Cape Town - Government is to spend more than R10 billion in the next year on restoring the country's transport infrastructure, which will include an improvement of national and provincial roads and the ailing rail network system.
Delivering his Budget Speech,Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said R3.8 billion will go towards the maintenance of the coal haulage road network, financed from the increased levy on electricity collected by Eskom. Consolidated government transport spending will amount to R66 billion next year, rising to R80 billion by 2014.
An additional R1.5 billion goes to provinces for road maintenance and weighbridges as part of the new conditional grant for roads infrastructure. The move forms part of the wide-ranging job creation drive in road maintenance projects unveiled by Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele last week. Through it, government plans to create more than 70 000 permanent jobs through projects such as pothole patching and general road maintenance.
On Wednesday, Gordhan added that funds were also allocated for the Passenger Rail Agency of SA for upgrading and replacing 16 percent of Metrorail's signal infrastructure and refurbishing aging rail coaches.
"A further R2.5 billion goes to the municipalities for public transport system and infrastructure," he said.
The funding will allow bus rapid transport (BRT) services to increase peak hour passenger loads from the current 30 000 to 110 000 in the next three years. The BRT system is part of South Africa's long term goal to encourage people to use the public transport system. South Africa is to host this year's climate change conference in Durban and all eyes will be on the state's role to reduce the country's carbon footprint.
Gordhan said R800 million has been set aside over the next three years for green economy initiatives. Additional allocations for research into energy efficient technologies are also proposed with R2.2 billion allocated to environmental employment programmes over the medium term.
Government expects expenditure on energy to be markedly lower over the next three years in comparison with preceding years due to the final tranche of the Eskom subordinated loan having been paid in the 2010/2011 financial year. Medium term spending was expected to focus on universal access to electricity through the integrated national electrification programme, which will grow to R3.2 billion in R2014.
Over the three year period, the Department of Energy has allocated an additional R367.9 million, of which R66 million is for the establishment of the South African Energy Development Institute. Research conducted by the institute is said to be aim at supporting government's energy efficiency objectives.
