The Integrated Transport Sector Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Charter will change the face of transport. In ensuring the sector sticks to the government's aims, it will help to spread the country's wealth.

TRANSPORT MONTH ended with the launch of the Integrated Transport Sector Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Charter, which aims to entrench transport as the heartbeat of the South African economy and social development.

Joburg’s executive mayor Amos Masondo watches on as the Minister of Transport, Jeff Radebe, performs the formalities at the launch of the Transport Charter in Kliptown
(Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)

The national charter was launched at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, in Kliptown, Soweto, on Friday, 31 October.

It had been engineered to transform the transport industry and to help previously disadvantaged people to use government procurement processes in creating business opportunities, affirmed Executive Mayor Amos Masondo, who welcomed more than 2 000 delegates and dignitaries to his city.

Among them were the member of the mayoral committee for transport, Rehana Moosajee; Soweto councillors; Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe; Ignatius Jacobs, the Gauteng MEC for transport, roads and works; and Mpumi Mpofu, the director-general of the national Department of Transport.

Masondo told the delegates - who hailed from all nice provinces - that it was significant to meet at Walter Sisulu Square, where 53 years ago the Freedom Charter was adopted.

The launch of the charter was an important development for society in general and a significant achievement for the transport sector in particular, Masondo noted. "I have no doubt in my mind that this charter is a very significant development in the struggle to advance and take further the transport sector in this country."

Sub-sectors
Eight sub-sectors make up the charter - aviation, bus, forwarding and cleaning, maritime transport and services industry, public sector, rail, road freight and taxis. 

Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act “will contribute significantly to the overall development objectives of our government”, says Minister of Transport, Jeff Radebe
(Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)

Transport contributes about 6 percent to the gross domestic product. "As a result, [transport] is the heartbeat of the South African economy; without transport there cannot be trade and more factors that make our country boom," explained Radebe in his keynote speech.

"This BBBEE charter ... marks the landmark achievement that has been jointly drafted by a number of patriots, driven by a desire to realise the economic emancipation of all our people."

Radebe said the charter would make a momentous contribution to the changing landscape of South Africa's transport business, which was characterised by high levels of unemployment; shortages of skills; anti-competitive behaviour by many companies; price-fixing, which creates monopolies; business cronyism; and illiteracy.

Through the charter his department believed that South Africans would be given training, education, and skills. "Enterprise development, preferential employment and skills development are the drivers of a growing economy," the minister said.

Mpofu said the charter was a profound achievement for black economic empowerment, and would be legally binding and applicable to everyone in the industry. "We and all the stakeholders of transport consider [this charter] to be a profound achievement for black economic empowerment, an important fact in the transport sector [and] a true reflection of the realisation of the goal of the Freedom Charter."

She added that the charter was about bringing transformation to the transport industry, "transformation that is paramount for this democracy to thrive".

In Joburg
Johannesburg's transport environment was fast changing, Masondo noted. People in the taxi and bus industries needed to recognise and seize such opportunities. "All stakeholders should seek to find a niche market, adjust to the dictates of transition, work hard and prosper."

He emphasised that the City working alone and in isolation would never adequately address the challenges that face its people. The national charter would provide opportunities for all stakeholders in the transport sector to work together and deepen meaningful partnerships.

Echoing Masondo, Radebe said "a charter which only benefits one gender does not assist the transformative agenda of our country".

"As consortia are formed, we should be mindful that we do not, wittingly or unwittingly, perpetuate the patriarchal domination of our business environment, and at the same time we create a balance of benefits between the urban and the rural and try to close the gap between the first and the second economy," he explained.

Development aims
Radebe was confident that successfully implementing the vision of the charter would not only meet the objectives of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, "but will contribute significantly to the overall development objectives of our government".

Masondo said: "In the near future when new freeways are completed, when the rapid rail and when the bus systems are in place, our city will be unrecognisable from a transport perspective. At this envisaged time, we would have upgraded our modern transport networks and there will be far less congestion on our roads."

The City's Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system was a major revolution in Joburg's public transport network. Masondo said Rea Vaya would provide cleaner, faster, cheaper, safer and more reliable public transport that would be an alternative to the passenger car; this was what the transport charter envisaged.

"The City of Johannesburg is committed to ensuring that Rea Vaya benefits existing transport operators and provides an opportunity for our people to become critical players in the transport industry," he said.

Johannesburg would officially launch its first Bus Rapid Transit prototype station, on Tuesday, 4 November.

Rea Vaya would open up a wealth of new opportunities in the public transport sector for all participants, big or small, in which the bus and taxi industry had been, and would remain important players, Masondo said.

Related stories:

• Major launches mark Transport Month
• BRT to iron out city traffic blues
• Rea Vaya: putting Joburg on the move
• Job Pathways to alleviate poverty
• Taxi industry signs on for Rea Vaya
• All aboard for a greener Joburg