Where in the world was Dipuo Peters?

The fifth annual Southern African Railways Association (Sara) conference kicked off at Emperor’s Palace in Johannesburg yesterday (Tuesday) without a keynote speaker and without an official opening when Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters failed to arrive.



According to the programme for day one of the conference, Peters was scheduled not only to deliver the keynote  address, but to officially open the exhibition and to head a Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministerial panel discussion around the role of rail transport in economic development.



Ministers or directors general of transport from as far afield as Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Swaziland were in attendance.



One of the high-level delegates commented: “Protocol dictates that should a keynote speaker not be able to meet their commitment,  they should deputise a stand-in.”



Peters is apparently “ill”.



In the end, after waiting well over an hour for Peters to arrive, the programme kicked off without a keynote address, skipping straight to the ministerial panel discussion. Again, South Africa had no representation on the panel. No minister, no deputy minister and no high-level departmental representative.



As Tshenolo Mabeo, minister of transport and communications for Botswana pointed out: “Railways play a pivotal role in the economic development of a country and the SADC region. It is vital for government to show their support at a high-level event such as this.”