forward with Africa’s infrastructure plans, Gauteng MEC of Infrastructure Development Nandi Mayathula-Khoza was optimistic that the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, or Brics, development bank could be leveraged to roll-out projects across the continent.
Gauteng MEC of Infrastructure Development Nandi Mayathula-Khoza
Despite the progress made by the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, the initiative was “not as far along as it should be” as it faced headwinds in obtaining national cooperation and private-sector uptake.
Nepad transport infrastructure expert Dr John Tambi
In support of Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s vision of a “radical transformation” of the provincial public sector, Gauteng MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy has announced that Provincial Treasury and the provincial Department of Transport have agreed to pilot an open, transparent tender application process in the current financial year.
Gauteng MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy
That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.