In a pre-budget briefing on Tuesday, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndlebele said the command centre would facilitate the dedicated transport services during the World Cup.

The command centre would for example ensure that fans from Mthatha would be able to get to the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. It would coordinate the different transport services.

This includes the 418 train sets, 420 buses allocated to Match, 200 buses for the FIFA family – soccer teams and key sponsors – and 360 buses for general spectators in addition to the 1 100 in operation.

While 800 midi-buses will be managed by recently appointed Operating Management Entity, additional aircraft would also be leased during the event.

Ndebele said Durban’s new R6.7 billion King Shaka International Airport would come into operation from 1 May.

A report for the land use options for the current Durban International Airport, which will cease operations at the end of this month, is being finalised by a task team consisting of the department, Airports Company SA (Acsa), the KwaZulu-Natal government and the eThekwini Municipality.

The department had mooted the idea of a high speed rapid rail link between Durban and Gauteng and the proposal would go before the Cabinet later this year, said Ndebele.

He believed the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto), which came into operation in Johannesburg and Tshwane on 1 April, would help relieve the overburdened court system.

“The current traffic law enforcement system is not effective, and if we want to stop counting bodies every year, we have to change it,” said Ndebele.

“Drivers simply ignore paying traffic fines and do not even bother to go to court because they know that nothing will happen to them, since their cases are not prioritised and, in many instances, withdrawn,” he said, adding that Aarto would be rolled out to the rest of the country by March next year.

He said the Road Traffic Management Corporation had also advertised posts for more traffic officers and said community road safety councils would soon be introduced in every municipality in the country to provide all stakeholders to participate and allow communities to identify road safety challenges and interventions.

The Road Accident Fund will also be overhauled, with the aim of creating a more effective benefit system said Ndebele, who said community members would also be able to access the benefits provided by the fund through these councils.

“The Road Accident Fund will work closely with the Community Road Safety Councils in ensuring survivors of road collisions receive appropriate post collision care and compensation,” he said.

The councils will educate the poor and assist them to access the care that will help them to deal with the death of loved ones. – BuaNews