Committee Report on Department of Transport Strategic Plan and Budget

Meeting report

Committee Report on the Strategic Plan and Budget of the Department of Transport and its Entities
The Chairperson asked Members to read the report, page by page, and to point out any areas that needed to be amended.

Mr P Poho (COPE) commented that there should be consistency regarding the circulation of documents so that Members could obtain them in advance and be able to study them properly.

The Chairperson replied that the comment should not be directed at the Committee Secretary, but should rather be considered as a general one. The Secretary had completed the report on time and would have circulated it to Members as early as last week; however this was not possible because the computer had crashed.

Members made minor technical amendments to the report and informed the Secretary that she should circulate the revised report to them as soon as it was ready for publishing in the ATC

The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

Adoption of Committee Programme
The Chairperson noted that the study tour to China was scheduled to take place during the World Cup and proposed that it be rearranged to a later date.

It was decided that the tour would be scheduled from 19 July to 2 August 2010.

The Chairperson recalled that during the oversight visit, the Committee had noticed that the City of Bloemfontein was lagging behind in terms of state of readiness for the 2010 World Cup. As a result, it was decided that the Committee would visit the city again in the first week of June to check up on its progress given that the construction would only be finalised by 30 May 2010.

Mr H Maluleka (ANC) suggested that at the end of May the Committee should verify whether construction had in fact been finalised.

Ms P Ngwenya-Mabila (ANC) supported the view that the Committee should revisit the city after the construction had been finalised.

Mr M de Freitas (DA) suggested that the Committee should communicate with the provincial authorities once the visit was approved.

The Chairperson indicated that the report that would be compiled from the visit would be used to engage with the Department to make a follow up on the outstanding matters.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila sought clarity about the meeting that the Committee had scheduled for 11 May 2010.

The Chairperson explained that given the poor state of the roads in the country, the purpose of the meeting was for the Department to present its road maintenance plans. At the same meeting, the Ugu District Municipality would also share its road maintenance plans with the Committee.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila questioned why that municipality was specifically chosen. There was a need to set benchmarks that all municipalities had to comply with.

The Chairperson replied that she had selected Ugu District Municipality because she was familiar with the model that it used. The intention was to share that information with the Department. Members could propose any other municipality that they wished to invite to attend the meeting.


Members unanimously adopted the programme with amendments.


The meeting was adjourned.