House Chairperson,
The Department of Transport’s 2025/26 budget of R95.7 billion appears ambitious on paper, but beneath the surface lies a troubling pattern: bloated transfers, sluggish implementation, and a widening gap between policy intent and lived reality.
A vital step toward integrated and accountable transport governance, was to establish a single transport regulator covering road, rail, shipping, and aviation in the Economic Regulation of Transport Amendment Act. It bears reminding that in May 2025, the ACDP flagged delays in its implementation – due to a simple date error.
In this Department, the ACDP sees a litany of poor governance – beginning with PRASA. Despite a R66.1 billion allocation over the MTEF, commuters still wait for ghost trains. The rolling stock renewal programme is behind schedule, plagued by underspending, infrastructure vandalism, poor management, corruption and theft, has decimated the use of rail services. In 2010, passengers completed over 500 million journeys. Currently, this number sits at around 77 million journeys with no sense of urgency by the Department.
Transnet receives billions of rands for freight corridors, yet the truck booking system is problematic. Kilometre-long queues of trucks are seen at ports and these inefficiencies and rail bottlenecks continue to choke our economy.
The Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant of R53.1 billion, over the medium term – is meant to fix our crumbling roads. Yet in many provinces, potholes multiply while targets remain unmet. In an Eastern Cape ruling this year, failure to maintain roads was declared a constitutional violation and dereliction of duty. The 2023 South African Human Rights Commission inquiry found that in the Eastern Cape, less than 10 percent of roads are paved, and poor road conditions are directly violating residents’ rights to healthcare, education, and safety.
The Welisizwe Rural Bridges Programme, announced by President Ramaphosa in 2022, has only 11 completed bridges from a target of 288 by the end of the ‘25/26 financial year.
This budget fails the test of transformative infrastructure. It is heavy on allocations, light on delivery. As Kingdom stewards, the ACDP cannot support this Budget Vote.
