Specifically, this month’s dialogue will address the roads network of South Africa recognising that roads make an important economic and social contribution through improving efficiencies and opening up business opportunities and employment creation as well as providing access to social services such as educational, health and community facilities.

However, in doing this there are currently a range of crucial challenges of which the most urgent includes the following:

Institutional and regulatory environment – responsibility for the road network is spread across all three spheres of government; however some roads have not been allocated to a responsible authority – there remains in excess of 140 000kms country-wide which fall under no authority and thus receive no attention. The interface between spheres of government and authorities is also not always easily managed and thus proves to be problematic – for example the ongoing collapse of the Mpumalanga coal roads notwithstanding their strategic importance to the national economy or the lack of expansion of rural roads which continues to exclude many rural communities from social services and economic opportunities.

Funding – there is a need to expand the network and this has concomitant capital funding requirements; however this is exacerbated by the extremely high proportion of the network which has fallen into total disrepair (ie beyond the useful design life expectancy) and therefore needs replacement and is thus also a capital rather than maintenance cost. Lastly the funding for operations and maintenance is a serious problem, both in amount and availability.

Developmental leverage – roads over their whole life-cycle provide a wide range of economic opportunities; from labour intensive, small contractor construction and community based maintenance initiatives to PPPs.

To ensure that these challenges are confronted in a robust and broad based manner the speakers will be drawn from both the public (different spheres of government and/or agencies) and private sectors.

This dialogue provides the platform to review progress, debate constraints and identify opportunities for constructively moving forward.

Have Your Say…

Should you wish to participate in a discussion of this topic please click on the link below and indicate which sector you are from, namely Private, Public or Other.

This dialogue will focus on the delivery of an integrated public transport system and services which promote and support well functioning, sustainable, and inclusive cities and towns.

In South Africa past policies and present practices have reinforced exclusionary transport modes and inefficient settlement patterns with resultant debilitating and unsustainable outcomes.  For the majority of the population transport was used to link distant locations of residence with those of employment rather than for sustainable, convenient service provision. Concurrently, during this period, for the minority, private car use grew.

However, despite growth in car use, public transport and walking are still the predominant “lifeline” forms of mobility for the vast majority (70%) of the population (NHTS2003 in DoT 2007).  Surveys indicate that the two most important generators of trips are places of education and work: education is the greatest generator of trips in urban and rural areas but in metropolitan areas places of work dominate trip generation.

Although there are many challenges it is the diversity which also provides opportunities.  This is particularly illustrated at local level. In metropolitan areas no two cities are the same and different issues take precedence. In Cape Town the rail network is dominant, whereas in Johannesburg the issues pertaining to the Gauteng City Region are a priority and in Nelson Mandela Bay it is the issue of creating coherence amongst three dispersed core areas and a rural hinterland which takes precedence.  Over and above the city specific opportunities FIFA2010 provides a crucial opportunity to accelerate public transport; however this has also raised a myriad of issues and challenges.

These differences will significantly affect network planning and operational design, and the costs of these will impact the architecture of funding and cost recovery structures. However, other than in the largest municipalities, very little capacity to undertake thorough planning, programming, budgeting and management of integrated public transport exists.

In conclusion, notwithstanding cabinet support for the previously mentioned 2007 strategy and its enabling legislation, for the majority of the population travel remains difficult, inconvenient, unpleasant, and expensive. In the words of the 15 Year Review “the system has not performed at an optimal level and public transport users have not benefited significantly from various policy initiatives undertaken by Government” (DoT in 15 Year Review. P van Ryneveld). In short public transport appears to remain Stalled in Transition.

Have Your Say…

Should you wish to participate in a discussion of this topic please click on the link below and indicate which sector you are from, namely Private, Public or Other