Questions and Replies

Reply:

The Department awarded a tender for the amount of R65,018M to Botong/Nkolele JV for the

upgrading from gravel to surface, a 10km road D206 from Molelema to Matsheng in the greater Taung Local Municipality. Prior to the awarding of the tender, the Contractor confirmed in writing that it will be able to complete the work within the tendered scope, price and timeframe.

Immediately after commencement of the project, the contractor demanded an additional amount of R 49M, citing that, with the costed amount, only 7km of road will be completed as supposed to the contracted 10km. This would have increased the project value from R 65,018M to R114M with a variance of R 49 M which constitute an increment of 77%. Acceptance of this deviation could be classified as an irregular expenditure. To this end, the department could not agree to the deviation hence the contract was terminated as per the provision of the contract. The Contractor took the department to Adjudication process wherein the outcome came out in their favour. The department is not in agreement with the outcome of the Adjudication Board after one the board members resigned sighting procedural matters. The department has now filed papers in court opposing the outcome of the Adjudication Board. For that reason, the project cannot proceed pending the outcome of the court process.

Reply:

The road P53/1 from road R510 (Rustenburg – Northam road) to Mogwase is in the plan of the North West Department of Public Works and Roads for rehabilitation of the entire section during the 2022/23 financial year.

Reply:

The Department of Transport in consultation with Free State and Kwa Zulu Natal Governments between which this road R74 traverses, the teams had already done the technical assessment to ascertain the treatment the road will need. It is however worth mentioning that R74 has two sections in it and these are P11 and P340.

a) The majority of this road needs heavy rehabilitation where first 30kms of P11 is planned for the current financial year (2022/23) and this repair work is estimated to take 30 months.

The remainder of the section of this road P340 is planned for the subsequent financial year (2023/24) and this estimated to a period of 20 months.

The holding measure that includes fixing potholes, stormwater repairs and drainage maintenance are already underway.

b) This Part of the Question has been responded to in (a) above.

Reply:

Department

The Department of has not concluded any commercial contracts with the government of the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.

Therefore (aa) (bb) (cc) (dd) (ee) Not applicable

Airports Company South Africa (ACSA)

ACSA has not concluded commercial contracts with (i) the government of the Russian Federation and/or (ii) any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.

Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS)

There are no registered contracts between ATNS and the Russian Federation. 

Cross Border Road Transport Agency (CBRTA

1. (i) and (ii) The Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) did not conclude any commercial contracts with the government of the Russian Federation or any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.
2. (bb) (cc) (dd) and (ee) Not applicable as the C-BRTA is contracting goods within the Republic and has not had a need to procure goods from the Russian Federation or any other entity in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.

Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA)

(b) (i) The Road Traffic Infringement Agency entity did not conclude any commercial contracts with the government of the Russian Federation and/or

(b) (ii) The public entity did not conclude any commercial contracts with any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.

(aa) Not applicable,

(bb) Not applicable,

(cc) Not applicable,

(dd) Not applicable, and

(ee) Not applicable

South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL)

(b) (i) and (ii) SANRAL has not concluded any commercial contracts with the Russian Federation, or any entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017 or before that date. As a state-owned company SANRAL takes guidance on international relations from the Minister in his capacity as the shareholder representative of Government with regard to executive authority over SANRAL.

(aa) Not applicable,

(bb) Not applicable,

(cc) Not applicable,

(dd) Not applicable, and

(ee) Not applicable

Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC)

(b) (i) and (ii) The Road Traffic Management Corporation has never concluded any commercial contracts with the Russian Federation.

(aa) Not applicable,

(bb) Not applicable,

(cc) Not applicable,

(dd) Not applicable, and

(ee) Not applicable

Road Accident Fund (RAF)

(b) Road Accident Fund has not concluded any commercial contracts with

(i) the government of the Russian Federation and/or

(ii) any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017; as there was no necessity to conclude a commercial contract with the government of the Russian Federation or any other entity based in the Russian Federation.

(aa) Not applicable,

(bb) Not applicable,

(cc) Not applicable,

(dd) Not applicable, and

(ee) Not applicable

Railway Safety Regulator (RSR)

The Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) has not concluded any commercial contract with any Russian entity or the government of Russia since 1 April 2017 to date.

Ports Regulator of South Africa(PRSA)

(a) N/A

(b) The Ports Regulator did not conclude any commercial contracts with the (i) government of the Russian Federation and/or (ii) any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 01 April 2017.

(aa) N/A

(bb) N/A

(cc) N/A

(dd) N/A

(ee) N/A

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA)

(b) The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa has not concluded any commercial contract with any Russian entity or the government of Russia since 1 April 2017 to date

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

(b) N/A (b) the South African Civil Aviation Authority HAS NOT concluded any commercial contract with (i) the government of the Russian Federation and/or (ii) any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017 (aa) N/A (bb) N/A (cc) N/A (dd) N/A (ee) N/A.

South Africa Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA)

(b) Yes, South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA)

(i)No

(ii)Russian Maritime Register of Shipping

(aa)A Recognition Organisation (RO) Agreement was signed on the 6th of August 2019 between Russian Maritime of Shipping and SAMSA in compliance with Section 18 “Delegation of Authority” of the IMO Instruments implementation (III) Code for any South African ship, allowing a South African ship-owner or manager to use the Russian Register of Shipping as a ship’s classification society in order to conduct statutory surveys on behalf of SAMSA.

(bb)There is no financial burden on the South African Government associated with this contract. The classification society acts on behalf of the ship-owner and all costs related to their services are for the ship- owner’s account.

(cc)This RO Agreement expires on 5 August 2024 (5 years from date of signing).

(dd)The contract is a general agreement as signed with all other recognised classification societies globally by South Africa.

(ee)There are currently no South African ships using the Russian Register of Shipping as their classification society.

Reply:

1. Prasa has concluded the first phase of project Ziveze verification where employees were asked to present themselves in person and submit qualifications and ID copies for verification and vetting.

The process is now on the second phase where salaries of all employees who failed to present themselves were locked at the April 2022 pay day. Subsequent to the locking of salaries some employees presented themselves with the necessary information for verification.

