The South African government has set aside R3,8-billion for public transport for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Sunday.
In his opening remarks at a two-day transport indaba in Soweto, Radebe said the World Cup Public Transport and Systems Fund has already allocated the first round of funding to city councils hosting the 2010 soccer matches.
”Your government has set aside R3,8-billion for public transport for the 2010 Soccer World Cup,” he told delegates in a half-full auditorium at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus.
It will cost the government an additional R5-billion a year to ”address current decline in service levels and to implement our strategy over the next 10 to 15 years”, he said.
A 2010 transport action agenda has already been developed, Radebe said.
”The success of this event is dependent mainly on our ability to provide world-class infrastructure and systems that will be enjoyed by all South Africans well beyond 2010.”
He said his department’s transport plans for the World Cup will ensure efficient and safe transport for all visitors and, most importantly, it will ensure sufficient air, road, and rail transport operators and infrastructure to accommodate the event.
”My department is currently engaged in detailing the World Cup development programme, ” he said, adding that the thrust of the programme will include, among others, proposals from host municipalities in order to allocate funds from 2007 onwards.
The total amount already allocated to municipalities is R241-million, the minister said. ”A further R700-million will be allocated during the current financial year.
”The success of our initiatives depends solely on your full support. We must do more to embed this at the heart of our discussions,” Radebe said.
Taxi strike
Radebe warned taxi operators who plan to go on strike against the taxi-recapitalisation programme to do so within the law.
”Our view as government is that … it must be done within the prescript of the law,” the minister told reporters at a press briefing held on the periphery of the transport indaba.
”The taxi-recapitalisation programme is on an irreversible path,” he said.
Radebe was reacting to reports earlier on Sunday suggesting that taxi operators in the country had planned to go on strike to oppose the programme.
On Saturday next week, Radebe and leaders of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) will start the process of scrapping some taxis as part of the government’s taxi-recapitalisation programme.
He said Santaco has always supported the government’s efforts to transform the taxi industry, including the taxi-recapitalisation programme.
Gauteng transport minister Ignatius Jacobs, who was one of the provincial ministers flanking Radebe during the press conference, came out in support of the minister. ”We have talked for a very, very long time. We can’t continue any more,” he said.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is expected this week to enlarge the 2010 Soccer World Cup budget pie and apportion slices to government departments and host cities.
When he presents his mid-year ”mini-budget” on Wednesday, Manuel is widely expected to announce an increase in sums budgeted for hosting the sports extravaganza, and provide detail of who will be getting what.
Especially closely watched will be the amounts being handed out to the nine host cities for upgrading and building football stadiums, an exercise that football’s world governing body, Fifa, has projected will cost R8,3-billion. — Sapa