Minister introduces Department of Transport; SANRAL; Ports Regulator; CBRTA; SAMSA 2016 Annual Performance Plans

Meeting report

South Africa National Road Agency Limited Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan (2016/17)
Mr Nazir Alli, Chief Executive Officer, SANRAL, said SANRAL was responsible for the proclaimed national road network, both its toll and non-toll network. It maintains, upgrades, operates, rehabilitates and funds national roads; levy tolls to service toll roads; advises the Minister on road related matters and creates public value. He noted 75% of the network was older than the original 20 year design life. SANRAL strategic objectives were to:
• Manage the national road network effectively and efficiently
• Provide safe roads in pedestrian hazardous locations; road safety audits in design phase and road safety education programmes
• Carry out Government’s targeted programmes
• Have cooperative working relationships with all spheres of government and SADC member countries
• Maintain good governance practice
• Maintain financial sustainability
• Pursue research, innovation and best practice
• Safeguard SANRAL’s reputation
• Pursue and maintain environmental sustainability and best practice.

Key priorities for 2016/17 were
• Asset management systems for the timely maintenance of national roads
• Planned increase of national road network by incorporation of roads as requested by provinces
• Good cooperative relationships with relevant government departments, provincial and municipal authorities – sharing of asset management systems across jurisdictions
• Smooth management of e-Tolling in Gauteng
• Roll out of electronic lanes at current plazas for quicker flow of vehicles - ongoing
• N1-N2 Winelands Toll Road, Western Cape
• N2 Wild Coast Toll Road, Eastern Cape (commence 2014)
• N3 De Beers Pass, Free State, KZN (commence 2015)
• Going-concern status of SANRAL due to poor collection on Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) e-toll project
• Delays in implementation of critical projects: N1-N2 Winelands, N3 De Beers Pass – loss of opportunity
• N2 Wild Coast expected to commence in late 2016, 15 years later than originally planned.

Challenges were:
• It needs a firmly communicated message on toll road funding
• Inadequate law enforcement on traffic rules, overloading by hauliers and compliance with electronic tolling
• Driver and pedestrian behaviour on road safety
• Insufficient funding for timely upgrades and maintenance of the non-toll network
• Insufficient high-level planning and co-ordination between inter-modal transport and the three spheres of government
• Delays in project-related approvals from authorising departments and provinces
• SIP-4: Reports received are often not consistent or verified and are delayed. Increased transparency would be beneficial
• Ratings review for downgrade: Lack of enforcement is a key factor. Quote from Moody’s Ratings Report: “UNCERTAINTIES REGARDING THE ENFORCEMENT OF E-TOLL REVENUE COLLECTIONS: SANRAL's power to collect e-tolls is underpinned by legislative instruments including the SANRAL Act No 7 of 1998, and the Transport and Related Matters Amendment Act of 25 September 2013. Although the legislation is in place to prosecute offenders and to issue civil summonses, there has to date been no enforcement to collect the outstanding e-toll arrears. Further to the existing legislation, the government is planning to make the renewal of vehicle licence discs contingent upon the payment of e-toll arrears. This will not take effect for up to 18 months. There is uncertainty over whether these measures will be enforced. We believe a lack of enforcement is a key contributor to persistently low e-toll collection rates.”

Department of Transport (DOT) Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan for 2016/17
Mr Godfrey Selepe, DOT Director General, said that the strategic objectives for DoT were
• Efficient and integrated infrastructure network to serve as a catalyst for social and economic development
• A transport sector that is safe and secure
• Improved rural access and infrastructure and mobility
• Improved public transport services
• Increased contribution to job creation
• Increased contribution to transport to environmental protection