Part of this phase is that Internal Audit is auditing the project processes until July 2022. In addition PRASA has commenced with a forensic investigation.

The detailed reports with financial impact will be submitted on conclusion of the forensic audit.

2. A report detailing the final numbers of unverified employees; the salaries paid from inception to April 2022; the loss suffered by the organisation shall be made available on conclusion of the forensic audit. It must be noted that employees have been coming in for verification after salaries were locked on 27 April 2022.

Reply:

Since the RTMC is on the accrual basis, the below table outlines the opening balance for the respective periods, transaction fees billed to the provinces as well as the actual transaction fees paid over by the respective provinces to the RTMC.

It is important to note that transaction fees due to the RTMC is exclusively applicable to vehicle licence disc renewals. On a continuous basis, the RTMC shows an under collection on transaction fees. Provinces have indicated that this is due to municipalities not paying over all the funds to them and in turn the province not paying the full amount to the Corporation. Even though the recovery rate of the transaction fees have improved, there are still provinces that maintains a unremitting growth in the amount owed to the Corporation.

Reply:

The Department finalised the process for the procurement of a contractor to commence with the repairs on road R566 near the Pretoria off-ramp delayed by the court matters relating to 2017 Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act. Now that this matter has been clarified, the procurement processes will commence as soon as possible and a Suitable Contractor will be appointed. Therefore the date to start with repairs will be determined by the finalisation of the tendering process.

Reply:

1. Honourable Hunsinger is welcome to meet directly with the City of Ekurhuleni as well as the KTVR operator to perform a detailed analysis of KTVR’s financial statements. KTVR’s operations cost numbers are highlighted below.

Line Items	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Operations Cost	R119,2m	R126,7m	R168,4m	R232,2m

2. (a)(b) The City of Ekurhuleni has acknowledged the criticism from NDoT (especially from 2019) in bilateral meetings held regularly 2 to 3 times a year. On the 05 March 2019, the Deputy Director General: Public Transport called all the cities to a meeting to direct them on the revised focus of the PTNG for 2019/20 on wards which is to fastrack operations while scaling back on infrastructure plans and spending and put them on notice to launch.

The City team is trying their best to finalise long outstanding matters like concluding minibus operator negotiations, scaling up to 80 buses and 20 000 passenger trips per weekday etc. Currently the city has deployed 40 buses, is procuring 15 more and plans to conclude negotiations by February 2023.

3. The majority of feedback has occurred in regular bilateral discussions. Please contact the Public Transport Branch at the NDoT for further information if required.

Reply:

1. (a) The Kerbside operations of the City of Ekurhuleni’s Bus Transport commenced in October 2017/18 with an introductory service with 8 buses operating between Thembisa and Isando Industrial area. In 2019/20 with the introduction of 10 additional buses (total of 18 buses) the system network was extended to OR Tambo International Airport. In 2021/22 additional 22 buses were introduced (total of 40 buses) the system was further extended to Bartlett Industrial area.

(b) The partial operations of the dedicated bus lanes commenced in 2019 when the system was extended to OR Tambo International Airport.

2. (a) Negotiations with the taxi industry for permanent compensation for Phase 1A have not been completed due to disunity within the taxi industry, and the City is actively assisting in resolving.

(b) KTVR is the current Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) operating Harambee Bus service on behalf of the City and is solely funded for such operations. Finalisation of negotiations with the taxi industry shall result in the payment of permanent compensation.

3. (a) (b) Construction of the six pedestrian bridges along the dedicated bus lanes along Andrew Mapheto Drive and Zuurfontein Road were completed in 2019 and are currently open to the public.

Reply:

a) The Department has transferred R 2.025 billion from 2008 to 2022.

b) The Department of Transport has not contracted any companies for the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality to develop its system. The Department’s role is to set standards, monitor and evaluate planning, implementation and management, and to report on progress with project implementation against funding. The Department transfers funds to the Municipality, and the Municipality will follow its Supply Chain Management t processes to procure services from companies to plan, develop and implement infrastructure and the subsequent public transport operations of the system.

c) Based on the Municipality’s Metro-wide IPTN plan, all the phases will be complete by 2034/35 financial year.

Reply:

Yes, the Department has made assessment on the Provincial network. There are two processes currently underway and those are:

• COGTA or National Disaster Management Centre processes – this is the normal process that gets undertaken when disasters occur. It requires declaration, gazette and verification of assessment; and the process normally takes longer than 6 months to be concluded.
• National Department of Transport processes – Department is intervening in the Provinces that were recently affected by recent (April) disaster and Eastern Cape is one of those. There are series of meetings conducted in order to identify the exact intervention required. NDOT is considering reprioritising some of the Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant (PRMG) to disaster affected Provinces. NDOT processes are at advanced stages and ECDOT is finalising its implementation plan.

It must be mentioned that both processes will not result in roads being upgraded to surface standard but will restore condition to its original state.

Reply:

(a)

Table 1: Passenger Volumes: 2017/18 – 2021/22

PERIOD	COMMUTER NUMBERS
2017/18	269,925,897
2018/19	208,888,587
2019/20	115,417,417
2020/21	8,147,180
2021/22	16,699,332

(b) Income Generated during the last 5 years as a % of Opex

Table 2: Income Generated versus Opex and Subsidy

Table 2 above proves the reply given earlier that the income generated through fare revenue during the last five years only covered a portion (or 10%) of operational costs. The rest has been covered through subsidy which indicates a heavy reliance on state support to operate commuter rail operations.

The major cause for this decline is the vandalism and theft of our Rolling Stock and Network Infrastructure impacting significantly on the optimal operations and in turn revenue collection. This was as a result of the lack of security to protect our infrastructure and network. The level 5 lockdown regulations imposed to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2021 completely halted the operations, easing to levels 3 and 2 into 2021-2022 with limited operations also contributed to revenue loss.

