Ms M Mpofu

Director General Department of Transport

Dear Director General

As you know the Portfolio Committee finalized its consideration of the National Land Transport Transition Act Amendment Bill on the 23 August, and the National Assembly passed it in the House on 29 August with the amendments introduced by the Committee.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Department of Transport for the diligent, co-operative and professional manner in which the DoT team engaged with the Committee in the course of our hearings on the Amendment Bill.

Among the issues that emerged strongly in the Committee were concerns around the tourism bus industry (and bus charter services in general). The Committee heard of long delays (up to 18 months in some cases, we were told) in processing operating licenses in the provincial licensing boards, and of a general lack of understanding for the somewhat different operating challenges facing charter services, compared to scheduled, commuter bus services.

One proposed remedy was that charter service operators should be allowed a 20% upward variation on seating capacity for permanent bus replacements. In the Committee a strong minority view was that we should allow for such an upward variation. On the advice of the DoT officials, however, a majority in the Committee felt that the proposal needed to be thought through more thoroughly, and that we should avoid, if possible, seeking legislative remedies for what were essentially administrative problems.

Either way, the Committee was unanimous in agreeing that the regulation of tourist bus operations required special and urgent attention. We are aware that the DoT, along with other government departments and leading private sector stakeholders has established a Task Team that will be making proposals to government.

In the interests of not prolonging the Amendment Bill we decided not to delay on this matter, while satisfying ourselves that the tourist bus sector challenges are indeed addressed with some urgency. The Committee has requested, therefore, that the proposals of the task team and/or government's response to these are made available to the Committee before the end of October if possible.

Yours truly

Jeremy Cronin

Chairperson, Transport Portfolio Committee