Notable achievements in 2015/16 were:
• Completion of the framework for the Port Tariff Structure, which is aimed at ensuring that the mining sector is subsidised by a tariff structure weighted in favour of raw exports
• The draft chapter of the Private Sector Participation (PSP) Framework was developed and will be implemented over the MTEF. This focuses on bringing about private sector investments in the Ports and Railway sectors as a means of increasing railway carrying capacity beyond Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), and port operations capacity beyond Transnet Port Terminals (TPT)
• Progress has been made in rolling out the rural roads programme for the improvement of key access roads, expansion grading and paving of road surfaces through labour-based methods in targeted rural areas.
• Approval of the Branch Line Strategy, advocating for concessions to private enterprises to operate and run some of the branch lines, thus reducing cost and access to markets whilst in the process creating jobs for locals. The Strategy will also include a practical plan for the introduction of the private sector in branch lines
• The N2 Wild Coast project has been granted full support by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC) which indicated that a monetary contribution could be available from the fiscus
• To date three vessels have been added onto the South African ship register
• Draft review of the Airlift Strategy has been completed and presented to Cabinet. It responds to the airfreight challenges highlighted through the National Airfreight Logistics Strategy (2005). It also aims to enhance prospects for South Africa as a preferred air travel destination. Implementation will commence in the new year
• The National Learner Transport Policy was approved by Cabinet for implementation.

Notable challenges are:
• Budgetary constraints resulting in DoT’s inability to reduce vacancy rate
• Turnaround time in stakeholder consultations delays processes
• Road fatalities still require vigorous interventions
• Fraud and corruption in the sector remains a concern
• DoT oversight role over its entities needs to be strengthened
• Integration of transport system and services in rural areas (accessibility and mobility)
• Reduction of inequality, particularly amongst the youth and women needs to be prioritized

Key initiatives were:
1. Creation of a Unit that will ensure implementation of interventions aimed at supporting objectives of Operation Phakisa: Oceans Economy.
• Finalize the National Transport Maritime Policy
• Develop a private sector participation framework
• Support the local ship building and repairs industry
• Revitalise the current ship registry
• Create a conducive policy and legislative framework.

2. Submission of the National Airports Development Plan to Cabinet
• Airports contribute to socio-economic development in a range of ways, including:
• Improving accessibility for people to geographical areas, whether for personal, essential services, business or tourism reasons;
• Allowing for “time critical” in- and out-bound freight;
• Making a location more attractive for investment by certain sectors, in particular knowledge intensive industries, such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, universities, and financial services;

3. Maintaining Road Infrastructure
• R573 Moloto Road will be upgraded at a cost of R3.7 billion.
• SANRAL’s budget has increased by R1.4 billion over the medium term for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) and by R1.7 billion to strengthen the non-toll road network.
• Road infrastructure damaged by disasters will be rehabilitated at a cost of R848 million over the medium term, through an additional allocation to supplement the reprioritisation in the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant (PRMG). Overall, spending on transfers in the Road Transport programme is expected to increase to R30 billion in 2018/19.

4. Upgrading Rail Infrastructure and Services:
• Rail infrastructure will be the fastest growing area of departmental spending, and the Rail Transport programme is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.5 %.
• Transfers to the Passenger Rail Agency South Africa (PRASA) are mainly for acquiring new trains for Metrorail, the commuter rail operator in major urban areas.
• The transfers were also for upgrading signalling systems and refurbishing coaches.
• Passenger trips will be subsidised through operational subsidies.

5. Reducing inequality and poverty alleviation:
• The department will develop a transport sector gender empowerment policy
• The Minister of Transport will implement a 50% target for women representation on boards of sector entities
• Targeted recruitment and selection will be prioritised in line with women targets
• Centralised DoT database of all women-owned entities will be established and a skills audit will be conducted for all women-owned entities to address skills gaps
• As part of monitoring and evaluation, DOT will compile a status report on the transport sector socio economic empowerment programmes for the designated groups

Ms Dipuo Peters, Minister of Transport, greeted members, members of boards of entities, senior managers from the DoT and non-governmental actors with interest in the transport sector. She was due to travel to Namibia by Air Namibia within an hour to attend a meeting on African Union aviation security given the aviation’s concerns over the past year. South Africa was also the chair on international security aviation. She said South Africa was in need of immediate, intermediate, an efficient and reliable public transport as transport related matters feature highly in the National Development Plan. She then went on to talk about the key initiatives to be undertaken by the Department of Transport and SANRAL as already noted.

