Chairperson and hon members, thank you very much for a very stimulating debate, both in content and spirit. It is much appreciated.
Perhaps I should just start with housekeeping matters. To the hon member Mr Groenewald I would like to say that if he would just take the time, he would find out that we have been part of the struggle to create a democratic system of governance. We cannot be part of not respecting those structures.
With regard to the meeting that the hon member was talking about - that is why Mr Carlisle didn't talk about it - if he had just found out from the hon chairperson of the select committee, he would have known that it was set for a Wednesday.
Wednesdays are Cabinet days, and therefore particularly the Deputy Minister and I were both in Cabinet on that day. The DG, Mr George Mahlalela, was in Johannesburg, dealing with the taxi conflict. Had he not gone there, it would have disrupted so many other lives.
It was not because of disrespect to the committee. Why should we suddenly say that if you are sitting on this side, you will disrespect somebody sitting on the other side? There would be no need for that, and one doesn't operate in that way. So, let's put that one to rest.
Thank you very much, hon members, and I appreciate the input that Mr Carlisle made. We are encouraged that the member succinctly outlined the key challenges facing public transport, and we really appreciate particularly his understanding that there should be a meeting of minds on matters that deal with the reconstruction of our country.
It's quite a critical thing to do. Apartheid was one of the most successful experiments in human engineering. It separated people and communities and caused devastation in the lives of people. Our government now, and particularly Transport, must be able to overcome the ravages of apartheid, by saying that just as apartheid used transport to divide people, we must use transport to unite people. That is quite a critical point for all of us.
Let me then just outline the key issues that we have been presenting and which one appreciates that the members have supported. Firstly, we achieved our freedom in 1994, but for many of our people 1994 has not yet arrived, because they live in the back of beyond. School kids aged 8, 9, 10 and 11 years travel 9 km to 10 km per day.
It must be a matter of concern to all of us, and we should ask ourselves what we can do about it. Therefore, the provision, in the first instance, of roads is critical. We should be able to say that it is April 2010. Where should we be in April 2012, in terms of this table that you have presented here, which is far from being a complete picture of the backlogs that are there? Just to connect clinics and schools, if you look at the thousands that you were counting here for each province, it is a state of emergency for all of us.
Therefore, what do we do? That's why we say a dedicated fund, ringfenced to actually deal with that matter, is necessary. It won't affect competencies and powers of authorities, whether they be local, provincial or national, but we must work in a co-ordinated fashion to say that we should be at a specific point by 2012. We should have reached so many schools and so many clinics, so that it can be taken for granted that you can drive a car or go there by public transport and so forth, and that there will be no day when you cannot reach a school or a clinic.
That is a state of emergency for us, and it is something that we need to put on the table and say, together with the entire transport family, which is made up of MECs and all the people dealing with matters of transport, that this is where we are going to be doing what we will be doing in the next two years. We operate in terms of outcomes. We entered into an agreement with the President, hon Jacob Zuma. Each one of us said that we in Transport are going to do one, two, three. Up to now, one has not said things that one is not going to be able to do, and my colleague MEC Mchunu will know that we set ourselves tasks, and we then move.
If the tasks are higher than what you've set, then you go and strive further. We are going to do that. If we then say that this is what we are going to do, those bridges that you are talking about, those inaccessible clinics and schools that we are talking about, let's put them on a programme and say that this is what we are going to do within this time and mobilise all the necessary forces.
The fortunate part of it is that we in Transport don't just spend money. In spending every R1 000, R100 000, R100 million, we are creating jobs in the process. We create jobs in that people are employed as they build, but we also give out those contracts.
We are able to do that programme in a very transparent manner, in a manner that is envisaged by our policies. We say that that is a piece of road that we are going to do; we are doing 100 km here. You and you and you are forming a co-operative to do 10 km of that or 20 km of that; you, this group or community, are going to maintain those roads. And that is what we are going to do.
Secondly, the major issue that all of us should be united on is road safety. The carnage on our roads is just not acceptable. I saw that mudslide in Brazil. It is a natural phenomenon, and there were those clouds that happened and stopped the flights and so forth. These are natural phenomena.
However, you cannot have a situation where each day you are going to ask how many people have died and get the answer that there are 27, Minister. An hour later there might be 29, and two hours later, there might be 36. This happens each day, and it cannot be allowed. It is not a natural phenomenon.
It's a carry-over from apartheid days, from when we disregarded human life, and said, "I must show my macho side" and all that. What needs to happen is that now we say that it must stop. It will stop due to using enforcement.
As my colleague, Ms Barry, is doing in the Eastern Cape, as my colleague, MEC Mchunu, is doing famously in KwaZulu-Natal, we need to say that there is zero tolerance, and zero tolerance must be zero tolerance.
We will tighten that. Just the first six months is going to show it, because once you obey one set of laws, you will obey other laws as well. You might be troublesome somewhere else but on the road you are not going to be troublesome, because we are just going to lock you up. That is what is going to happen.
People are going to know that the licence that you have is now in our legislation - the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act is precisely meant to ensure that road offences are not part of the 11 000 traffic cases that are waiting here. It is going to be done in a manner that says there shall be consequences for not obeying the law.
Colleagues, I want to thank you very much for supporting this budget. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.