DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT
Ref: PSI 1/2/2/2

PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT: 21 August 02

SUBJECT: COMMENTS ON THE REPORT REGARDING THE PROGRESSIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF TRANSPORT PLANNING ITO THE NLTTA DONE BY THE PALMER DEVELOPMENT GROUP

PURPOSE

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide you with the Departments reaction on the above report and to make recommendations on the way forward.

BACKGROUND

You would recall that the Department made a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Transport on 22 May 2002 informing them of the level of implementation of the NLTTA.

Following this presentation, the Portfolio Committee decided to appoint an independent organisation to assess the level of implementation in a few areas. Palmer Development Group was appointed and the Department provided them with a copy of the presentation contained in Annexure A as well as the contact names and numbers of relevant person in the agreed areas.

THE PALMER REPORT

Palmer Development Group agreed with the Portfolio Committee that case-studies will be done in the following areas: Cape Town, eThekwini and Amatole District and interviews were held with representatives of these areas as well as of the various provinces. It is a pity that Gauteng Province and one of its uni-cities were not included in this evaluation. Gauteng is a nucleus for a number of other provinces and have specific challenges with regard to inter-provincial transport and boundaries for the establishment of transport authorities.

The findings of the report can be divided into the following categories, namely issues that might require legislative changes and implementation issues.

COMMENTS ON SPECIFIC ISSUES CONTAINED IN THE REPORT

OPERATING LICENCES AND REGISTRATION

Lack of clarity on the role and function of the support staff to the Operating Licensing Board (the Board). The fact that this is not addressed by the Act is leading to conflict between the Board and the Province

The only lack of clarity regarding the role of officials that this Department is aware of is the role of officials as was set out in the Road Transportation Act, (Act 74 of 1977). After long deliberations at the NCOP this issue was clarified in the following manner in the National Land Transport Transitional Amendment Act, 2001:

An official may consider and grant or refuse applications for temporary permits only or operating licences or other authorities for special events in terms of section 20 of the 1977 Act or replacing provincial laws if, in the case of such an official, that official places a record of action taken by him or her in terms of section 6(b)(b) of the National Land Transport Transition Amendment Act, 2001 before the board at its next meeting for the boards ratification.

The functions of the Board itself are set out in section 30(3) of the NLTTA and the manner in which operating licences should be disposed are dealt with in regulations to be issued or already issued by the MECs or by replacing provincial laws.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that a meeting be held with the consultants to determine whether there are any other specific issues that raise uncertainty in order for the Department to deal with it.

b) Ownership right of an operating licences in the event of the death or insolvency of an operator and the possible inheritance by next-of-kin.

In order to protect the Board’s ability to consider applications against various criteria as set out in the NLTTA, the latter stated in section 34(1) that except on conversions of permits to operating licences, no person has a right to be issued with an operating licence.

Firstly, in terms of section 83(1), the Board has to consider inter alia the following issues when application is made for the granting, renewal, amendment or transfer of an operating licence:

whether the vehicle by means of which the service is to be operated is suitable for that purpose
whether the applicant has any previous conviction for an offence of the type of seriousness prescribed by the MEC;
the ability of the applicant to operate the service for which the operating licence is sought, in a manner satisfactory to the public.

Secondly, persons who are directly involved in certain functions relating to the evaluation of applications for operating licences, registration of associations, law enforcement, preparation of operating licences strategies and who act as assessors for example are disqualified to hold operating licences (section 38).

Furthermore, in terms of section 85(1)(b), an operating licence can only be issued if the successful candidate is registered as a taxpayer under the Income Tax Act, 1962. Section 85(3) also requires that a current road worthy certificate be submitted for the vehicle relating to the specific operating licence.

The matter of inheritance of operating licences was discuss at length during the drafting of the NLTTA and taking into account the above issues, it was decided that the best way to deal with this issue was for such an individual to apply for the normal transfer of an operating licence.

Recommendation

It is recommended that a legal opinion be sought whether the Department’s interpretation of the manner in which the inheritance of operating licences be handled, is correct and whether any amendments to the Act is required.