Discussion
Mr C Hunsinger (DA) thanked the Minister and officials from the DoT for the presentation. He asked why NATMAP 2050 seemed to be still in draft and when the path of fulfilment will start. There were inconsistencies in the APP 2015/16 and 2016/17. He asked SANRAL why the average annual ride numbers of rapid bus transport systems were different. He asked why SANRAL showed only the price trend of bitumen, neglecting other costs such as fuel, labour and finance. He asked the logic of continuous fluctuations on maintenance costs of roads. He also asked why finance charges went up and down and whether this was caused by currency exchange rates. He asked the reason for the cost increase for the Moloto Rail project.

Mr T Mulaudzi (EFF) asked for progress on the N2 between Harrismith and Mthatha. He asked SANRAL to assist municipalities and provinces in providing standardized roads. He asked the Minister when the taxi recapitalization program was going to end. He asked why Santaco was being funded instead of the CRBTA. The single traffic police was a political resolution in 2008 at Polokwane, but nothing has been done to date and the traffic police continue to exist with different commanders and different political masters. The new car registration system was not working well.

Mr M Maswanganyi (ANC) asked if DoT and its entities have an updated asset register as it had a huge property portfolio. He asked when diesel engine trains between Musina and Polokwane will continue to run. Railway infrastructure must also be looked from the perspective of the rural areas. The Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) calls for synergy between national, provincial and municipal governments. He asked how DoT plans to find expression in local government development frameworks.

Mr M De Frietas (DA) asked for progress on the NATMAP implementation by DoT, SANRAL and other entities.

Ms S Xego (ANC) asked DoT who the custodians of the learner transport policy were and asked SANRAL to mobilize people with disabilities in small businesses. She asked SANRAL to put pedestrian walkways along busy roads. She asked if DoT targets talked to its challenges. She asked if the implementation of gender equity awaited the finalisation of the gender empowerment policy.

Mr L Ramatlakane (ANC) asked why targets were removed from the DoT APP and asked for the consequences of this on the budget. Some targets did not have a budget and the document looked like there was subcontracting of writers. What progress has been made on the collection of tolls on the dispensation launched by the Deputy President?

Mr M Sibande (ANC) said Mthatha Airport was not working, and was without traffic lights for more than two years. The airport was being rented by SA Airlink. He asked how DoT was able to discharge its responsibilities with vacancies. He asked if money for Moloto had been found as one of the deputy directors general once said there was no budget. He asked the role of DoT in protecting citizens from MyCiti as it wanted to evict residents of Wynberg and Plumstead. The N17 road when it goes through provinces reduces in standards and quality and he asked the reasons for that. Any report from the entities must come through the Department before being presented to the Committee.

The Chairperson asked if their targets were SMART. No mention was made on the Auditor General’s comments. How many jobs were created by the provincial grants?

Minister Peters replied that there had been 50 years of no investment in the rail sector evidenced by poor stations, vandalized material and no signalling. The leakage in payment lead to the decrease in recorded ridership numbers. The numbers also decreased as there were some days trains were not running because of service delivery protests and accidents especially in Gauteng. The decrease in numbers needs also to be looked at if customers were losing interest in using trains. The taxi recap programme amount was less than what the operators felt was sufficient for even a deposit on a new taxi. For now, recapitalization must also look to the reorientation of the model and induction of drivers. The change in drivers’ behavior was witnessed by the decrease in Easter carnage. The single traffic police force was a Polokwane resolution and included municipal and provincial traffic police. The DoT was modelling concrete interventions on training, uniforms and employment equity for this. She took note of the point on the modernization of Shosholosa Meyl, but as the Members know, it was an unfunded mandate. The majority of the rail infrastructure was owned by Transnet. The appointment of the new SANRAL CEO was in process, but Nazir has served the organization diligently. He was still young and can continue assisting until a new CEO was appointed.