Reply:

a) PRASA operations are receiving increased attention from the Department in a number of ways:

1. In terms of the Shareholder Compact and Corporate Plan Prasa submits quarterly reports to the Department as a monitoring mechanism to track progress in key deliverables signed by the Minister and the Board of Control;
2. Quarterly meetings are held to present progress reports to the Department of Transport;
3. The Capital Project Steering Committee (CPSC) has been established and is convened quarterly to monitor progress in the implementation of CAPEX;

In addition to the above mechanisms the CPSC conducts oversight on the projects to verify information submitted.

b) PRASA has made strides in implementing the Integrated Security Plan launched by the Minister in October 2020. Security deployments have been made across identified hotspots.

Crimes and the type of crimes vary within PRASA. Constant intelligence and crime operations shows the different modus operandi within the different regions. When looking at the various crime data and information gathered, it shows how different regions will experience different types of crimes.

Intelligence driven projects, and criminal syndication penetration operations, have yielded great results. This would need to be intensified by strengthening PRASA joint operations with both the State security agency and SAPS crime intelligence.

Reply:

a) It is true that the road infrastructure plays a critical role in the economy of our country and has to play a complimentary role with regards to its sister mode, the rail infrastructure. It is for this reason that while the department is putting policies for rail sector, the road sector is going ahead with its road infrastructure plan:

i) The road policy is being developed with four critical chapters, namely: Road Safety, Road Financing, Non-Motorised and road infrastructure delivery models. The consultation of this policy position is underway and would be concluded soon.

ii). The classification of roads in South Africa is underway and this in terms of the RISFSA guideline document and this classification will guide spheres of government on the responsibility as Road Authorities.

iii). The national roads are managed by SANRAL which is the road agency of the National Department of Transport whilst other categories of road are managed by provincial road department and municipalities.

Table one below explains road network and the responsible authority to manage it:

Authority	Paved	Gravel	Total
SANRAL	22,262	0	22,262
Provinces – 9	46,511	226,273	272,782
Metros – 8	51,682	14,461	66,143
Municipalities	37,680	219,223	256,903
Total	158,124	459,957	618,081
Unproclaimed (estimated)		131,919	131,919
Estimated total	158,124	591,876	750,000
Unproclaimed roads = Public roads not formally gazetted by any authority

iv) Provincial roads receive a grant called Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant (PRMG) from National Department of Transport (NDOT). The NDOT does oversight role on business plans submitted by provinces during the implementation stages of the grant.

This grant started during 2011/12 financial year and it is addressing the maintenance challenges the provinces face on their roads.

(b) (i)There has been huge successes with regard to road programs across the country:

-SANRAL: Road network is one of the best and it is ranked 18th in the world

-Provincial Roads are mostly having challenges due to the lack of critical technical skills at both Provincial and Municipal spheres of government. For this reason SANRAL is now assigned responsibilities to assist with technical skills for the construction and maintenance of provincial road in particular by entering into MOU/MOA, and also in skills transfer.

(ii) Challenges experienced:

• There is a shortage of requisite technical skills particularly at Provincial and Municipal levels. They are unable to keep top engineers and relevant technical skills where the private sector pays more than the government.

• The business forums disrupt projects demanding 30 percent without doing any work.

• Another challenge is the level of funding in general, which is still lower than what is required and this is a general problem across all sectors.

As the economy improves, we believe government will be able to assist all sectors of our economy.

Reply:

I can confirm that the SA National Roads Agency SOC Ltd has been appointed as a leading agency to rebuild the damaged roads as a result of the KZN Flood Disaster. They have been an active member since the inception of the Rapid Response Team consisting of the Department of Transport, SANRAL, KZN Province, COGTA, SALGA and Local Authorities’ representatives, which meets on a weekly basis to coordinate and track progress. To date, SANRAL’s engineers have been tasked with the flood damage verification inspections of nearly 2500 damage locations since the end of April 2022. SANRAL will also act as the Implementing Agent for priority projects on the Provincial and Municipal road networks as per the Memorandums of Agreements being finalised between the relevant parties.

Reply:

1. A total of 40 buses were procured and were operating by October 2019. These took a year for these operations to be fully phased in due to the Covid-related drop in passenger demand.

These 40 buses are all currently being used to operate three (3) services between Thembisa hospital and Isando Industrial area, Bartlett Industrial area and OR Tambo International Airport.

2. The Department has held at least 3 Bilateral meetings per year on project progress with the City of Ekurhuleni. The need to complete unfinished work, ramp-up services and increase revenue has been continuously raised.

The City team has committed to do their best to implement changes. The Department has indicated it will continue to monitor progress.

3. The City of Ekurhuleni has not requested any rollover of unspent funds from the allocated budget in the current financial year.

4. The City indicates that all 40 buses have been procured. Initial leases were an interim measure to secure vehicles for services prior to the KTVR operating company being able to secure financing.

The Public Transport Network Grant (PTNG) covers the cost of vehicles as a capital subsidy. This subsidy is either paid to the operating company, if it secures financing; or as a direct purchase by the City.

5. a. 40 buses have been bought to date.

b. The Vehicle Operating Company (VOC) and KTVR are the same entity, KTVR (the VOC) obtained approval for bus funding through Bidvest Bank. The City used PTNG funds to enable KTVR to settle the loan. The Grant allows for a capital subsidy for bus purchase.

c. KTVR is the Vehicle Operating Company. There is no separate legal entity

Reply:

The company that is being alleged to be violating labour laws does not have a contract with government as it operates long distance or tourist services. However, the South African Road Passenger Bargaining Council (SARPBAC) is the enforcement agency for non-compliance with labour laws in the bus sector. Therefore, any non-compliance with basic conditions of employment and other labour practices by the operator should be reported at the agency. The Department of Employment and Labour may also be of assistance on this matter.

Reply:

1. a & b.

Rustenburg, Polokwane and Mangaung are the first three of the ten IPTN

cities that should implement the first integrated ticketing pilots in 2022. It will involve IPTN trunk and feeder buses and if applicable, contracted IPTN minibus services as well.

2. Santaco has been included in the rollout and are currently consulting on identifying their own pilot site utilising minibus taxis.

