Dipuo Peters has been appointed for another term as transport minister, with Lydia Sindisiwe Chikunga continuing as her deputy. Based on a poll run last week in FTW’s sister online publication FTW Online, the industry is not impressed with her first term and will be hoping for a more productive term second time round. The overwhelming majority of respondents believe that she was ineffective in her role (see page 16). Her first priority, in the view of Road Freight Association spokesperson Gavin Kelly, should be to reduce the cost of doing business by focusing on issues that are making business so difficult in this country and pushing up logistics costs. This includes the likes of permit applications and procedures and increased levies on road users. “She also needs to do something about lawlessness on the roads,” says Kelly, “from simple things like badly licensed drivers in all categories to blatantly faulty vehicles, bad driving behaviour and overloading. “If we could get those things sorted out we’d get very far. “In terms of the e-toll debate,” says Kelly, “we need to ask ourselves how we are going to maintain roads, develop new roads and continue fuelling the movement of freight in this country. Rail is not an option and will never be until there’s a fair amount of money to fix the problem. You have to look at smarter ways of moving and storing goods.” CAPTION Transport Minister Dipuo Peters