The Board has proposed that instead of operators applying for routes on an ad-hoc basis, that the Board could rather advertise routes as they became available either as a result of transport plans, death or insolvency of operators, etc.

This is an interesting proposal, and should be explored. This concept has already been included in the Gauteng Public Passenger Road Transport Act, 2001 (Act no 7 of 2001)(section 38(1)), which provides that transport authorities may invite applications to the Board for operating licences where a transport plan shows the need for additional services on a route.

Recommendation

It is recommended that this proposal be considered further by the MINCOM-structure.

d) The Board was also concerned about the lack of attention paid to the transport of farm-workers, and indeed to any employees by an employer.

Transportation of farm workers and other employees fall in the definition of staff services which means "a public transport service by road provided by means of a vehicle owned by an employer or a vehicle provided by a public transport operator in terms of a contract with the employer, when used exclusively for the conveyance of the employer’s employees."

In order to provide staff services, an operating licence is required at the normal criteria for the disposal of an operating licence is applicable. This include whether the vehicle by means of which the service is to be operated is suitable for that purpose (section 83(1) and that a current road worthy certificate be submitted for the vehicle relating to the specific operating licence (section 85(3)). In the case of staff services however, provision is made for the MEC, in addition to the provision of the NLTTA, to prescribe the circumstances in which operating licences may be granted for staff services.

But section 33(2) of the NLTTA preserves the exemptions listed in section 2(1) of the Road Transportation Act, 1977, or replacing provincial laws. One of these exemptions relates to the conveyance by a farmer of his or her workers in certain circumstances. This exemption may be amended by provincial laws. It has been scrapped in Gauteng, for example (see section 4 of the abovementioned Gauteng Act)."

There is however a concern from the Department’s side that these services, even after the scrapping of the exemption, might be operated without permits or operating licences, and due to inefficient transport law enforcement, this practice might still exists.

Over and above the normal safety requirements, the Regulations to the National Road Traffic Act, 1996, (Act no 93 of 1996) provides for restrictions on the conveyance of persons in goods vehicles. For example, regulation 247 of that Act which indicates that: no person shall operate on public roads a goods vehicle conveying persons unless that portion of the vehicle in which such persons are being conveyed is enclosed to the height of at least 350mm above the surface upon which such person is seated or at least 900mm above the surface upon which such person is standing in a manner and with material of sufficient strength to prevent such person from falling from such vehicle when it is in motion.

Recommendation

It is recommended this issue be investigated further through the MINCOM-structure.
e) The Act fails to cater for the different needs of metered taxis and tourism services. The seasonal demand for tourism services can result in the illegal use of vehicles between peak periods.

The needs of tourist services are mainly dealt with in the planning provisions. In terms of Part 7 of the NLTTA, provinces have to develop a tourism strategy which planning authorities have to take into account in development of the transport plans.

The problem mainly relates to delays in dealing with applications for operating licences, due to backlogs experienced by the provincial boards. This is especially acute over holiday periods.

It is true that there is very little in the NLTTA on metered taxis and further work need to be done in order to address this issue. The issue of metered taxis did form part of the NTTT process and a position paper regarding metered taxis was developed but never submitted and adopted by the MINCOM structure.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the MECs be requested to address the problem of delays in dealing with applications for operating licences and that the final recommendation on metered taxis be submitted to the MINCOM-structure after which amendments to the NLTTA can be considered accordingly.

Generally it is felt that the NLTTA is a very complex document that needs to be made more accessible and user-friendly.

The Act is very complex and therefore the Department decided to develop a range of booklets addressing various issues in the Act. Two booklets were already published one, an Overview of the NLTTA and one, an Introduction to Transport Authorities. Copies of these documents will be provided to members of the Portfolio Committee during the briefing.

The Department is also busy with provincial workshops to build capacity on a high level but more detailed capacity building is required.

