Hon Chairperson, I just want to refer a little bit to my earlier speech and to what I said, as part of the conclusion, when I gave an indication that we are busy crafting the National Transport Master Plan. We believe that this information -about how cities develop, how older cities are going to grow and how the population will actually move to different parts of the country from the rural areas - needs us to be able to respond to it.
This is exactly what informed Cabinet when we presented the National Transport Master Plan and had it sent back - just on the eve of the adoption of the National Development Plan. It would have been wrong for us to have a National Transport Master Plan, Natmap, which is not aligned to the National Development Plan. [Applause.] You must also remember that Natmap is actually speaking to transport infrastructure, which is intended to follow the assumptions for the growth trajectory of South Africa, as laid out in the National Transport Master Plan.
It is for that reason that Cabinet also resolved that Natmap must also find expression in the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Committee, PICC, which is chaired by the President. We feel very excited because of the fact that the Department of Transport's planning process will also be overseen by this important programme, which is driven by the President.
I also need to indicate that for the remaining part of this year, we will introduce the Merchant Shipping Amendment Bill - and I'm sure the Deputy Minister would have referred to it - the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Amendment Bill, as well as the National Land Transport Amendment Bill.
I believe that we all know the legislative process, and that these will ultimately get to this Parliament. This will allow us, as well as our entity, the Road Accident Fund, to continue with public consultation and get the necessary public comments. We want maximum participation and that is why we want this Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bill to go through our provinces. [Applause.] We don't want only certain people to be beneficiaries of the Road Accident Fund Benefit Scheme. We want to make sure that we are able to respond to the needs of our people. Many pedestrians and other road users die on the roads, leaving orphans, widows and widowers who are at present destitute and are cramming and crowding the services of the SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, and the Department of Social Services.
There are people in South Africa whose hopes have been dashed because parents have died in the carnage on the roads. We believe that the Road Accident Fund Benefit Scheme will bring about a situation where we can safely say this is the curb. But we also know of people who have been cashing in greatly. It is painful in this South Africa to find that we have a social security net - the Road Accident Fund - that actually says the child of a poor man or woman who dies on the road - because the mother was a domestic worker and the level of income or financial loss is meagre - does not qualify for the money that would have taken them out of poverty. They are forgetting that the only thing these domestic workers and gardeners think about is to get their children out of poverty and be a catalyst for the eradication of poverty. [Applause.] We believe that this is one way of radically transforming the programmes of government to benefit the poorest of the poor so that we would then be able to alleviate the pressures they are facing.
I also want to indicate to you that as a department we have achieved good financial standing in the past financial year and we are working towards achieving a clean audit opinion in this current financial year too. We want to say that we are committed to that. Everything that we presented to you today is not the work of an individual but of Team Transport. I therefore wish to take this opportunity to thank the President and the Presidency for the honour, trust, support and guidance that they have given us in this work. We also want to thank Cabinet colleagues and the MECs of Roads and Transport in the provinces for their collaboration and support. I have seen many of the MECs, including the MEC who is the Deputy Chairperson of the Shareholder Committee of the Road Transport Management Co-operation, MEC Butana Komphela. We are working together quite effectively with our MECs and we want to make sure that the resources we devolve to provinces can be used to meet the demands of our people.
I also want to thank the Deputy Minister for her co-operation, collaboration, support and team spirit. Our sincere gratitude also goes to the committee chairperson and the Portfolio Committee on Transport for their guidance and support. We pledge to work together with the Portfolio Committee on Transport in moving South Africa forward. We also wish to acknowledge the work being done by the department with the provinces and agencies, under the leadership of the acting director-general and Team Transport.
As part of presenting the Budget Vote for 2014-15 of the Department of Transport, let me just remind hon members that MyCiTi is not a project of the City of Cape Town or the province of the Western Cape. [Interjections.] You know quite well that the bus rapid transport systems, including MyCiTi, have been conceptualised, managed and funded by the ANC-led government through the national Department of Transport; through the National Land Transport Act; the Public Transport Strategy; the National Guidelines on Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network - which also speaks to BRT - and the Division of Revenue Act. [Applause.]
I also want to indicate to you that, recognising the historic role of the taxi industry, we have actually expressed that they should be centrally located in this BRT system. You would know that we want to ensure that our people who are operators - and even drivers and other service providers in the taxi industry - should be able to graduate from running that small vehicle to a bus and to other services. We also believe that the taxi industry is going to be central throughout the transport network. [Applause.]
That is the reason that we are going to be hosting a taxi summit, where we want to make sure that we discuss and agree with all the operators on the minimum requirements and national guidelines on BRT negotiations. We want to make sure that we do not have a system for the City of Cape Town and a different system for Areyeng, Rea Vaya or Ibhongo Lethu. We want national standards and we believe this will be implemented.
I want to thank the hon members from the ANC for reminding us who brought us here and in whose interests we have been appointed. We want to thank the ANC for its drive in making sure that the policy derived from the ANC is a policy that speaks to the challenges of our people and makes it possible, even through transport, that we can create a better life for all. Whatever we are doing, we are doing it because the ANC said we needed to do it.
I just want to remind hon members that the Moloto Road is not an initiative that we have been reminded of by the EFF, with their red overalls forgotten today. It is also an initiative by the ANC, because the ANC believes that we need to create a platform for our people to arrive safely at their homes.
The problem also ... [Applause.] There are people in this House whom we have to follow because of the corrupt activities they did in their previous employment. [Applause.] [Time expired.]
Debate concluded.