Hon Chairperson, this department's main objective is to provide a safe, secure and efficient medium for the movement of people, goods and services from one location to another. This includes all air, rail, road and sea transportation and is vital to our economic development because of its role as a facilitator of trade.
It is therefore imperative that all the above modes of transport are adequately maintained, both in terms of logistics and in terms of financial resources. What we see in this country is that while we have an adequate budget for transport, we do not have management and maintenance that are up to the task. This is a departmental shortcoming, which has been translated over the years into a general degradation of many of our modes of transport, with road transport being the worst.
Road transport is currently a problem with many variables, including illegal and unlicensed road users, ineffective and corrupt traffic authorities and an ineffective Department of Transport. We see unlicensed driving schools springing up all over the country. We see rampant fraud and corruption in the issuing of driver's licences. We see traffic authorities more concerned with receiving bribes than implementing the laws of our roads. We see the resultant carnage and high number of deaths on our roads as a result of all of the above.
The Moloto Road is an example of such a death trap. We ask the department to intervene urgently in order to make this road safe for motorists. Our rail network is underutilised, which results in a knock-on effect, and the greater utilisation of road transport leads to unnecessary road damage, delays and a greater incidence of accidents and deaths.