Reply:

The following are the status of the appointment of Boards of the specified entities: -

a) The Cross Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) has a constituted Board which was appointed with effect from 1st July 2021 and its term is ending on 30 June 2023.

b) The Board of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is appointed by the Shareholder Committee as contemplated by section 10 of the RTMC Act. The Shareholders Committee is a forum through which the national, provincial and local spheres of government co-operate with each other and with other persons or bodies concerned with road traffic matters. The Shareholder Committee consists of the Minister of Transport and every MEC of transport in the 9 provinces of South Africa. The Committee has initiated the process of appointment of the Board and this process will be finalised soon.

c) The term of the Board of the Airports Company of South Africa ended on 31 August 2021 and it has been extended until the process of appointment of a new board is completed. The process of appointment is at an advance stage and will be completed soon.

Reply:

The Department of Roads and Transport in Gauteng are the custodians of the subsidised contracts with the Public Utility Transport Company (PUTCO). There are 34 subsidised bus contracts in Gauteng and 7 of these belongs to PUTCO. However, all bus contracts in Gauteng have reached the end of their contract life, some as far back as 2003, but due to lack of sufficient funds these contracts have not been renewed but are being extended on a short-term basis. This is a problem that is not only confined to Gauteng but apply nationally. There are 108 subsidised bus contracts across all provinces and all have reached the end of their contract life and have also been extended on a short-term basis. The continued extension of subsidised bus contracts is simply to ensure that there is no total collapse of services in the country whilst government is in the process of resolving this matter. There are ongoing discussions between the Department and National Treasury exploring various options for implementing a sustainable public transport funding model which includes the development of a subsidy policy.

 

Reply:

The Road Construction and Maintenance Indaba held in February 2022 resolved to prioritise pothole fixing as one of the interventions to address the rapid deterioration of roads. The Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport then commenced with pothole patching of the Nelspruit airport road between Plaston and the N4 Karino interchange.

The programme commenced on 18th April 2022 and has been completed on the 6th May 2022.

A small section remains where the pothole patching needs to be done after the underlying layers have been repaired and this should be completed before 31st May 2022.

As the Honourable member may be aware, pothole patching is a temporary intervention as the road has passed its design life and requires rehabilitation, which is not possible currently due to lack of funding.

Reply:

1. (a)&(b) KTVR is the operating company owned and managed by affected minibus owners in the Phase 1 area in Ekurhuleni. The National Department of Transport transfers funds to the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality under the Division of Revenue Act authorising conditional grants. The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality procures services utilising its own supply chain policies under the relevant legislation. One of these services is operating the interim Harambee Phase 1 contract which is performed by KTVR.

The operating contract related transfers to KTVR from the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality for the relevant years are as follows:

Financial Years	Total Spend
April 2021 to March 2022	R174 276 431,22
April 2022 to date	0
Total Spend	R174 276 431,22

2. Yes, Audited Financial Statements have been received from KTVR. The latest audited

Financial Statement on file with Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is for the year ending June 2021.

Reply:

a) Number of all ships and/or vessels recorded under the South African flag over the past 5 financial years:

Number of ships on SA Register	2017/19	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
(i) Convention vessels	28	29	29	33	31	31
(ii) Ships registered since 1 April 2022						5

Inclusive of all fishing vessels, yachts, small vessels and other types of vessels that are not convention vessels - the SA register record 745 vessels as of 2022/2023.

Convention vessels are vessels over 500GT that can carry cargoes, passengers or offshore tugs as example, on which Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) seafarers are employed.

It should be noted that not “all vessels” on the SA register are shown for the past five years – the reason being that the list still contains deleted vessels and we were mandated to clean up the register to only reflect vessels that are registered and not since deleted. Therefore, to report on these numbers would not be accurate and as such, only the total number for vessels for the current year end and 5 years for the Convention Vessels has been included.

b) Future plans for the industry:

The Department developed the Comprehensive Maritime Transport Sector Plan (CMTP) which speaks to 37 Policy Statements. The goal of the CMTP is to facilitate growth, development and transformation of the South Africa maritime transport sector in support of socio-economic development whilst contributing to international trade, which includes the introduction of sophisticated but integrated maritime supply chain systems; the development and enhancement of the national shipping capacity and capability within a complex of logistical environment of people and machine, able to serve trade at all levels and support the goals of the broader national interest and specific Governmental developmental programmes and initiatives.

This includes creating fiscal incentives to attract ship owners to the register their ships on the South African register. Part of these measures are to engage with financing institutions to encourage ship financing and investigate a possible model and feasibility of establishing a national ship finance corporation of South Africa. The Department will be working with relevant organs of state to implement competitive mortgage and insurance regime.

The Department is finalising the Merchant Shipping Bill, Maritime Development Fund Bill and the National Shipping Bill which will assist with growing the maritime industry in South Africa.

Reply:

1. The glitches experienced have been attended through various software updates released to date. The Road Traffic Management Corporation (the Corporation) has also in sourced the printing and packaging of the licence discs and replaced its delivery partner. Since Monday, the direct deliveries to the owners have commenced. By 01 April 2022 the backlog of licence distributions will have been attended to.

2. (a) Aligned to the nature of the service the Corporation communicates its services primarily via online platforms, social media, websites, etc. The Corporation also communicates directly via targeted SMS and email communications to motorists and drivers to make use of the service when they receive their renewal notifications.

(b) The communication plan includes interviews conducted by the RTMC and the department on community, regional and national radio stations including television stations. The MEC for transport in Gauteng has also rolled out a sustained campaign on radio television stations urging the public to book a slot.

Reply:

The table below shows the number of deaths caused by vehicles over the past five years per province.

ROAD FATALITIES
	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
EC	1613	1675	1603	1336	1533
FS	922	945	860	647	799
GP	2800	2539	2453	1855	2561
KZN	2734	2473	2331	2031	2409
LP	1705	1581	1496	1161	1400
MP	1577	1313	1343	1046	1261
NC	434	352	384	265	403
NW	1029	979	855	720	908
WC	1236	1064	1178	908	1271
RSA	14050	12921	12503	9969	12545

Reply:

1. The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) received a 0% increase for the 2022-2023 financial year. All fees for Skipper Licences still the same as the 2021-2022 financial year and should assist fisher in the current economic climate. The 0% increase applies to all the services that the South African Maritime Authority (SAMSA) provide and include the cost of safety surveys for fishing vessels. Should an increase be approved, due consideration will be given to the impact that any increase may have on fishers.

