Johannesburg – The Operation Vulindlela (OV) progress report released by Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni on Tuesday said that President Cyril Ramaphosa had ordered the establishment of a national logistics crisis committee (NLCC) which he will chair. The committee will be responsible for co-ordinating the implementation of a Freight Logistics Roadmap.
A roadmap will be developed by Operation Vulindlela and the transport public enterprises departments.
The committee will prioritise establishing a transport economic regulator that will oversee third party access to the rail network as well as developing a devolution strategy for passenger rail.
“In keeping with its commitment to devolve passenger rail functions, the Department of Transport has convened a national steering committee to engage with all relevant stakeholders and develop a devolution strategy,” the report said.
The steering committee consists of representatives from the department, from local and provincial government, Salga, Prasa and the Gautrain Management Agency.
The report showed that Operation Vulindlela had accomplished, among other things, the acceleration of the procurement of new generation capacity.
“Three projects from the risk mitigation programme have entered construction, with a further five projects expected to reach financial close during this quarter. Project agreements have been signed for 25 preferred bidders from Bid Window 5 and 6, amounting to approximately 2800MW, of which 784MW is already in construction,” read the report.
Other reforms included water and digital communications.
On digital communication reform, the report said the Cabinet had approved a final date for the switch-off of analogue transmission, which would be gazetted by the minister of Communications and Digital Technologies.
Regarding water reforms, the Water Partnerships Office has been established in the Development Bank of South Africa and will advance private sector participation in the water sector, among others things, the report said.
Ntshavheni said there were some who believed that progress in implementing reforms had been too slow or that the government was not committed to the reform agenda. She challenged people to read the report and consider what had been achieved in just over two years.
The Star