The appointment of Blade Nzimande as South Africa’s new transport minister has drawn mixed reaction from an industry clearly underwhelmed by the impact of previous incumbents.
Road Freight Association (RFA) technical and operations manager Gavin Kelly told FTW Online that it was difficult to determine whether there would be any significant changes in the industry until the agenda of the new president’s government became clear.
“Previous ministers have not shown any logical approach to issues facing transport in the country and have allowed policy decisions of a dubious nature,” he said. “There are many matters that have remained stagnant while wild proposals have been published without any regard to their impact on the country.”
Kelly added that previous transport minister Joe Maswanganyi had not achieved any success in growing, improving or overcoming many of the obstacles facing the industry since his appointment in March last year.
He also noted that the association’s past experience with Nzimande – regarding Transport Education and Training Authority matters which ended up in the High Court – had not been favourable or productive.
However, economist Mike Schussler believes that while Nzimande will face several challenges, he may be better suited to the department than any of the previous incumbents - as long as he prioritises the building and upgrading of roads.
Kelly pointed out that for Nzimande to achieve any significant positive change in the transport industry, he would need to move away from the constant drive to move freight to rail and the insistence on implementing policy that would damage transport efficiencies and create more red tape.