2. Unfortunately SAMSA do not have an influence on fuel levies.

3. The challenge with lowering the current safety standards will lead to unseaworthy ships going to sea, which will not only endanger fishers but also other users of the sea. Reducing the safety standards will lead to unnecessary deaths amongst fishers and in turn impact on the fishing communities when a bread winner is lost. It must be noted that unseaworthy vessels lead to expensive Search and Rescue operations due to the number and type of sea and air assets that need to be mobilised to rescue a casualty at sea. Lowering Safety Standards which is meant to save both people and property at sea, or prevent pollution of the marine environment is not the solution

Reply:

The bridge is currently in use, the issue was that there were potholes back then which made it unsafe to go across the bridge but that was sorted, and the bridge is usable. As this is a low-level crossing, it is part of the list of all bridges that will be upgraded to large bridges as these are no longer suitable for areas where there are growing communities. Climate change is also another factor that lead the Department to embark on this exercise as there were a lot of low-level crossings that are no longer suitable as a result of these frequently experienced rainfall intensity.

It is anticipated that to attend to these structures could take more than five years depending on the availability of funds.

Reply:

(a) This part of the Moloto corridor was only transferred to SANRAL on 5th June 2020 by the Gauteng Province and is still in the detail design phase. As part of the detail design phase SANRAL is currently engaged in discussions with the 139 affected landowners for the land acquisition process to be finalised. If the land related matters are all addressed, SANRAL plans to go out on tender for construction by June 2023.

(b) The planned construction commencement date is in November 2023 which will be followed by a mobilisation period of 3 months and a construction period of 36 months starting in February 2024.

Reply:

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

(a) (b) The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has a scheduled annual inspection for Ladysmith during the 3rd week of September 2022. (i) (ii) The SACAA does not inspect this type of aerodrome after such an event due to the following reasons:

1. Approval is granted for such events to be hosted on the airport premises and runway on condition that the aerodrome is closed for air traffic through publication and that the airport management ensures that the surface and shoulders of the runway are inspected, and any damage is repaired, before the aerodrome is opened for normal use.

2. The general duties of the Aerodrome Licence Holder, according to CAR 2011, Part 139.02.23, provides for the responsibility for aerodrome safety and security to be assumed by the License holder at all times as per international best practice.

3. There is no history of permanent damage, caused by such events, and it has been the SACAA’s experience that license holders adhere to safety requirements and ensure that the aerodrome is clean before re-opening it for air traffic.

4. The SACAA focusses its oversight on commercial and scheduled aerodromes, as guided by its risk assessments, and it would be costly to allocate resources to small non-commercial aerodromes in the absence of material risk.

Non-aviation events, such as drag racing, are hosted by the owners of small aerodromes, with no scheduled air traffic, in order to supplement their income to run the aerodromes.

Reply:

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA))

1. (a) the aircraft carrying 12 passengers was unable to land on arrival at the Ladysmith Airport on 19 March 2022 because the airport was closed as per the NOTAM which stated that the airport will be closed for the period 19/03/2022 @ 06:00 till 20/03/2022 @ 23: 59 (b) No action has been taken against any SACAA official because the NOTAM was published and the following is the history of the NOTAM: The initial NOTAM C0769/22 was issued on 15 March 2022 at 10h08 Local time for the 20th of March 2022 to close the Aerodrome from 06h00 to 18h00 Local time. The NOTAM was then cancelled and replaced with NOTAM C0801/22 which was issued on 18 March 2022 at 15h09 Local time for the period 19 March from 06h00 until 20 March 2022 at midnight as per the Promulgation of NOTAM request form CA 175-03 and Indemnity letter. (c) no compensation is due to the owners and/or users of the aircraft for being unable to land at the airport.

2. The incident was not reported to the SACAA.

Reply:

1. Subsidised public transport services are currently provided on a contract basis where government contracts with operators to provide scheduled services in a particular route in terms of the relevant integrated transport plan and in alignment with applicable legislation. These contracts are designed in terms of demand to enable effective utilisation of funds. As a result, the Department is not subsiding the taxi industry due to their operating model. The Department is developing a Public Transport Subsidy Policy that will guide the distribution of subsidies in line with demand, where the right mode would be utilised for the right volumes.

2. There are no monthly adjustments done as there is no subsidy provided for the taxi industry as indicated in 1 above.

Reply:

No, this road does not fall under the mandate of SANRAL.

The Provincial KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport has confirmed this is part of their road network and its named P2-2. The Province is aware of the sink hole that needs to be addressed as part of the exercise to repair the roads damaged from the recent floods that occurred in April 2022 and is in the process of the appointment of service providers to do remedial works for the various road infrastructure projects, including the above work.

Reply:

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

a) The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) granted permission to the operator to conduct non-aviation operations in line with an application submitted to the SACAA as per the applicable regulations. (b) The approval granted was effective from 06h00 on 19 March to 00h00 on 21 March 2022. The operator was required to comply with a set of requirements before the approval was granted. The Operator was expected to comply with crowd control, communication, general safety and specific arrangements regarding the event (c) (i) (ii) (iii) The initial Notice to Airman (NOTAM) C0769/22 was issued on 15 March 2022 at 10h08 Local time for the 20th of March 2022 to close the Aerodrome from 06h00 to 18h00 Local time. The NOTAM was then cancelled and replaced with NOTAM C0801/22 which was issued on 18 March 2022 at 15h09 Local time for the period 19 March from 06h00 until 20 March 2022 at midnight as per the Promulgation of NOTAM request form CA 175-03 and Indemnity letter. Aerodrome closed for the period 19/03/2022 @ 06:00 till 20/03/2022 @ 23: 59.

Reply:

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

(a) The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) processes an average of 168 licences per day and approximately 3500 aeroplane and helicopter licenses per month. (b) For the month of April 2022 alone, a total of 97 licenses have been issued of which for (i) renewals only seventy (70) are for aeroplanes and three (3) are for helicopters (ii) whilst for first issue applications twenty-three (23) were for aeroplanes and one (1) is for helicopters.

