Road should have benefited from at least some of the funds
JOY ORLEK
THERE ARE many reasons for Gauteng’s infrastructure
melt-down – lack of investment, lack of planning and
lack of co-ordination at government and provincial
level among them.
Whatever the cause, the result is major congestion
– congestion that demands immediate investment.
But critical funds as well as skills are in short supply
thanks in part to the Gautrain, a project that has
attracted strong criticism from several quarters.
Among the critics is the straight-talking Chamber
of Commerce and Industry – Johannesburg transport
specialist and former president Pat Corbin. “The way
the Gautrain has been railroaded through is totally
unacceptable. We regard it as a gross misallocation
of scarce resources at a time when the need for
urgent investment in port, rail, commuter transport
and roads has been identified, but not addressed due
to lack of funds.
“The initial cost of the project was estimated at
R7-billion – and that’s when the rand was 10 to the
dollar.
“When the exchange rate came down to R7/$ the
cost of the Gautrain should have reduced to R5bn
– but it’s now R25bn and rising probably to R35bn.
“From day one the JCCI was totally opposed to
that volume of money going into one corridor.”
Corbin believes that the public has been fed a diet
of propaganda and that roads should have benefited
from at least some of these funds.
“The Gautrain will do nothing for the haulier.
You can’t put any freight on it and because it’s a
different gauge you can’t even use it as a freight
facility.”
And this while road congestion
continues to add significantly to
shippers’ and hauliers’ bottom lines.
“If you’re in the freight business it’s
taking you twice as long to do the
job, which means you need twice the
number of vehicles.”
The Government’s welcome policy
of addressing the need for public
transport will, at best, reduce the
rate of growth in car utilisation, but
will certainly not reverse the growing
number of cars on the road, says
Corbin. "The Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Transport is one of the
organisations that has expressed its
concerns over the project.
“The province is looking at
economic development. The thrust of
this is trade, and trade is dependent
on adequate infrastructure, as is
our ability to trade competitively
internationally. While price is a factor,
depending on the nature of the
business, reliability of supply is even
more important. You can’t work on an
average time – you have to work on
the maximum time.”
The Gautrain, he says, will do
little to improve the province’s traffic
flows and will also absorb traditional
exports. “For example, steel that we
used to export is now being used
here. We’re not just spending money
on massive importations – we’re
actually losing foreign exchange
earnings to which the Gautrain will
not make any contribution.”
With the project now well under
way criticism cannot reverse the
process. But the message for the
future must be a better co-ordinated
approach at all levels of government
along with liaison with the private
sector so that available funds and skills
are allocated in such a way that not
only all parties in the logistics chain
benefit, but SA as a whole, he added.
