Politics.za

Has Gauteng Premier Mcebisi Mbhazima Shilowa ever seen a multi-billion Rand train project he didn’t like? First we had the Gautrain (R20 billion and probably rising) and then we had the proposed Soweto Monorail which would have cost R12 billion, although it seemed it was going to be privately funded. That was quickly shot down by the national Transport Ministry but lo and behold it seems to be possibly back on the drawing board.

Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe says the first time he heard about the proposed monorail between Soweto and Johannesburg was when he read about it in the paper.

Radebe said it was not clear “what particular process” had been followed to secure the contract for the monorail. “I’m as in the dark as you are at the moment,” he told the committee.

Now the federalists amongst you out there might very well be cheering the Gauteng provincial government along, after all what business does the national government have in a province’s affairs. Unfortunately with the current administrations love for central planning and considering that all rail projects are considered an area of ‘national competence’ I guess we can assume the monorail is all but dead now.

Update: Government halts Gauteng monorail

The building of a 44,7 kilometre monorail between Johannesburg and Soweto has been “put on hold”, the Transport ministry said on Friday.

What is it with Gauteng and expensive railway projects? Gauteng Finance and Economic Affairs MEC Paul Mashatile has announced the building of a R12 billion monorail linking Soweto and Johannesburg.

This one actually makes a bit more sense than the Gautrain (which links Johannesburg, OR Tambo Airport and Pretoria) as the Soweto Monorail will carry close to 1 500 000 people a day, compared to the Gautrain which will carry a pitiful 20 000/day.

The Gauteng Department of Transport is unable to account for millions of Rands in revenue.

The accounting records kept by the department were so poor that Gauteng Auditor-General Adronica Masemola chose not to express an opinion on the department’s audit report and refused to confirm its claimed R980-million revenue.
...
Gauteng Transport MEC Ignatius Jacobs admitted that his department – which has had qualified audits for the past two years – deserved just one star (out of five) for its woeful administration record.

Well at least they won’t be in charge of the entire R20 billion Gautrain budget right? Right?!?

It’s about time that the Dept of Transport has finally decided to allocate some funds towards upgrading the trains that hundreds of thousands of commuters use everyday.

Except that the R40 million to be spent nationwide on new coaches over the next 3 years is miniscule when compared to the R20 billion(!) budget of the Gautrain, which will carry (an estimated) 20 000 people a day. Now it might be just me but things would make a whole lot more sense if those numbers were swopped.

R40 million is 0.2% of the entire Gautrain budget, and yet it is to be spent on a national level as opposed to the regional focus of the Gautrain. Now granted this R40 million is just for new coaches but it’s indicative of where the effort is being made and it’s just not making much sense to me.

One of my pet issues is transport so it’s good to see the current major transport crises facing Cape Town and Johannesburg being put in the spotlight by Minister of Transport... Finance Trevor Manuel (is there anything he can’t do?). It’s a really big problem in my mind because the lack of public transport is a literal stranglehold on the economy.

I guess Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe is a bit busy trying to prevent the Taxi recapitalisation programme from going down in a fiery ball.

Transport in South Africa has never really been very efficient. In Parliament Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe admitted that because of the inefficiencies of SA’s rail network more and more freight trucks are plying SA’s highways an extra stress they can not handle. When asked why Government was not spending money on upgrading infrastructure Radebe replied:

The Department of Transport does not have any budget to fix any part of the railway line, because these lines belong to Spoornet and Transnet.

Not to ruin Radebe’s artful dodge there but last time I checked Spoornet/Transnet was 100% owned by government, so instead of “engaging” Spoornet over what lines need to be fixed I suggest you “order” them to do it.

That coupled with the fact that driving in Delhi is safer than driving in SA means that Radebe should be stalking the Department of Transport non-sto chasing down wayward projects.

I don’t know if the Mail & Guardian did this on purpose in ordering the stories on their front page. First the second ranked story:

ANC: KZN name change not a priority
The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal said that accelerating development and service delivery is a greater priority that changing the name of the province.

And then the headline story:

Welcome to OR Tambo airport
When the world’s soccer fans descend on South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, most of them will disembark at OR Tambo International airport, as Johannesburg International airport will soon be known.

Finally! After delay after delay the Taxi Recapitalisation Program is finally moving forward, albeit slowly.

The target was to scrap 75% to 80% of the oldest vehicles on provincial databases – some 25-years-old or more – by 2010.

So by the time the world cup rolls around only 20%-25% of taxis will be death traps. And considering the criminal element in the taxi industry today here’s a recipe for fraud if ever there was one:

Under the mandatory scrapping programme, owners will receive R50,000 for each vehicle destroyed, which they are expected to invest in a new vehicle.

Despite taxis being one of the more inefficient modes of transport, government is determined to keep them around mainly I would guess because they historically have been one of the main areas of black entrepeneurship. Considering the dire need for improved public transport, even without the World Cup looming on the horizon, it is a shame that progress has not been faster.

One thing that will be needed to put in place as part of the recapitalisation project is a decent regulatory agency with strict licensing laws and harsh penalties for traffic offences. Otherwise the whole recapitalisation process will be a complete waste. Instead of having head on collisions with 15 seater taxis we’ll just have them with 30 seater ones.

Well the Gautrain has been approved and I’m fully expecting the guys from Commentary to start their campaign of sabotage sometome soon.

And this is probably one of the few topics in SA today where conservatives and arch-leftists agree, that the Gautrain will cost too much and do too little. It’s estimated that the Gautrain will reduce congestion by 20% but congestion in Gauteng is increasing at 7% a year. So in the three years it will take to build it will reduce congestion to… today’s level. This is what running in place feels like.