(c) During Covid-19, all license applications are received electronically and the average duration and/or turnaround time from receiving applications to issuing them is 7-10 working days provided that all regulatory requirements are met. These times will be revised to 5-7 working days as things return to normal.

RECOMMENDATION

1. It is recommended that the EA approves the reply, should he concur with its content.

MR ZAKHELE THWALA

DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: CIVIL AVIATION

DATE:

MR MTHUNZI MADIYA

ACTING DIRECTOR-GENERAL

DATE:

DECISION

Reply approved/amended.

MINISTER F.A. MBALULA, MP

MINISTER OF TRANSPORT

DATE:

Date: 15/02/2018

Private Bag X 193, 159 Cnr. Struben and Bosman, Forum building, Pretoria, 0001, Tel; 012 309 3172, Fax: 012 328 5926

QUESTION 1463 (QUESTION PAPER NO 14, 22 APRIL 2022) FOR WRITTEN REPLY IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Mr C H H Hunsinger (DA) to ask the Minister of Transport:

What (a) total number of licences are currently being processed by the SA Civil Aviation Authority, (b) total number of licence applications are for (i) renewal and (ii) new licences in respect of each different category of licences and (c) is the average duration and/or turnaround time from receiving applications to issuing them? NW1781E

Reply:

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

1. The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) processes an average of 168 licences per day and approximately 3500 aeroplane and helicopter licenses per month. (b) For the month of April 2022 alone, a total of 97 licenses have been issued of which for (i) renewals only seventy (70) are for aeroplanes and three (3) are for helicopters (ii) whilst for first issue applications twenty-three (23) were for aeroplanes and one (1) is for helicopters. (c) During Covid-19, all license applications are received electronically and the average duration and/or turnaround time from receiving applications to issuing them is 7-10 working days provided that all regulatory requirements are met. These times will be revised to 5-7 working days as things return to normal.

MINISTER F.A. MBALULA, MP

MINISTER OF TRANSPORT

Reply:

a) The issuance of the operating license function does not rest with the Minister of Transport. It is a function that falls within the competencies of the Provincial Regulatory Entities (PREs) and Planning Authorities, that is municipalities. Section 36(1) of the National Land Transport Act No. 5 of 2009 (the Act) requires all municipalities to prepare Integrated Transport Plans (ITP). Furthermore, the Act requires all applications for operating licences to be referred to municipalities for their comments and inputs as planning authorities. Municipalities must indicate whether there is a need for service on the route or routes or in the area or areas in terms of its integrated transport plans. If there is a need for such a service, the municipality can direct a PRE to proceed with granting an operating licence.

If a PRE based on the response from the planning authority does not support the issuance of an operating license, in most instances, it is as a result of oversaturation in a route, as determined through the ITP.

b) As indicated above, all applications for operating licences must be based on an ITP developed by a planning authorities. Integrated Transport Plans are data driven and evidence based and hence critical in informing the supply and demand model. An operator who is dissatisfied with the outcome of the application process for an operating license, they can appeal the decision of the PRE with the Transport Appeals Tribunal.

Reply:

The grant allocation transferred to SANRAL from the National Budget is for the declared national road network throughout South Africa, and not per province. This grant covers both capital and operational (maintenance) expenditure. The grant is then assigned to priorities as determined through the SANRAL Asset Management System based on 30-year life cycle modelling of expected future road performance that takes into consideration condition, traffic and climatic trends on each section of the network.

The total grant, capital and maintenance, transferred to SANRAL is summarised in the table below:

 

Financial Year	Amount (R’000)
2012/13	9 728 055
2013/14	10 497 184
2014/15	11 916 947
2015/16	12 542 488
2016/17	13 915 586
2017/18	15 944 823
2018/19	18 624 158
2019/20	21 177 224
2020/21	20 400 264
2021/22	21 621 212

Reply:

1. A Rapid Response Team has been established under the leadership of the Director-General of Department of Transport. The team includes representatives from SANRAL, PRASA, KwaZulu-Natal province and various affected local authorities.

2. The focus of emergency response is to re-establish operations along all affected transportation networks (road and rail) within shortest timeframe. Where the above re-establishment of operations requires improvements to enhance road safety and security and increase network capacity, these will be implemented within available budgets. At this stage cleaning up operations to open affected road networks and damage assessments are still in progress. Detailed plans for each affected locality to be developed based on nature and extent of damage.

 

Reply:

INTEGRATED PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORKS PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK GRANT TRANSFERS: 2017/18 -2021/22 (R’ Million)
Municipality	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	Totals
Buffalo City	56	95	234	-	-	385
Cape Town	999	1 046	1 311	1 069	949	5 374
Joburg	918	1 066	1 188	965	895	5 033
Tshwane	900	808	732	632	675	3 747
George	210	168	163	177	210	928
eThekwini	917	825	841	623	773	3 979
Mangaung	232	235	230	280	224	1 201
Rustenburg	314	396	219	164	214	1 307
Ekurhuleni	701	604	679	569	629	3 182
Mbombela	212	203	199	20	198	832
Polokwane	217	330	179	216	179	1 121
Nelson Mandela Bay	273	275	298	349	218	1 413
Msunduzi	210	199	195	134	12	750
Totals	6 159	6 250	6 468	5 198	5 176	29 252

Reply:

1. The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) received a 0% increase for the 2022-2023 financial year. All fees for Skipper Licences still the same as the 2021-2022 financial year and should assist fisher in the current economic climate. The 0% increase applies to all the services that the South African Maritime Authority (SAMSA) provide and include the cost of safety surveys for fishing vessels. Should an increase be approved, due consideration will be given to the impact that any increase may have on fishers.

2. The challenge with lowering the current safety standards will lead to unseaworthy ships going to sea, which will not only endanger fishers but also other users of the sea. Reducing the safety standards will lead to unnecessary deaths amongst fishers and in turn impact on the fishing communities when a bread winner is lost. It must be noted that unseaworthy vessels lead to expensive Search and Rescue operations due to the number and type of sea and air assets that need to be mobilised to rescue a casualty at sea. Lowering Safety Standards which is meant to save both people and property at sea, or prevent pollution of the marine environment is not the solution.

