Deputy Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa: Transport Dept Budget Vote 2025/26

Honourable House Chair

The Minister of Transport, Ms Barbara Creecy

Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee Hon Donald Selamolela Members of the Committees

Chairpersons and CEOs of the Entities reporting to the DOT

Acting Director-General, Mr Mathabatha Mokonyama and Senior Managers of the DOT Honourable Members,

The safety of the public on South African roads remains thorny across South Africa with many families experiencing unnecessary losses of loved ones and many the loss of a breadwinner. We must ultimately come out as winners in the battle against the scourge of road deaths and injuries.

This has compelled the Department to revise the National Road Safety Strategy and implement changes meant to more effectively reduce road injuries and fatalities, which must thus serve to reduce the misery and the pain suffered by so many families each year.

The reductions in road injuries and deaths will bring highly needed relief to communities who lose active members, to the Road Accident Funds with its struggling finances, and losses to the economy through the loss of productive persons.

We are reiterating our previous commitment to accelerate the implementation of the 2/47 – 365 day programme supported by all three spheres of Government, committed to sustaining road safety educational and awareness programmes and changing road user behaviour towards greater compliance with the rules of the road.

Visibility of law enforcement has proven to be a major contributor to recent achievements in the reduction of road deaths. We have thus worked to speed up the resolution of most issues that have delayed the implementation of a 24-hour, seven-day a week and 365 days a year campaign of visible traffic law enforcement.

While the country waits for all remaining provinces to finalise their processes and implement a 24-hour shift traffic law enforcement system, the National Traffic Police (NTP) will continue to be deployed to provide support to provinces and ensure greater traffic law enforcement operations across South Africa.

Chairperson,

Between festive seasons, the Easter holiday period remains a very challenging period regarding road traffic management, given the added risks caused by increased volumes of holiday makers on the entire road network.

Our road safety programmes have seen great improvements as shown by the 2025 Easter period where results point to continued improvements, with the lowest number of crashes and fatalities seen over the last three years.

We remain encouraged by the 32.5 percent overall decrease in crashes this Easter compared to 2024 and also encouraged by the 45.6 percent decrease in fatalities compared to Easter 2024.

When we reported on our Easter efforts, the Minister quite correctly ascribed the success of our efforts to the following factors: which our budget seeks to improve on.

• Widespread and consistent law enforcement operations across all nine provinces
• Co-ordinated action by national, provincial and local government authorities
• Significant partnerships between civil society and government resulted in significant messaging that impacted positively on driver behaviour through our “it begins with me” campaign. We therefore commend the actions of all our partners in this regard.

Reviewing the National Road Safety Strategy

Honourable Members

In order to formalise and effectively streamline road safety efforts, the department is reviewing the National Road Safety Strategy, 2016-2030 and will submit to Cabinet by the end of this financial year. The revised strategy will inform engineering interventions, such as the development and promotion of safer road infrastructure designs, safer vehicle technologies, and continuous improvements in traffic management systems.

The overall reviewed strategy will include the implementation of stricter traffic laws, vigorous law enforcement operations, and comprehensive road safety education campaigns. Our approach is to improve harmonisation of operations between the three spheres of Government through joint planning, inter-agency collaboration, consistency and shared resources and services throughout the year.

This will be supported by visible policing through force multiplication and smart deployments on critical routes, focusing on top traffic offences and violations, while intensifying partnerships and collaboration with civil society and media influencers.

AARTO roll-out

Research has shown that more than 80% of road crashes are due to human error and thus call for behaviour changing efforts on our part. To ensure positive changes in road user behaviour, the department will roll out the Administration and Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act, central to which is the demerit system that systematically aims at containing road user behaviour.

The AARTO will be rolled out in different phases according to municipal readiness from 1 October 2025 for the 69 municipalities which are ready for the rollout. This is Phase 2 of the AARTO rollout programme, while phase 3 will be rolled out on 01 February 2026 for the 144 municipalities that will only be ready then.

On the other hand, we will continue to intensify road safety education and awareness across South Africa, which are important instruments in our hands as a department. These are implemented through the National Participatory Educational Techniques and Road Safety Debates targeted at grade 10 - 11 learners; our youth programme in institutions of higher education and colleges and a driver education programme for the freight and public transport operators.

Professionalising the vehicle testing and licensing environment

A great number of licenses and permits are issued fraudulently and this remains a major damper on our efforts to grow compliance among road users and keep our roads safe.

One of the priorities of the MTDP is to rebuild the capabilities of the state and create a professional and ethical public service. We believe that this should be prioritised across government and the sector remains a candidate for urgent professionalisation in areas such vehicle testing and licensing, because the safety of lives on the roads depends on effective regulation.

The department, together with national and provincial treasury aim to ring-fence funds for the upgrade of Registering Authorities, Driving Licence Testing Centres, and Vehicle Testing Stations to comply with the minimum requirements for service delivery standards and set resources in place to fight fraud and corruption in the road traffic environment. This will form an intricate part of the Department’s Service Delivery Improvement Plan.

