Madam Chairperson, I would like to thank the members for the constructive contribution that has been made to this debate. Thank you to all.
Let me start by announcing that the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency now has a chief executive officer, Mr Khumalo, who was appointed a few weeks ago. [Applause.] The lack of leadership at that agency has been a serious problem and quite a number of things went awry. Of course, in terms of our own borders, we know that there are many agencies there, for example, the army, the police and Home Affairs that deal with traffic overloading, roadworthiness and so forth. We now have that in place.
Secondly, the issue of the Road Traffic Management Corporation, RTMC, has been in the media, and we took action. Of course, action that is taken by us will always be founded on the basis of law. It might very well be admirable to have the strength and power of a lion, but it is terrible to use it like a lion. So, you follow procedures, and that takes time.
We will be finishing a year next month. That takes time and a task team has been set up to do the investigation, while the chief executive officer is on extended leave. We have an acting chief executive officer now, the director-general in our department, and things are moving. So it is not as if we don't see and don't hear and so forth, but then we've got to follow procedures and see whether there is wrongdoing, guilt, and efficiency or inefficiency, and that is what is happening now. Those things are worth noting.
I must also take this opportunity to thank in particular the partnerships that we have with the agencies, all of them. It is an excellent working relationship, and we are all trying to create opportunities, job opportunities, and greater efficiency. Right now we are discussing with the chief executive officer of the South African National Road Agency Limited, Sanral, to ask whether there is a way in which some contribution can be made.
Even though it is not within the mandate of Sanral, some contribution can be made in terms of provincial and, particularly, rural roads. The chief executive officer was happy to say: Where do we start? Do we start with a billion rand? I am sure we start with a billion rand and then move forward.
I think that is good, because it opens up our country, so that the divide between the developed urban areas and underdeveloped rural areas is actually breached. We need to do extra things in that regard.
Let me just say that the development of a system for school transport is also in our plans, to ensure that when we say we have an equality clause in our Constitution, it applies equally to a kid who is going to school in the city here, the one who is in Gugulethu, and the one who is far out in rural Transkei and has to walk three, four, five kilometres - what do we do with that situation? So, the question of school transportation must be addressed, so that we can say that all seven-year-olds are equal.
We might have grown up during a period of inequality, but we can't relive that inequality on our children. Our children must have equal opportunities, even the equal opportunity to be unequal. It now depends on your own energies; on applying yourself to the opportunities that are there. You have that; it's not as if you are denied those opportunities.
The proposal for a road safety indaba is most welcome. It is something that we actually need to do very urgently, as a country. I hear the question about the statistics: How many corpses were there the past Easter? How many were there last Christmas? How many were there compared to other Christmases? That's not where the dog is buried.
The actual fact of the matter is that as South Africans, we are atrocious drivers. The democracy that we have achieved has not yet translated into a mindset that is also democratic on the road. We are rude; we are everything but democratic.
Therefore, what you will find when driving the roads and streets of London, Paris, Moscow, the United States of America, or even China, where it is quite congested, is that there is much consideration for other people. You see a bicycle passing there, and they let it pass. Here there would be swearing, pointing of middle fingers and all those sort of things. [Applause.] The behaviour when you are in the streets of New York or Beijing actually shows that it is a different type of driving culture. This is what we must discuss, as South Africans.
When we move a step further, democracy is not something that was declared on 27 April 1994 and then was simply there. Democratic behaviour is something you develop over time. However, let's start on our roads. It's really quite important.
Let me not pass this matter by, or else it will arise again. I've been in the executive, albeit in the province - this is my sixteenth year in the executive - and I don't have much, except my name. It is something that I do want to protect. For over 16 years, for four days I had the gift of a car, received on a Saturday. Without any prodding by anybody, by Tuesday morning at 11:00 that car was returned. Right? It was returned and we didn't even wait for the President to say that we should keep it or not keep it. I discussed the matter with my wife, Zama, and that was enough. We decided we didn't need the thing. That's all. It was given in good faith. There was no stolen property to be found with S'bu Ndebele. [Applause.]
So, we can't have this thing hanging, as if I was found to have stolen property or something. [Applause.] It was on a Tuesday. On Monday, I flew from Durban to Cape Town, and I couldn't do anything about it. Tuesday was the first working day that I was able to do anything about the issue. Why does the matter arise, as if some stolen property was found and so forth? I am sure I am still going to commit sins. Deal with me on those sins that I do commit, not on one that I didn't commit. [Applause.]
On the issue of road maintenance, I've been looking at the speeches of my predecessors, and I was surprised. If you look at what former Minister Mac Maharaj was saying about the budget for new roads and the budget for maintenance, what the late Minister Dullah Omar was saying, what the former Minister Jeff Radebe was saying - there were similar arguments in this House that we needed to marry the question of maintenance and new roads. We need a bigger budget for this.
That case has been mentioned over and over again. Unfortunately for me, what was predicted 16 years ago is catching up, that if we don't do this in the next seven to 10 years, the road infrastructure will collapse. Unfortunately, it collapsed. That is what they were predicting, and it is catching up with us now.
What do we do? We don't fold. As the Deputy Minister was saying now, we need renewed energy, and all of us need to refocus and say that we cannot, because that is what defines us as a developed country. A developed country has water, roads and electricity - those three things. If we are not there, we should forget about other things.
Therefore, we need to refocus and ask ourselves how we will make up for lost time on this matter. We must actually move on it so that although we have lost out, all is not lost. We have excellent engineers under chief executive officer Nazir Alli, and in the provinces as well. We have them, so let's use them. As the Deputy Minister said, we can also use road maintenance for job creation, in order to say that we will now provide manpower for the maintenance of our roads and bring them up to standard.
Thank you very much, members. I want to thank the director-general, as well as the portfolio committee, and I want to thank you all for a good budget. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.