Reply:

(1) The final list of ghost workers has not been sent to the Department of Public Service and Administration yet, due to internal processes not yet finalised. The processes include verifying when the individual was loaded on to the payroll system, the bank account used and who loaded the individual on the system.

PRASA is still in a process of auditing and confirming the unidentified individuals.

(2) The Group Chief Financial Officer has not been instructed to lock the salaries yet until the verification process by internal audit has been completed. This is to protect the credibility of the process by ensuring that the company does not close salaries of active employees who are on duly authorised absence from work, i.e. on leave, sick leave (short/long term), suspension, maternity leave and employees working outside the cities.

The organisation is following the authorizations and other details on the system before blocking access, consequence managing and reporting this matter to the law enforcement agencies and other state agencies for further interventions.

(3) There are planned processes, dependent on the internal audit process being finalised. Only then will other processes of locking salaries, reporting to SIU/Hawks to attach and recover on behalf of PRASA commence.

Reply:

The number of claims (personal claims and supplier claims combined) against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) (a) registered from 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2022 is 1,571,647, (b) in the specified period a total of 1,034,930 (66%) claims have been paid (capital); payment has been requested but has not yet been paid (RNYP) in respect of 10,184 (0.6%) claims; 197,180 (12.5%) claims were repudiated; 48,429 (3.1%) claims were flagged as duplicate claims and, or, objected to; 3,418 (0.2%) claims were finalised without a capital payment; and 1,840 (0.1%) claims were finalised with undertaking certificates but with no capital paid to date; which claim statistics is broken down per RAF regional office as follows:

(c) and 275,666 (17.5%) claims remain on an open claims status with no capital paid or requested to date.

Reply:

With reference to:

(a) number of

(i) Litres: Between 1000 to 1200 litres of oil have been spilled from 3 oil spills, out of a total 6.8 billion litres of oil transferred, since the operations commenced in 2016.

(ii) Ships have docked alongside the bunkering ship since the operation commenced: A total of 6191 ships have conducted bunkering operations in Algoa Bay since 2016.

(iii) People are directly employed as a result of the bunkering operation:

a.There are three (3) Barge operators employing a total of 119 seafarers of which 9 are South African seafarers and the remainder foreign seafarers, on oil tankers;

b. Off Port Limit Operators (OPL) have grown from 5 to 9 operators, employing 32 South African office staff;

c. OPL boats servicing the bunker calling ships, grew from 5 to 16 offshore launches, employing 44 South African crew;

d. Ship Agents have grown from 16 to 25 Ship Agents;

e. Ship Chandlers have grown from 2 to 6 Ship Chandlers providing stores, spares and victuals to bunker calling ships; and

f. Diving Companies have grown from 1 to 4 Dive companies.

(b) are the total

(i) Fines issued: A total of R 1 880 000 in Admissions of Contravention (Fines) was issued for the 3 oil spills as reported.

(ii) Costs recovered in terms of the Marine Pollution: All costs with respect to oil spills are covered by the vessel owners’ insurers as prescribed by the Marine Pollution (Control and Civil Liability) Act 6 of 1981.

and (c) are the further relevant details?

(i) Only 1 out of the 3 oil tankers used for bunkering are registered on the South African flag – It has been indicated that this is due to the South African shipping tax regime currently in place which makes the local SA flag unattractive to ship owners;

(ii) Some 13 158 seafarers have transited in Algoa Bay from ships calling for bunkers, indirectly benefitting the local maritime industry and tourism through hotel stays, airport transfers, air travel, local retail and entertainment industry and contributing to the local economy;

(iii) Bunker calling ships also receive spares and stores while in Algoa Bay;

(iv) Specialised OEM marine spares are airfreighted to South Africa, benefitting the local freight industry;

(v) Ship technical repairs are also completed onboard while these ships are in Algoa Bay using local marine companies and technicians;

(vi) Two (2) additional South African operators have expressed interest to commence with bunkering operations in Algoa Bay, however the local moratorium have prevented these companies from starting operations;

(vii) LNG Operators have expressed interest in conducting LNG ship to ship transfers offshore in Algoa Bay.

Reply:

The N12 section, which runs through the central business district of Klerksdorp and various other towns, are under the jurisdiction of the North-West Province. It has now been agreed between the Department of Transport, North-West Province and SANRAL that in the short-term SANRAL will be appointed by the North-West Province as the Implementing Agent to address the condition of the N12, including through Klerksdorp. SANRAL has completed a condition assessment of the affected N12 sections, identified the repair work required and is finalising arrangements to start with the required works within the next 2 weeks.

It has further been agreed that over the medium-term these remaining parts of the N12, within towns, including Klerksdorp, will be transferred to SANRAL as national roads.

Reply:

The North West Department of Public Works and Roads has appointed two contractors for the repair works. The one contractor has started works from Schweizer-Reneke side and the other one has started works from Wolmaransstad side.

Reply:

The following steps were undertaken by the Minister of Transport, Mr Mbalula and the MEC Mitchell, Department of Roads and Transport to ensure that the taxi industry in the province resolves its grievances through peaceful means:

1. An Agreement between Cape Organisation for Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA) and Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA) was signed after both parties met with the Minister and the MEC. Both parties pledged to cooperate and resolve their grievances through peaceful means. The signed Agreement included the following:

a) That all legal Operating License holders for routes should be allowed to operate the routes authorised by their license without any disturbances;

b) All routes will be monitored and action will be taken against associations and individual operating license holders who are in breach of the instruction;

c) Affected municipalities would be requested to place a moratorium on the issuance of new operating licenses and applications for additional authorities on all affected routes whilst also rationalising the services;

d) Where there is a need for additional services, operating licenses will be apportioned in accordance with the arbitration award;

e) The Department of Transport and Public Works will meet with the arbitrator to expedite the arbitration process and to issue an award within the shortest possible timeframe;

f) The Registrar’s Office will continue with the section 7(A)(20) inquiry to deal with the possible violations of the Code of Conduct and Standard Constitution and to deal with the issue of floor crossing as well as to determine if the affected associations are still properly constituted in terms of applicable legal prescripts. The Registrar’s Office will make recommendations to the PRE in respect of actions against affected operated operating license holders;

g) All affected routes operated by two associations will be closed for all minibus-taxi operations for a period to be determined by the MEC and the affected operating licenses will be suspended using the provisions of section 91 of the National Land Transport Act (NLTA) in the event of any further acts of violence.

h) Any other taxi associations found to be involved in or promoting violence will similarly be suspended or deregistered by following the prescribed processes;

i) Any associations that henceforth affiliates to a region or so called “mother body” outside of its geographical will be suspended by the Registrar’s Office in line with the SANTACO National Constitution;

j) The Department of Transport and Public Works will request the SAPS to open an inquiry in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act to investigate the on-going violence and to prioritise reported cases;

k) Law enforcement capacity and deployment will be reviewed and strengthened in the affected areas to ensure enforcement of all laws without fear or favour;

l) Any allegations of corrupt activities or clear acts of favouritism on the part of law enforcement or regulatory officials will be investigated based on evidence submitted by complainants.