Online license renewal and online vehicle registration

Chairperson,

The successful roll-out of online licence renewal services and online vehicle registration through our digital transformation of operations marks a major milestone in bringing government services closer to the people. In the past financial year, the RTMC processed over 2 million online licence renewals, which is an increase of 56.4% from 2023/24, as well as 78 566 online registrations, and 112 845 online change of ownership transactions.

These online platforms have significantly improved accessibility and efficiency, reducing queues at licensing centres and providing a more convenient service to our citizens. In the year ahead, the RTMC will expand these services by on-boarding at least four additional registration clients, ensuring broader access and impact.

To support this growing digital ecosystem, the RTMC will commence with the deployment of Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) technology in the new financial year. This will reduce reliance on outdated copper connectivity and enhance the performance, security, and resilience of networks at licensing centres across the country.

Furthermore, biometric technology will be integrated into critical business processes to strengthen identity verification and eliminate fraudulent activity, thereby safeguarding the integrity of our licensing system. The RTMC will also continue to roll-out and enhance the Computerised Learner’s Licence Testing (CLLT) system and introduce a fully digitised driving licence testing process.

These digitised processes will modernise the way we assess driver competence, ensuring a fair, secure, and efficient testing environment. This is in addition to the digitised roadworthy test sheet that eliminates manual paperwork, improves data accuracy, and curbs fraud in vehicle roadworthiness assessments.

Validity period of driving licenses

The validity period of driving licences is envisaged to be extended to a period of eight (8) years for ordinary driving license card for code A1 (motorcycles of 125cc), A, B and EB license, which shall expire instead of 5 years from the date on which it has been ordered from the Card Production Facility.

Where a person has applied for a new driving license card for code C1, C, EC1 and EC these shall expire five years from the date on which it has been ordered from the Card Production Facility.

Prior to finalisation, the Department is conducting a cost benefit analysis envisaged to be concluded in the second quarter of the current financial year.

Honourable Members

The Minister speaks in greater detail of our efforts to improve freight logistics operational efficiencies, which is aimed more importantly at satisfying our national needs. It goes without saying that this must be accompanied by efficiencies and reliability, safety and security in the cross-border movements of people and cargo, which must be driven by a perspective towards effective regional integration.

Regional Integration through Improving Cross-Border Logistics and Border Posts:

Our Regional Integration Strategy approved by Cabinet in March 2024, seeks to align the entire Department and its agency’s approach on matters of regional integration in support of South Africa’s foreign policy and developmental objectives.

Together with other government departments and our partners in the region, we are working tirelessly to resolve some of the challenges resulting in longer queues formed by trucks carrying goods through our borders and regional corridors.

This impacts negatively on regional logistics value chains and cause a strain on our transport infrastructure, road safety and security of cargo in transit to other parts of the region and continent.

Our collective understanding as government is that our regional integration depends on our ability to trade efficiently across borders, the reason why we continue to reduce delays and improve processing capacity at critical border crossings such as Beitbridge, Lebombo (Komatipoort), and Maseru Bridge.

To achieve these aims, we are also improving inter-agency coordination between customs, home affairs, and transport, digitising border procedures to reduce turnaround times and partnering with the private sector to ensure logistics consistency.

Honourable Members,

It remains important that we improve safety across the entire transport sector and not just in some sub-sector and this has implications also for the safety of lives at sea.

Commercial Fishing Vessels Safety Compliance

SAMSA and DOT on 5 March 2025 launched the first phase of the commercial fishing vessels safety compliance audit project in Port Elizabeth. The SAMSA Audit team has to date completed sixty-five (65) inspections of the total fishing fleet of one thousand, nine hundred and fifty-seven (1957) fishing vessels at the Ports of Port Elizabeth, Saldanha Bay, Cape Town and Mossel Bay. This is makes about 33% of the 100% safety inspections target. The exercise together with regular statutory vessel survey will run for the course of FY 2025/26.

Some of the key or common findings have been that safety plans are at times not found or not approved; stability books not updated, emergency drills not completed as required; fire-fighting equipment not fully operational; water integrity related issues not properly maintained; poor housekeeping and inadequate ventilation in crew accommodation and that radio equipment not operational as required.

Corrective action is in progress through fines in some instances or detention of vessels as one was detained in the Port of Mossel Bay for proceeding to sea without addressing identified defects. Taking into cognizance that these are subsistence fishermen, there is a need to promote awareness that safety compliance is non-negotiable and enforceable at all times of operations.

To complement this exercise, the Department and SAMSA have set aside R2,2 million to embark on a training programme that will provide a means of employment to at least 8 to 10 young unemployed seafarers and expose them to other maritime skills, including safety and survey related tasks.

Lives lost at sea

With regard to Motor Fishing Vessel (MFV) Lepanto where 11 (of the 20) seamen lost their lives, there is not much progress since the Minister released the preliminary report. At the moment, the DOT is waiting for the appointment of an evidence leader by the Department of Justice and Correctional Services to collect evidence before commencement of the Court of Marine Enquiry. We remain sympathetic to all affected who want to see a conclusion on the matter.

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