Minister Peters said the scholar transport policy was a service to be rendered under the guidelines determined by DoT, but it was being administered through the Department of Basic Education. The Mthatha Airport was owned by the Eastern Cape government. SA Airlink was only contracted to land at that airport. The Eastern Cape Government has requested Airports Company of South Africa to manage it after it recognised its inability to manage the airport. She has submitted a TAI to National Treasury for the Moloto Rail. If the DoT fails to persuade Treasury, then she will appeal to the Committee and the Appropriations Committee for support.

Mr Selepe replied that NATMAP had been processed and sent to Cabinet and it was advised to go back and consult with the PICC. It has had several engagements at secretarial and technical level, but was advised to consult with PICC MANCO. It has done a lot of consultations on NATMAP and it must now be taken to Cabinet for finalization. The Directors General cluster made recommendations on it which further shifts the date on the expected finalization. There was consensus by traditional leaders and the community on the N2 between Harrismith and Mthatha. SANRAL will start building bridges as it has agreed on a funding model with National Treasury. DOT has an updated asset register and the entities must also have an updated register. Municipalities were represented by the South African Local Government Association at MinMEC and were aware of the policies of DoT. It has entities in road, aviation, maritime and rail and there was no eagle’s view on the entities. That resulted in a fired non performing board member resurfacing in another board, hence the oversight of entities need to be strengthened. It has gender and transformation policies in place in the Office of the Director General. The sustainability of the DoT structure suffered a R27 million shortfall in 2015/16 and R8 million in the later years. Instead of getting better, the situation was only getting worse. This was a government wide problem and it has to function within available resources. The Moloto project was divided into two, it has the rail aspect and the road aspect. The road was budgeted for and SANRAL has already started road markings, drainage unblocking and building bridges. He has been approached by PRASA to shift funds from capex to operations to fund Shosholoza Meyl shortfalls. The Auditor-General’s comments were covered under Program 1 Administration.

Mr Alli replied that SANRAL will continue to build toll roads as long as it was in the National Development Plan (NDP). If toll roads receive all money unhindered, fiscal considerations will be made to fund other operations without budget such as Moloto Rail. Ad hoc maintenance may include cleaning drainages, road markings and this requires no bitumen. The CPA index includes costs on labour, fuel and does not include bitumen. SANRAL was not exposed to exchange rate fluctuations as it only understands borrowings in ZAR. The King Williams Town road was under a 12 months defects period where a contractor was liable for any defects that emerge on the road within 12 months of finishing the project. Employing people with disabilities in the construction sector was a challenge as there were a lot of safety concerns. It can only give them office work. The 60% toll discount dispensation will come to an end in May and some owing larger amounts had come to SANRAL for payment plans and the response so far was encouraging. There were different pieces of legislation that appear when a road passes through municipal boundaries. SANRAL has an updated asset register and this can be shown to people.

The Chairperson said the Committee will continue to engage the DoT to see if the presented plans were being implemented.

SAMSA Strategic Plan and APP 2016/17
Mr Tsietsi Mokhele, Chief Executive Officer, SAMSA, said the National Transport Policy sets strategic objectives of the Maritime Transport Policy, which include:
• To facilitate and enhance the expansion of international trade and tourism in general, and exports in particular;
• To promote the development of an efficient and productive South African maritime industry capable of competing on international markets;
• To maintain control over maritime services within a well-defined regulatory framework that is flexible enough to cater for changing needs and circumstances and to ensure orderly, safe and reliable maritime transport services; and
• To promote international relations with other countries and international organizations involved in maritime activities.

Strategic Objectives for SAMSA were:
• Safety of Life and Property at Sea (SOLAS) as derived from the SOLAS Convention
• Prevention and combat pollution of the marine environment by ships derived from the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from ships - MARPOL Convention as amended
• Promotion of South Africa’s maritime interests with expectation that the Authority was required to support or actively encourage and
• Initiative radical economic transformation
• Initiatives for Radical Economic Transformation – Operation Phakisa
• Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration: D2 Develop capability for sub surface research and data gathering
• Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration: B1 – Joint industry‐government emergency response drills. SAMSA, in line with its mandate of prevention of pollution by ships, and on behalf of DOT, has been a key participant in this initiative.
• Marine Transport and Manufacturing (MTM): I15_2 Centralised government fleet management through the Ship Management
• MTM: I18 Support local registry of vessels through incentives and encouragement of using SA Flagged ships for cargo and costal operations (based on UNCTAD and African Maritime Charter Guidelines).