The National Chapter of the NLTTA (Chapter 2) was meant to ensure a certain level of consistency in specific matters, but it is very clear from this report as well as our deliberations with the Provinces and local authorities that it is not applied in a consistent manner. This is an issue of great concern and should be addressed urgently.

Recommendation

It is recommended that a 2 or 3-day course be developed, and that training courses for the various focus groups such as Registrars, Boards, be held as a matter of urgency.

The fact that the NLLTA does not deal directly with the procedures for public hearings and has to refer to the previous legislation is also something that needs to be addressed.

Public hearings held during the consideration of operating licences are part of the public participation process. National regulations of public participation have already been published in 2000 and the NLTTA further provides that the MECs may make regulations on public participation procedures (section 63(1)(g)).

h) The relationship between the Boards and Registrars are informal and fragmented. The Board requires access to the Registrar’s information files, but the registers are not up to date, and are in an incompatible format. The taxi associations are not updating their lists with the Registrar, which has contributed to the need for the clean-up process.

With regard to the issue of incompatibility of information systems, the Department has started a process last year with a view to develop a National Transport Register that will contain all the current information systems. All the institutions will have access to this system that will be fully compatible. This system will be ready for implementation by 1 December 2002.

The issues with regard to the fact that the registers are not up to date or the fact that associations are not updating their information are matter that should be addressed by the Provincial HODs.

The Board’s interpretation of the Act, that operating licences can only be issued after October 2004 (See Section 31) is totally wrong. The Act is very clear that as from 1 October 2004, operating licences will only be issued for specific vehicle sizes in respect of new vehicles.

The fact that associations currently register routes for all their operators is an area of great concern. The Act is very clear that the allocation of routes is the responsibility of the Board and not of the association or the Registrar. It came to the attention of the Department that in certain Provinces, routes are registered by the Registrar where after the Board is informed thereof. This is a contravention of the Act.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the uncertainties regarding the processes of the issuing of operating licences be discussed in the MINCOM-structure and that a workshop be held with senior officials in the Provinces responsible for this function as well as the Operating Licensing Boards and the Registrars.

i) Lack of sufficient capacity to monitor and enforce compliance by operators.

The Department is in the process of appointing a firm to assist us in the development of an enforcement strategy. As soon as this strategy has been adopted by all role players, National Treasury will have to be approached for additional funding.

Clarity is needed as to when the issuing of carrier permits must cease and from when operating licences must be issued. Some level of uniformity in the description of routes and the number of routes is needed. Once again national guidelines or regulations may be appropriate.

Due to the number of Provinces that have not appointed Operating Licensing Boards towards the end of 2001, provision had to be made in the NLTTA Amendment Act, 2001 (Act 31 of 2001) for Local Road Transportation Boards or similar bodies established in replacing provincial legislation to exercise the powers and duties of a Operating Licensing Board under the NLTTA until a date to be determined by the Minister, after consultation with the MECs.

Over and above temporary permits discussed in paragraph (a) only operating licences can be issued since the promulgation of the NLTTA but the NLTT Amendment Act, 2001 provides that permits validly issued after the commencement of the Act but before the necessary regulations were in place, were validly issued.

Possible corruption: Although these remain suspicions at this stage, any loopholes should be tightened so as not to allow the legalisation process to be undermined.

Difficult to react without more information in this regard.

l) Level of progress made with registration and legalisation, (question raised by the Select Committee)

PROVINCE

Estimated number in Province

REGISTRATION

REGISTRATION WITH SARS

LEGALISATION

APPLIED

GRANTED

SLP

BLC

Provisional

Full

Applied

Granted

Applied

Granted

Western Cape

Association

184

151

None

N/A

Operators

4491

4278

None

N/A

Applications Lodged

1676

None

1676 – SLP

224 – BLC

1900 (Total)

1513

Free State

Associations

None

N/A

Operations

7000

No records available

None

N/A

Applications Lodged

2000

1071

171 – SLP

929 – BLC

1100 - Total

519

Limpopo Province

Association

118

104

None

N/A

Operations

5981

None

N/A

Applications Lodged

No records available because of system problems

1675

1516

North West

Association

150

None

N/A

Operations

6000

3600

None

N/A

Applications Lodged

2248

1586

750 – BLC

662 – SLP

1412 Total

688

(Permits and IOL)

