The role of transport infrastructure in development

Abstract

Paper presented at the 21st Annual South African Transport Conference 15 - 18 July 2002 "Towards building capacity and accelerating delivery", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT: The National Department of Transport’s role in the transport sector is one of policy and strategy formulation, substantive regulation, and co-ordination, with reduced direct involvement in operations and in the provision of infrastructure and services. The paper focuses on the policy, strategy and co-ordination role of the Department in relation to transport infrastructure, and particularly road infrastructure. The NDoT’s policy and strategy relating to transport infrastructure are spelt out in the 1996 White Paper on Transport Policy and the 1999 Moving South Africa Strategic Framework. The paper reviews the status quo of the country’s transport infrastructure, identifies current financing, information, institutional and capacity problems, and postulates options for overcoming these problems. It describes current initiatives of the Department, including the formulation of a comprehensive roads development plan for South Africa, for both the “economic” and “social” elements of the road system. A long-standing problem in South Africa has been inadequate co-ordination and integration of transport infrastructure provision and management, between the modes of transport, between the three spheres of government, between departments of government, between countries of the region, and between the public and private sectors. The paper describes initiatives to improve such co-ordination.