Highlights of key successes from 2015-16 were:
• 3 Cape Size vessels (Oliphant, Orchid, Enterprise) have been added to the Ship Register after more than 30 years of non-activity since1984
• 3 additional merchant vessels (Bulk Carrier by Vuka Marine, Bulk Carrier by Vuka Marine and an Oil Tanker by Grindrod) added to Ship Register
• SAMSA was the winner of the15th Annual Oliver Empowerment Awards and recognized as ‘Legend of Empowerment and Transformation’.
• As at end of Quarter 3 2015/16 SAMSA had saved 162 lives through the coordination actions of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) and the support of other South Africans Search and Rescue (SASAR) role players.
• As at end of Quarter 3 SAMSA had processed 8 266 Pre Arrival Notifications with Zero Maritime security incidents attributable to inadequate processing of pre arrival notifications
• National Cadetship Programme has trained and continues to track progress of 513 cadets since inception in 2011 to 2015 and being transferred to South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI)
• 13 World Maritime University students were given workplace exposure at SAMSA in 2015 and another 5 expected in 2016.

Challenges were:
• From November 2015 to March 2016 SAMSA embarked on a turnaround austerity cost saving exercise to manage its negative cash flow situation that originates from an increasing operating cost base without a corresponding tariff adjustment since 2009
• As at end of Quarter 3 SAMSA assisted in 54 medical advice incidents by connecting vessels to local tele medical services (compared to100 incidents for the whole of 2014/15)
• 81 casualty incidents were recorded and 8 fatalities mainly from small vessels and fishing vessels by end of Quarter 3 (compared to 22 recorded fatalities for 2014-15).

Ports Regulator of South Africa Strategic Plan and APP 2016/17
Mr Mahesh Fakir, CEO, Ports Regulator, said strategic goals for the regulator were:
• Establish all elements of the regulatory framework within the ports regulator’s mandate
• Develop the capacity to deal with all output requirements of the organizations
• Establish and maintain the ports regulator reputation as an organization with integrity focuses on delivery
• Ensure that all port sector participants comply with National Ports Act, No 12 of 2015
• Support the development of the ports system and the regulatory system architecture.

Strategic challenges were:
• Budgetary constraints to expand mandate
• 15 out 27 organogram posts were filled which was too small for the enormity of the task as compared to other regulators
• Need to strengthen regulator powers within the Act as well an enable a new self-funding model that reduces fiscal reliance
• The change with regard to the regulatory architecture in the transport sector was a going concern.

CRBTA Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan 2016/17
Mr Sipho Khumalo, CEO: CRBTA, said the strategic objectives for CRBTA were to:
• Introduce and implement regulated competition of cross border movements
• Improve compliance with road transport regulation
• Establish and sustain strategic partnerships with stakeholders to enable the agency to achieve its objectives
• Provide value added advisory services to the Minister of Transport and other relevant stakeholders on cross border transport matters in the transport sector
• Promote CRBTA’s reputation
• Position the CRBTA brand to ensure visibility and awareness
• Develop, position and implement and sustain a high performance culture in the organization
• Ensure financial sustainability of the CRBTA
• Introduce and implement regulated competition on cross border movements
• Prevent fraud and corruption.

Its risks were identified as:
• Lack of funds to refund operators and fund business operations
• Litigation of the 2014 permit tariff regulations
• Policy decision on the single road traffic police
• Ongoing discussion around the SADC liberalization agenda which might lead to the removal of permit requirements within the SADC region
• The budget for the 2016/17 financial year was R246 633 000.

