The funding of road and rail infrastructure remains a major challenge for Cape Town's city officials. According to Melissa Whitehead, commissioner transport for the City of Cape Town, since transport is one of the few portfolios split between national, provincial and local government it is not always an easy sphere in which to operate. “There is often confusion and uncertainty over who is responsible for what in the transport sector. It is for this reason that integrated transport planning has never really been achieved,” she told FTW. “Dealing with the complex transport sector that is spread across three levels of government can be extremely challenging and is also a tall order as getting the governance structure right is near impossible. “In all of this funding is crucial as the government pot to maintain the road network is just not big enough. Longevity is essential in transport and we have not managed to achieve that.”
