MVIKELI NGCAMUPublic–private partnership models of investment are necessary to shorten the funding process, but sufficient local content and materials must be used to improve employment-creation opportunities
Seamless transport in South Africa and across the borders of Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries will help improve regional integration and growth and will be bolstered by the TransAfrica Expo, says Department of Transport integrated transport chief director Mvikeli Ngcamu.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters will address the first day of the transport exhibition, which will be held from October 1 to 4. It will feature workshops and exhi- bits of all modes of transport, including road, rail, maritime and ports, as well as pipeline- and oil- and gas-related logistics, he says.
The exhibition should also showcase the investment opportunities in transport infrastructure in SADC countries to improve regional trade and growth, Ngcamu notes.
“South Africa has huge backlogs in road and rail infrastructure investment and development in fixed and mobile infrastructure. The fiscus is strained and there is not enough to fund all the projects needed to reduce the infrastructure deficit.”
Private investment is essential to overcome this infrastructure deficit and infrastructure investment will promote job growth and poverty alleviation, he emphasises.
“Public–private partnership models of investment are necessary to shorten the funding process and the TransAfrica Expo must help showcase the incentives for private investors,” he says.
Further, Ngcamu notes that transport corridors must be developed to support, besides others, agriprocessing businesses in the Free State, ports development and economic corridors such as the N3 highway corridor between Durban and Gauteng.
Government aims to support the development of a motor hub in Johannesburg, which will require developing more inland terminals at Johannesburg City Deep, as the terminals will reach full capacity between 2014 and 2016, he says.
“Transnet, the City of Johannesburg and the Department of Economic Development are involved in this project to add more terminals and it is envisaged to develop transport corridors that will enable quicker transport of all cargoes. This will require a quicker turnaround at national ports, as a common criticism is that port turnaround times are very slow,” says Ngcamu.
However, projects must ensure that sufficient local content and materials are used to improve employment-creation opportunities, he says.
“South Africa has a serious problem of skills shortages and access to the TransAfrica Expo should be free for schoolchildren so that they [acquire an understanding of] and are encouraged by the aspects involved in the different road, rail, civil, oil and gas, as well as maritime, industries through exposure to the exhibits at the expo,” concludes Ngcamu.