Gauteng Province

Associations

221

206

148

Nil

None

N/A

Operations

34894

31568

Nil

None

N/A

Applications Lodged

6597

None

6336 – SLP

5586 – BLC

1222 Total

455 (all have been cancelled)

Eastern. Cape

Associations

100

N/A

Operations

14127

N/A

3460

2864

2021 inc. SLP

1888

Mpumalanga

Associations

N/A

Operations

6200

N/A

2656

1441

1215 – SLP

882 – BLC

2097 - Total

(Feb)

2097

N. Cape

Associations

N/A

Operations

No Records

N/A

KZN

Associations

252

N/A

Operations

4871

705

None

206 Ass. (7406 MEM)

3042 IPP

KZN: Inter-Provincial Operating Licenses are granted to those operating outside the province (IPIOL)

Intra Provincial Permits are granted to those operating within the province (IPP)

Under BLC, 172 associations submit applications on behalf of the 4817 members, however IPIOL are granted to individual operators

Currently, the NLTTA provides for the appointment of a transport registrar who will be ultimately responsible for the registration of all public transport operators. It was however envisaged to implement this function in a phased-in manner, starting with the registration of the minibus-taxi associations and their members as well as non-members, where applicable. This process also forms the foundation for the recapitalisation process.

Gauteng has already started with a process of registering bus operators.

Lack of sufficient funding: Sufficient funding is not currently available to meet the planning requirements set out in the NLTTA. The statutory plans and their required frequency will impose significant costs on the municipality.

In terms of the Local Government Structures Act, 1998, local government has to develop Integrated Development Plans (IDPs). As part of the IDP, strategies had to be developed as part of the IDPs which must be in line with any national or provincial sectoral plans and planning requirements binding on the municipality. (Section 26(d) of the Structures Act.)

The planning requirements of the NLTTA (Part 7 of the Act) were developed within the framework of the Structures Act, 1998.

This Department however recognised the funding difficulties experienced both in provincial and local spheres and requested National Treasury to consider a special allocation for the implementation of the NLTTA. Earmarked funding was made available to the Department in the following manner:

During the 2001/2002 financial year an amount of R9m was transferred to the provinces and in 2002/2003 financial an amount of R18m was provided to the provinces. These funds were earmarked for the implementation of the NLTTA.

In a letter to all the Heads of Department of the Provincial Departments of Transport, they were alerted to the fact that funds were transferred directly onto their budgets (i.e. the first trance) and they should consider utilizing the funds for the following:

Provincial Land Transport Framework
Planning issues (CPTR, OLS, Rationalisation Plan, PTP)
Transport Authorities

Some Provinces could not locate the funds within their budget. This is an issue the Provincial Treasuries need to sort out with the National Treasury as the funds were transferred from National Treasury. Some Provinces indicated that the funds would be utilized for the development of the PLTF.

Further amounts of R10,9m and R22m (for the aforementioned financial years respectively) were made available in the Department’s budget as transfer payments. Since the planning provisions of the NLTTA only came into effect 1 June 2002. The amount of R10,9m was rolled over to the current financial year. Of the available funds (R32,9m), R7m has been earmarked for five planning focus areas, to kick start planning at the local sphere. The Department is providing technical assistance, advice and funding in the focus areas. The focus areas consist of 3 rural nodes, an area with urban and rural mix and one metropolitan area.

After the commitments of the Department, an amount of R19m is available to provide assistance for the development of transport plans at local sphere. The Department has commenced with the process developing mechanisms for the distribution of these funds.

Capacity constraints within both the Category B and C municipalities: This is not being addressed due to the lack of clarity as to which municipalities will be designated PAs.

