Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said October Transport Month, was about showcasing service delivery and reminding the nation of the centrality of transport in daily lives. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said October Transport Month, was about showcasing service delivery and reminding the nation of the centrality of transport in daily lives.
The minister said for the duration of the month, the government would be showcasing what had been achieved in delivering on the electoral mandate across all modes of transport ... Or has it?
Roads with potholes countrywide and some without markings tell a different story.
Traffic lights go on the blink every now and then, but the turn-around time for repairs remains abysmal.
Improvements to the Moloto Road are still in the making decades later.
The government remains unsure of what to do with e-tolls in Gauteng.
The drive to Limpopo is still not for the faint-hearted, with various reasons given for the deaths that lurk on the N1.
The same can be said of the highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria. In Cape Town, the Spine Road junction and Swartklip Road near Mitchells Plain, Potsdam Road and the N7 near Du Noon are death traps.
So is the N3 from between the Free State and KZN.
Trucks, buses and taxis are associated with violence or unreliability. E-hailing services operators are unhappy with the influx of the Bajaj Qute mini car as a public transport option. Bajaj Qutes do not have valid operating licences, but are on the roads nonetheless and ferrying passengers.
The festive season is approaching, and come January, the minister will be counting dead bodies and car wrecks.
Do we as a nation have a good story to tell, Honourable Minister? Perhaps campaigns such as October Transport Month could be used to address and highlight real road problems, for at the moment, to rework a quote from the AA, it resembles a car without a driver.
Cape Times