 

Reply:

There are no crimes classified as economic sabotage. The Crime Administration System (CAS) of the South African Police Service (SAPS) has no crime category called Economic Sabotage. All crimes are categorized under Criminal Matters Amendment Act, No. 18 of 2015, which has introduced a new offence that deals with all Essential Infrastructure related crimes to underscore the seriousness of the crime committed. Section 3(1) of the Amendment Act creates a new offence (not catered for in the Second-hand Goods Act 2009) in terms of which:

“ 1. …any person is guilty of an offence it he unlawfully and intentionally

“ (a) tampers with, damages or destroys essential infrastructure; or

(b) colludes with or assists another person in the commission, performance or carrying out of activity referred to in paragraph (a), and who knows of ought reasonable to have known or suspected that it is essential infrastructure, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a period of imprisonment no exceeding 30 years or, in the case of a corporate body as contemplated in section 332(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977, a fine not exceeding R100 million.

All criminal incidents of this nature are reported to SAPS who process the information/matters in terms of their own internal protocols.

Reply:

1) A total of R 71, 307 billion was a consolidated amount allocated to municipalities participating in the PTNG programme from the financial year 2008/09 to the current 2021/22 up to March 2022.

It should be noted that since inception and up to 2010/11 the grant allocations amounting to R 9, 033 billion were initially expended on preparations for the 2009 Confederations Cup and World Cup 2010 projects.

2) The table below indicates the names of municipalities(a) and amount disbursed to each municipality to date (b).

3. The Department is promoting an incremental approach when implementing this programme, not a wall-to-wall network approach. To date, 6 municipalities are operating their pilot phases of Integrated Public Transport Networks and planning expansion to other areas. These municipalities are the Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, George, and Nelson Mandela Bay.

The other 4 municipalities are at an advanced stage in launching their pilot phases. These are Polokwane, Mangaung, Rustenburg and eThekwini. It should be noted that 3 municipalities were suspended from the programme for 3 years. These are Msunduzi, Mbombela, and Buffalo City. The Department together with National Treasury is finalising the readmission criteria for the suspended municipalities.

Reply:

(a)

(i) The National Department of Transport has recorded one sexual harassment case.

The perpetrator is alleged to have on several occasions made unwelcome and in appropriate sexual remarks to his supervisor by means of Cell phones SMS. The Victim, Supervisor alleged that she warned the perpetrator of her discomfort of the remarks made by the perpetrator and the perpetrator did not stop sending inappropriate SMS remarks. The victim then reported the perpetrator to the employer.

The employee is placed on precautionary suspension pending the finalisation of the matter. The hearing was set down on the 10th of March 2022, however, it was postponed due to unavailability of the Union Representative.

The hearing will proceed on 08 April 2022 for hearing.

(ii) The total number of recorded sexual assault is Nil

(aa) Nil

(bb) One

(b) (i) Nil (ii) Nil (iii) One

(c) Nil

Reply:

1. Eastern Cape Region - The rail infrastructure in the Eastern Cape is owned and protected by Transnet and as such PRASA utilises this infrastructure by agreement with Transnet. The East London rail corridor cannot be operated using PRASA owned electrical locomotives as the Overhead Electrical Traction power is not available due to vandalism and theft.

PRASA continues to engage with Transnet on recovering and rehabilitating the network. In addition, PRASA is in process of temporary leasing diesel locomotives from the market while pursuing long-term solution to acquire shunting diesel locomotives to mitigate the risk of Transnet locomotives withdrawal and leasing arrangements. The engagement has been escalated to the level of the CEOs at both organisations.

Western Cape Region - On 8 March 2022 an ESKOM Traction substation supplying power for the running of Trains in Cape Town in Western Cape was vandalised resulting in the interruption of train service in Cape Town. Eskom responded and repaired damaged equipment and cables and the power supply was restored the following day, on 9 March 2022. PRASA, working in collaboration with ESKOM, has since deployed additional security personnel to guard this important power supply node (and other vulnerable hotspots) for the trains in the Western Cape.

(2) Eastern Cape Region - PRASA is intervening with a number of options, the short term being to hire diesel locomotives fit for this purpose to operate both the East London and Gqeberha corridors. In the long term, as part of its initial rolling stock procurement program, PRASA is planning to provide the Eastern Cape with the new fleet of trains as an integral part of its overall rolling stock replacement program.

Western Cape Region - PRASA, ESKOM and TRANSNET have set up Security Response actions as a means to bring better collaboration and resources to secure the SOEs infrastructure against vandalism.

PRASA has further deployed security in the network to safeguard critical installations, substations, relay rooms and hotspots areas.

There is a process underway for substations and relay rooms to be installed with “target hardening army spec” security fencing, CCTV surveillance and alarm systems for intruder detection.

Reply:

The Queue campaign is only applicable to Gauteng and can be used by the public to register to be allocated a slot at their preferred DLTCs instead of visiting the website repeatedly to check for slot availability. The 30 days is the maximum period. The average time to allocate a slot is 7-14 days.

In the event where the public needs an urgent booking, the online system allows for direct bookings at any DLTCs with availability.

b) The major constraint of the booking system is the lack of capacity at traditional DLTCs. The Minister launched 2 DLTCs that operate 7 days a week from 7 to 9pm which has increased available capacity by 50%.