Discussion
Mr Hunsinger said tariffs remain unchanged since 2009 which was contrary to the desires of the budget. He asked why the Ports Regulator removed some targets from the APP. 90% of exports were carried by foreign vessels. He was excited by Operation Phakisa, but he was yet to see a business proposal. As a global player, SAMSA must market SA ships and carriers. He asked if SAMSA was equipped to deal with oil spills and other disasters in the sea. He asked if labour standards were adhered to on the sea. Congratulations on regulations on containers that come to effect, however, most containers were more than three meters.

Mr Mulaudzi was concerned about vacant posts at the Ports Regulator. He asked SAMSA why there were only three ships by 2016 and asked what happened to the pre-democracy ships. He asked why CRBTA was unfunded and what it was doing to avoid collapse. He was happy with the Lesotho Free State border progress.

Ms Xego was concerned that board members did not accompany the entities. The entities should have given information on what they need for Members to be able to defend the budget. Some of the reports were just notes and not complete presentations. She asked what informed SAMSA to introduce trades in technical colleges.

Mr Sibande said the entities must present to the Ministry before coming to Parliament. The Ports Regulator goals seemed to mean that it will align with SONA, NDP and Nine Point Plan in future. He asked for measures taken by SAMSA to avoid our oceans being used as dumping grounds. What did it use to determine the authenticity of MH370 parts discovered on the Mozambican coast? He asked if it had addressed the shortage of engineers. He asked how often CRBTA meets with its stakeholders. He asked what CRBTA was doing to ensure neighboring country operators’ compliance with local legislation.

Mr De Frietas asked why CRBTA had high consultation fees.

The Chairperson asked about the advisory services offered to the CEO of CRBTA and why it put a target of 60% on corruption. He asked what CRBTA seeks to achieve in its planned conferences.

Mr Fakir replied that Ports Regulator has the methodology used for tariff determination available on its website from 2014. The methodology was now in force and spells out different economic fundamentals that need to be determined in setting tariffs. He was mindful of the challenges in financial sustainability of the Ports Authority. The posts on the organogram were unfunded and the regulator should be funded like all other regulators in the country. Its legal team has managed to resolve all cases that came to the tribunal, however, if cases escalate, it might not be able to address all cases because of human resource challenges. The SONA, NDP and MTSF had progressive goals that will be realized in future. It was looking forward to setting cost reflective tariffs and it was amending the Act that guides its operations that will come to the Committee via the DoT. If a single economic transport regulator comes into existence, then the Ports Regulator will cease to exist.

Mr Khumalo, CBRTA, replied that the Constitutional Court found that the order of the High Court declaring the Cross-Border Transport Amendment Regulations invalid with retrospective effect, was valid. CBRTA has to pay back the tariff money. The CRBTA was conceptualized to be funded on a user pay principle and not from the fiscus. If the law enforcement division was removed from the CRBTA, its structure will be sustainable. The advisory services were annual reports on cross border matters produced by its transport economists. The 60% corruption target was a five year target and 60% of initiatives on rooting out corruption will be addressed this year. In order to compete with the best in the world, CRBTA must present at least one paper at a peer refereed conference to know the standing of its work and the level of its knowledge.

Mr Mokhele, SAMSA, replied that he took advice on developing a complete plan on the ocean economy. In Operation Phakisa, there was a proposal to establish a centralized response to environmental issues on the seas. It was top on improving conditions of work especially for fisheries and specific regulations had been developed on the accreditation and training of fisheries. It will provide a comprehensive plan on the ships registry. The Department of Higher Education gave it 12 TVET colleges to pilot its programmes and trades with collaboration with Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Durban University of Technology. It has been offering unemployed engineers a bridging course to become marine engineers and it was recruiting people for this programme from as far as Limpopo. It inspects all ships that come into its ports and a sister ship can be arrested for the transgression of another ship. In Europe, ships pay money, for example $10 000, that is forfeited if a ship does not dispose its waste when it harbours.

The Chairperson thanked the officials and said the Director General must send his deputies responsible for the entities that were to present the next day.

Meeting adjourned.