29 October 2007
Friends,
Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Transport Month is drawing to a close, and once again, we would like to thank the residents of our province for the passion with which they have participated in this all important campaign for better public transport, in particular, and transport in general. The HOV Lane Piloting also enabled all of us to work together in finding sustainable mobility solutions for our communities and the economy of our province. And on Car Free Day, we all spoke about the need to make our cities more accessible by sharing the ride in our cars, reducing congestion and pollution, and also ensuring a reclaim of public open space by pedestrians and communities.
Transport is the economic heartbeat of our country's socioeconomic growth and development. As government, we are committed to ensuring the use of our roads to support socioeconomic activities through efficient mobility of people, goods and services. In the same vein, we also seek to ensure increased access to places of economic activity, trade and opportunities by providing adequate infrastructure that will meet the needs of our economy.
Investment in transport infrastructure is an investment in the wellbeing of the socioeconomic lifeblood of our communities, providing a means by which to link multiples of local economies by uniting them into a single socioeconomic movement for a better life for all. Our roads infrastructure must enable our province and its municipalities to act as a seamless source of access to essential government services, as much as it also needs to increasingly enable such services to turn Gauteng Province into a Globally Competitive City Region.
Public transport is the future, and, in a rapidly urbanising province such as ours, where there is a need for efficient land use, it is the most sustainable mode of transportation for the residents of our province.
Gauteng Provincial Government is currently building at least five new major hospitals in various communities across the province. And, in three years' time, the 2010 FIFA World Cup beckons us with many challenges for the transportation of hundreds of thousands of soccer lovers and tourists from all the corners of the world, relying heavily on the capacity of our transport infrastructure to enable efficient mobility.
Resulting from progressive growth in our economy and the birth of a democratic dispensation, there is a continuous birth and growth of new communities in our province. There is also a need for established communities to exchange their strengths with emerging communities, in terms of advances in areas of socioeconomic development.
The need for more jobs remains the single biggest challenge facing our country. Therefore, government investment in transport infrastructure is aimed at helping to address the twin challenges of reducing unemployment and poverty, and, at the same time, continuing to unlock the economic potential of economic nodes across the province. The economy of our country continues to grow rapidly, calling on us to help maximize economic opportunities, by providing adequate infrastructure that would match the needs of our economy. The rate of growth of foreign direct investment requires of us to continue investing strongly on infrastructure. In this regard, all there spheres of government will be investing more than R9 billion in transport infrastructure over the next three to four years.
The Gautrain Rapid Rail link is currently being implemented in line with the objectives of developing an effective, efficient and integrated public transport system for our province, and our country. The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Scheme is also being vigorously implemented across the province, with the view to also provide an infrastructure legacy as a direct result of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Today, we meet to once again unveil a programme to unlock the socioeconomic node of an important part of our Gauteng Province, where the South West of the City of Joburg meets the East of the Mogale City. The Sod Turning of the K15 Roadway Upgrade, on whose side we are standing today, represents government's commitment to the delivery of adequate infrastructure to meet attendant challenges. The road also serves as a North South socioeconomic link. It is strategic in providing more access to places of trade, entertainment and public service.
This eleven kilometer gateway, is being upgraded at a cost of R200 million, from a single carriageway to dual carriage status. This will complement work that was done on the earlier part of the K15, in the year 1999, thus, turning this into a fully fledged and user friendly dual carriageway with adequate road signage and traffic signaling. It is also a collector distributor for communities such as Protea Glen, Doornkop, Vlakfontein and Kagiso providing a link to important sites such as Maropeng, a marvel of work of the Gauteng Provincial Government and her partners, and similar tourist destinations in the North West Province.
The inclusion of shelters for commuters, as well as bays for taxis and buses, along the forthcoming upgrade, is line with the government bias towards the promotion of public transport as well as the promotion of the practice of high occupancy on our roads, in order to ensure efficient use of road space. This will also be accompanied by more than 13.8 kilometres of sidewalks. We are also implementing a strategic street lighting programme as part of the upgrade, as well as the installation of traffic signals in order to significantly enhance the safety of communities.
The project will result in the creation of jobs for local people as well fully accredited training and development programmes for women, youth and people with disabilities. The K15 Upgrade will see to a 40% BBEEE content of works, focusing on small medium and micro enterprises. This consists of an emerging contractor development component that is made up of ten small contractors. And, in order to maximize job creation opportunities for local people, the prescribed labour content will be in the region of 26%, amounting to about 120 000 person/days of workmanship. Of this amount, 20 000 workdays will consist of women, 10 000 workdays for youth and 3 000 workdays for people with disabilities. This also comes with CETA Accredited Training, and the project also consists of 50 learnerships.
The upgrade will be undertaken in two phases, starting two months apart, lasting for a period of 21 months until mid 2009.
One of our strategic objectives regarding this project is to ensure the building of safe and sustainable communities. The upgrade of this particular road gives concrete meaning to a sustained effort to ensure that this is realised.
I thank you.