South Africa’s Department of Transport has welcomed the opportunity to work with the private sector to confront the challenges facing the country’s roads and logistics networks to meet the demands of the economy.
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga told delegates at the inaugural Truck Driver Safety and Wellness Symposium in Johannesburg this week, which was attended by government and business leaders, that the government valued the input of the logistics industry to help it confront the challenges facing the sector.
The event, held in collaboration with the SaferStops Association (SSA), focused on enhancing the safety and wellness of truck drivers across South Africa, which is experiencing growth in the number of heavy vehicles on the road.
“Road freight transport has seen 48% growth over the last decade, of which heavy goods make up 34% of all the traffic on N3. This has led to heavy goods crashes on the busiest corridor adding to the carnage of light vehicle crashes,” said Chikunga.
She said the transport system was “ailing in parts that are very crucial for the growth of our economy and the development of our people and we have had to focus our energies and resources to urgently deal with the challenges”.
The most significant concerns were the quality of roads, inefficiency at the ports, a lack of adequate rail capacity, which included shortages in both freight and passenger rail infrastructure, she said.
“Our road network has been characterised by ageing, shrinking capacity and an unsightly spread of potholes across the provincial and municipal road network to the inconvenience and detriment of all categories of road users, with risks to safety, delays and causing polluting congestion.”
However, she said her department had embarked on intensive construction of mega road infrastructure projects, expanding provincial roads and repairing potholes.
“Over the last three decades we have continued to find ways of bringing lasting improvements to road infrastructure and have ensured that, from a mere 7 000 km at its inception in 1998, Sanral has grown the national road network to just over 23 000 km.
“To eradicate potholes, we have been implementing a pothole repair programme, Operation Vala Zonke (Operation Repair All) across the country as a directive from both the President and Cabinet in 2022.”
She said her department was aware of the inefficiencies in freight logistics and welcomed Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly and Truckers Association of South Africa president Mary Phadi’s suggestions and solutions to the challenges.
“We are thus on the same page and that gives us warm encouragement and deepens our belief in the benefits of collaborative engagements with the sector for purposes of speedy progress.”
She said the government’s Freight Logistics Roadmap would translate policy commitments into reality.
“This will be underpinned by the implementation of rail reforms in the rail sector, which will lead to the creation of a separate rail infrastructure manager, and the implementation of an open access regime for the freight rail network – to improve service quality, efficiency and promoting competition within the freight logistics systems.
“The approved Freight Logistics Roadmap will be a blueprint to assist and provide guidance for the country to urgently tackle the crisis that has plagued the logistics sector. Both ports and rail interventions will be premised on the fundamental principles of the roadmap.”
She said the roadmap was also a response to the vision for the rail sector as set out in the White Paper on National Rail Policy (Rail Policy) which was approved by Cabinet in March 2022. This policy takes a holistic view of the development of the rail system to enable the movement of freight from road to rail.
She added that the establishment of a Transport Economic Regulator had been identified by the Freight Logistics Roadmap as a critical structural reform that was needed to help resolve freight logistics challenges facing the country.