The Local Government Structures Act, 1998, deals with the division of functions and powers between the district and local municipalities. Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) have to be developed by both district and local municipalities, but the function of the regulation of passenger transport was allocated to district municipalities. Section 20(6) of the NLTTA provides that a district municipality and its local municipalities must agree as to which of them must prepare transport plans.

Against the background, the planning regulations for the drafting of current public transport records for instance, which were published on 24 July 2002, indicated in paragraph 5 that the CPTRs had to be developed by the district municipality but local councils can develop their own CPTRs by agreement, on condition that the efforts are not duplicated and that the whole district municipal area is covered. It remains the responsibility of the district municipality to submit the CPTRs to the MEC.

A similar approach will be followed for the other plans.

Too high planning frequency: The frequency of updates is seen as not practical with a 3-year planning cycle having been proposed.
Recommendation

It is recommended that the Planning-cycle be revisited and that recommendation be made to the COTO/MINCOM structure.

A national capacity building and support programme to build local capacity regarding transport planning should be implemented in more than a number of pilot sites (this should include support for newly established Transport Authorities).

The Department is in the process of issuing a tender for consultants to assist us with the development and provision of a training program for transport planning.

Lack of a sustainable financial framework and additional income sources through a local fuel levy and a portion of the licensing fees have been proposed.

The Department in collaboration with the Provinces and National Treasury has embarked upon a process of developing a comprehensive funding strategy for transport that will be taken to Cabinet as soon as it is finalised. The Department is also participating in other structures such as the Municipal Infrastructure Fund in order to negotiate maximum benefit for the transport sector.

r) Need for clarification and a degree of national consistency in the establishment of Transport Authorities (draft founding agreement, etc.).

The methods with regard to the establishment of TA’s as well as compulsory functions of TA’s are contained in Part 5 in the National Chapter of the NLTTA which will apply throughout the whole country. This Chapter provides for two models e.g. a model based on the functional area and one on the municipal boundaries depending on local circumstances.

A pro forma founding agreement was published in Government Gazette 21856 of 6 December 2000.

The NDOT is not aware of any specific issues to be clarified.

Autonomy of TA particularly in metros: There is a concern that the establishment of TA’s could result in unfunded mandates, especially as the TA, as a separate juristic person, does not have the same protection as a municipality under the constitution with regard to unfunded mandates.

In order to cover this whole issue a legal opinion was obtained from the State Law Advisors who confirmed the following:

Transport authorities are organs of state, based on the following reasons:

the transport authority is established by a founding agreement between the MEC and a single or more municipalities in terms of section 10 of the Act;
the Minister must be party to the founding agreement if the Minister provides funding for the transport authority, but only in relation to those issues for which such funding is required;

- the transport authority functions in the executive sphere by inter alia; preparing transport plans and taking responsibility for implementation thereof; and developing transport policy;

- it consists solely of councilors and its other functions may be performed by the municipal administration.

It follows from the above that the functions of the transport authority are indubitably those which are conducted directly or indirectly for the Executive and are therefore public powers exercised by an organ of state.

The functions listed in section 10(13)(a) to (e) are substantially covered under the local government transport functions listed in Parts B of Schedules 4 and 5 in the Constitution that relates to local government and are not additional functions.

t) A financial framework for TAs needs to be developed with sufficient sources of funding identified. The national funding requirement needs to be quantified.
Recommendation

It is recommended that a financial framework for TA’s be included in the funding strategy currently being development by the Department.

Current levels of communication between provincial and local governments seem to rely on goodwill and personal relationships rather than any formal structures. There is a need to create forums for the different spheres to communicate.

After the adoption of the Interim Constitution, the Department in consultation with the newly established provinces did a study called: THE CONSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION PROCESS. The aim of this project was to divide the actual transport functions between the 3 spheres of Government based on the Schedules in the Constitution and to identify structures in order to manage and co-ordinate the implementation thereof. A political structure called MINCOM (MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT) was established on which the National Minister and MECs for transport related functions are represented. A technical committee, COTO (COMMITTEE OF TRANSPORT OFFICIALS) was also established consisting of the Director General of the National Department of Transport as well as the HOD’s of the transport related provincial Departments. One of the co-ordinating committees of COTO is the LTCC (LAND TRANSPORT CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE) on which senior officials from the National and Provincial Departments of Transport are represented as well as officials of local government (namely the former MTA representatives). For the last couple of years, the CEO of SALGA is representing local government on MINCOM and SALGA is since lately also invited to attend COTO meetings.

