Moves are under way to address the public transport crisis, especially to get unroadworthy taxis off the roads. Glenda Daniels reports
South Africa is on a massive collision course if the overhaul of the taxi industry does not speed up, if more money is not spent on roads and if plans to close sections of the railways go ahead.
This week nine people were killed in a horrific taxi collision on the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal and last week 11 people died in another taxi accident on DF Malan Drive, Gauteng.
There are 520 000 accidents a year, with 10 000 deaths and a cost to the economy of R12-billion, according to a research report by academic economists Don Ross, Vincent Maphai, Brian Kantor, Peter Collins, Tom Lodge and Harriet Ngubane.
Commissioned by the Southern African Bitumen Association to research transport and roads, the report, The Under Provision and Under Capitalisation of Road Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Upgrading in South Africa, has been sent to Minister of Transport Abdullah Omar.
The report says that in 1990, 5% of South African roads were in a poor condition and this has escalated to 33%. To prevent the further deterioration of roads, the government should double its spending from R3,5-billion to R7-billion.
Omar says: “I am pleased to see the industry taking the initiative in helping the government address the road backlog. I accept an enormous amount of money is needed to tackle the problem effectively.”
The report estimates that R6-billion a year for 10 years will be needed if the decay of roads is to be reversed. It says 20% of accidents result from bad roads, but the Department of Transport has an even bigger crisis the taxi problem.
Overhauling the taxi industry through the recapitalisation process, aimed at formalising and regulating the ever-expanding industry, is about to take off.
The recapitalisation project involves handing over all skorokoros (near-wrecks posing as taxis), of which there are about 120 000, 40% of which are operating illegally.
The skorokoros will be replaced by new 18- and 35-seaters.
The government will subsidise about a quarter of the cost of the new vehicles, which will amount to R30 000 a vehicle. The rest will be paid off by the owner at low interest rates. The running costs of the new vehicle will be cheaper as it will run on diesel.
The implications of the process are far-reaching. It will mean that all taxis will be registered, which will minimise crime in the industry. The roadworthy vehicles, which will undergo stringent testing, will be a safer mode of transport, so the number of accidents is expected to decrease dramatically.
Technology in the new taxis will prevent overloading and the breaking of speed limits. The system of targets will disappear and drivers are likely to get job security, falling within a bargaining council that will prescribe working hours, minimum wages and benefits such as annual and sick leave none of which they currently enjoy.
A shortened bidding list was due to be announced early this year but there are still six bidders DaimlerChrysler, Gaz, AMC, Tata, Iveco and Kwoon Chung.
Organised labour says there are two reasons for the delay in the recapitalisation process factionalism in the taxi industry and union involvement in the interviewing process to assess bidding companies.
The government wants to negotiate with one united taxi association. There are three the South African Taxi Council (Sataco), the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) and the recently formed Provincial Taxi Councils (PTC).
The PTC has been the most democratically elected and a conference in July aims to unite all the taxi associations. Once this happens, says the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union’s (Satawu) Maurice Bokaba, recapitalisation will begin in earnest.
The second reason for the delay is that the government has agreed to Satawu and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa interviewing the bidding companies. The unions have already interviewed DaimlerChrysler and Gaz.
“We want to see if they have social plans to accommodate those workers who will be retrenched and if they intend to create jobs, as well as what their safety measures for passengers and drivers will be,” says Bokaba.
Tutu Molefe, chairperson of the Gauteng Provincial Taxi Council, says: “We support recapitalisation. The delay is due to us uniting into one national body. This will happen in July. Sataco, the NTA and the provincial councils will unite at this conference. There has been too much politics in the industry, with people in positions when they have not been democratically elected.”
Molefe says the new deal will mean “economic empowerment” and a process that will “deal with an ageing fleet and labour problems such as what weekly pay we take home, and we will fall under the Labour Relations Act”.
The transport department’s Mike Mabasa says the time has now arrived for the project to “steamroll ahead”.
“The taxi industry, which moves 17-million commuters a day, is the backbone of public transport. The industry and the public can no longer wait for the much-spoken-about changes in the taxi industry to happen,” he says.
“The department is currently working round the clock to finalise business processes to enable the taxi recap process. An intensive communication campaign is soon to be launched.”
Railways are also a burning issue for the government: what to privatise; how to concession off lines; how to encourage heavy freight off the roads and on to rail; and how to provide a decent passenger service to commuters.
Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe said last week that South Africa’s long-distance rail infrastructure is in serious decay and needs a R450-million cash injection.
The restructuring of Transnet (which consists of 22 companies including Portnet, Metrorail, Spoornet and Petronet) is a cause of deep concern for labour because decisions are being made purely on the basis of which lines are profitable.
A task team has been set up between labour and the government to negotiate the concessioning-off of railways. Concessioning-off would close half the rail network, fetch a profit for Transnet and reduce staff by about 15 000.
“We believe that no quick concessioning-off should happen because of the knock-on effect, such as the increase of freight on roads. This would increase the problem for the state of roads,” says Jane Barrett, national policy coordinator for Satawu.
South Africa has one of the highest tonnage limits on the roads in the world 56 ton gross mass, compared to northern countries’ 28 to 44 tons.
Mabasa says the government plans to review the tonnage, adding that even compared to Southern African Development Community countries South Africa’s is far too high. Mozambique has a 38-ton limit and Botswana a 51-ton limit, for instance.
“[The] government could give incentives for trucks and companies to use rail instead of roads. In the United Kingdom you can apply to a fund for a rebate if you use rail instead of road,” Barrett says.
According to a paper by labour analyst Karl von Holdt on the reconstruction of rail, under-investment has caused some of the major problems. He says the inadequacy of human resource management makes efficiency gains impossible.
He quotes a Spoornet employee. “We have identified inadequate training and skills development, low morale, poor work organisation, weak supervision, authoritarian management, poor service and delivery, inefficiency, management problems, human resource problems and racial tensions as important sources of inefficiency in the company.”