OUTGOING MINISTER of Transport, Mac Maharaj recently presented his action agenda for Moving South Africa (MSA), a 20-year transport vision set for the transport system in South Africa.
The action agenda outlines a 20-year vision for passenger and freight transport customers, specifies action steps to be undertaken; focuses on the roles of different players and sets explicit targets to be met.
On a national level, for the first time, we have a vision for transport that is focused on customer needs - be they freight, urban passenger, tourists, or the forgotten customers ... the disabled or the rural poor cut off from the mainstream of our economy.
It is also an historic milestone for the Department of Transport. Over the past two years we have worked intensively on developing this strategy. We have conducted exhaustive research, we have consulted widely, and we have tested proposals through rigorous analysis and modelling in consultation with stakeholders and the public, he said.
Since the release of the draft MSA report in September last year, there have been some tough but fruitful debates both inside and outside government.
The result is a strategic framework with a high degree of consensus amongst all key stakeholders including government, its parastatals, organised providers, labour and customers, he said.
The vision is about speeding up delivery
Moving South Africa was unique in many ways, Maharaj said.
We proceeded very differently from the classic top-down methods of policy development.
From the outset we committed ourselves firmly to the principles of consultation, transparency and open debate; with an equally clear commitment to delivering a rigorously data-driven product. These principles remain at the heart of the process today.
Fundamentally, the vision is about speeding up delivery through sustainable action which focuses resources in those areas that will achieve maximum delivery impact.
Following comment from the public, the national Department of Transport put together a joint task team with provincial and local authorities which would contribute to the drafting of a final version of the National Land Transport Transition Bill for presentation by the new transport minister to the first sitting of the next Parliament, said Maharaj.
This forum will be made up of the highest levels of leadership from organised labour, business, customers and government to advise the minister on the unfolding of this action agenda, and to monitor, guide and drive the programme of implementation.
Consensus must still be reached on container port consolidation
In certain areas, sufficient consensus has not yet been achieved.
These include: the consolidation of container ports; certain aspects of managing private car use; and the creation of a dedicated funding mechanism for transport.
On these issues the need for clear strategic choices, options for further consideration and the signalling of the transport department's intention to take the process forward speedily, were outlined.
Agenda addresses needs of value-added exporter
The action agenda is about action to unwind the legacy of a transport system which emerged through inward industrialisation, which was the hallmark of apartheid economic policy.
At its core:
- It builds a new platform where the needs of the rural farmer and of the high-end value-added exporter can be met;
- It develops a platform in transport which can innovate and flex according to the emerging needs of the new industrial and economic strategy;
- It calls for focused investment and development to create a strategic backbone system which can support the majority of customers - particularly value-added exporters - while at the same time sustains a supporting network that guarantees economic integration and enables the spatial redistribution of wealth.
Transport department is developing solutions for specific export sectors
The transport department is currently working within the National Export Advisory Committee to the Minister of Trade and Industry, and has been mandated to convene the Committee on Transport and Logistics, which is tasked with developing appropriate strategies to support sector-specific export strategies.
This initiative is the critical path through which the system-wide action agenda can be cascaded down to develop differentiated and tailor-made solutions to specific sectors of exporters.
Secondly, a joint steering committee between Portnet and the transport department is already at work, developing the basic framework for the implementation of a ports policy.
Said minister Mac Maharaj: I have also been particularly encouraged by the extent to which the Department of Public Enterprises, Portnet, the Department of Trade and Industry and my own department have been working
together to ensure that port restructuring, port investment, SDI programmes and national industrial and transport strategy are fully integrated.
I am equally pleased to note the work that the South African National Roads Agency in identifying a strategic road network, and in preparing the way for the appropriate choices which will have to be made regarding investment, technical standards and regulation between the strategic and supporting freight networks.
Similarly I have been encouraged by the synergy between this strategy and the proposals emerging from the restructuring processes in the various transport parastatals. What must emerge from this Action Agenda, however, is a clear sense from all in the transport sector that the responsibility for its implementation does not lie solely with government, he said.
By Anna Cox
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
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