Lack of coordination of stakeholders: There is a general lack of coordination between the different spheres of government, and between the operators and the authorities. Existing operational experience is not being utilized where appropriate, leading to transport plans and tenders which are unacceptable to operators.

All stakeholders have the opportunity to participate in the transport planning process and regulations in this regard have been published as part of the NLTTA. With regard to the operator’s participation in the drafting of tender systems, information provided by current operators as part of their existing contracts are used, backed up by passenger counts, but proposed services are not discussed with the current operator before the tender documents are published. This is done in order to safeguard both the operators and government against possible legal actions as the current operator usually has a vested interest.

All operators who did draw tender document have opportunity to question the services included in the tender documents or to make recommendations on amendment. There are also compulsory site meetings and interested parties are given ample opportunity to raise questions before the closing date of the tender. Any amendments to the designs related to design flaws are communicated through addenda to all operators who did draw tender documents to ensure full transparency.

w) Stall in tendered contract process: There is a widespread impression that the tender process has stalled due to disputes over the tender process, originating both from operators and labour, and due to a lack of financial resources within NDOT itself.

Good progress was made with the bus tender process to such an extend that 45% of all subsidised services are provided on a subsidised and negotiated tender basis. Towards the end of the 2001/02 financial year, the Department realised that there is going to be a substantial shortfall in the bus subsidy budget, and Provinces which are procuring bus tenders whilst the budget is still with NDOT, were instructed not to proceed with the bus tender process. This instruction was based on the section 38(2) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999, which prohibits government Department to procure services for which they do not have adequate funding. A similar problem is being experienced in this financial year.

Following the Treasury Committee recommendations made in September 2001 a Steering Committee (SC) was formed in December 2001 between the National Department of Transport and the National Treasury in order to address the issues pertaining to the shortfall on the MTEF bus subsidy allocation. This committee has to investigate the following issues:

the purpose of regulated competition,
escalation clauses contained in the interim and tender contracts,
contract duration and size of tender contracts,
restriction in the design of tendered contract services, and
the transfer of risk in term of the current competitive tendering model.

It is envisaged that the Technical Committee will finalise a submission to LTCC before the end of August 2002 and that a joint submission will be finalised for submission to the Treasury Committee before the 15 September 2002.

X) Cost of Contracts: Operators view the cost of capital to improve the fleet age as too high over the current contract period. Unless the contract period is extended, the cost of re-capitalization of the fleet is going to remain excessive and increase the cost of the contract. It is recommended in the report that the term of bus contracts should be increased from 3 years to at least 7 years

The Department is aware of the potential benefits of a longer contract period but there are also certain economic implications and macro economic demands which government will have to face. This is one of the issues currently being investigated by an inter-departmental working group referred to in paragraph (u) above.

Deficiencies in Contract monitoring: There is currently no system for monitoring contracts. In some cases the cost of monitoring is seen as disproportionably high compared to the cost of the contract and as currently envisaged is merely increasing the cost of the contract.

It is true that interim contracts that represent 55% of the total subsidy budget are not monitored, whilst there is a comprehensive monitoring and penalty system for tendered and negotiated contracts. In order to introduce some level of monitoring of interim contracts, the Department is in the process of procuring services to assist us countrywide in this regard. There is a concern about the disproportionably high cost of monitoring of the subsidised tendered and negotiated contracts and therefore some provinces are investigating alternative such as automatic vehicle location system. But it is not the case in all provinces. The total bus subsidy budget of Kwazulu Natal is in the order of R300 million, whilst the expenditure on monitoring is in the order of R5 million.

z) Service Provision Outside NLTTA: The inner city bus service in CCTM is being introduced outside the NLTTA as a pilot project under the Municipal Structures Act. One of the motivations given for this approach is that higher costs (largely the funding of capital) will occur if it is introduced under the NLTTA.

Municipal public transport is listed in the Constitution as a municipal function. Therefore, the NLTTA allow municipalities to provide (or procure) public transport services, as long as it is at its own costs (Section 49(4) of the NLTTA). As soon as funding is flowing from another sphere of Government, public transport services have to be procured in terms of a subsidised tendered contract or a negotiated contract, in certain instances. The Department fails thus to understand why inner city bus service is seen as introduced outside the NLTTA.

BEE

Although certain progress has been made with the promotion of BEE/SMME participation in the tender process, the Department agrees that the ownership of BEE/SMME in public transport had to be broadened but this sector’s access to funding is still a huge problem. We have introduced a program to train previously disadvantaged operators in tendering for subsidized bus services and the preparatory work for the minibus-taxi industry in currently on the go. Although certain issues such as the inability to source finances is still a matter of concern, 1100 buses or about 20% are currently operated by SMME’s in the subsidized bus market. Most of these operators, 57 in total, are new entrants to the market. The rate that these operators are entering this market is accelerating but we are extremely concerned about the negative effect of the increased cost of capital.

The current MTEF funding allocation does not allow any growth in the system that further inhabits the actions of the Department of promoting participation of the historically disadvantaged sector.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Department investigate means and ways to promote the participation of HDI in the public transport sector.

Legislation to bring commuter rail under the Act and under the TAs should be introduced.

The planning of commuter rail transport is already part of the transport plans to be developed by local government. The only prerequisite is set out in section 28 of the NLTTA which stated that until such time as the function for commuter rail is devolved from the national to others spheres of Government, the relevant transport plans must be submitted to the Minister for approval of the commuter rail component of such plans. The Department recently developed a National Rail Transport Policy and a Rail Strategic Plan. One of the specific issues contained in the policy document is the devolution of functions.

The policy envisaged that the commuter rail function would be devolved to local and or provincial government in terms of planning and local regulatory functions concerning service delivery specifications, operational funding and the ownership and control of local commuter railway stations.

The proposed policy and rail plan will be tabled to the Portfolio Committee and Select Committee in due course.

Improved Service for the commuter: Lack of Commuter representative forums and soliciting the views of commuters has been difficult as no commuter representative forums were found to exist.

There is no need for such forums to be statutory: most forums exist as non-statutory bodies. Metrorail for instance have formal forums with which they are communicating with on a constant basis.

Some provinces have provided for forums in legislation: see for example the Free State Interim Passenger Transport Act 16 of 1998 and the Gauteng Passenger Transport Act mentioned above.

Provisions for the elderly / people with disabilities: WCOLB has expressed concern about it being some time before plans for the elderly or people with disabilities are implemented. In the interim something might be done to deal with some of the more urgent needs. It appears that the focus of the Dial-a-ride scheme is on getting people to work and it was felt that the importance of other trip purposes must be recognised.

The Department is in a process of finalizing a discussion paper on the provision of transport for persons with disabilities.

In the meanwhile, all new stations and station development undertaken by the SARCC are developed in such a manner to give access for people with disabilities. The vehicles designed for the proposed taxi recapitalisation project, will also provide full accessibility. In the bus industry it is envisaged that in the short term a phased approached will be followed and that specifications for fully accessible buses will be included in the model Tender Documents as soon as the SABS has finalized specifications for these buses. A percentage of fully accessible buses will then be specified in each tender. The financial implications are currently being discussed with National Treasury and have been included in our MTEF-submission.

The Department is currently in the process of evaluating the pilot projects done on accessible transport. The Dial-a-ride which was co-funded by this Department might not be the model to follow in all instances, as it only caters for a very specific market, workers in this case, and it is very expensive.

General Recommendations: Improved funding for public transport be sourced from the national fiscus.

The Department agrees with the sentiments regarding the funding requirements and various process are currently on the go to address this.