Navigating political uncertainty

Policy uncertainty increases risk, garners negative investor sentiment, inhibits growth, and impedes clear decision making and forward planning. These are all critical success factors for any business. With various proposed transport policies and draft regulations up in the air, Sharmini Naidoo reveals that this year’s SABOA Conference is aptly themed “Navigating Policy Uncertainty”. 

The SABOA Annual Conference is South Africa’s largest gathering of bus operators and a major highlight on the bus industry calendar. Its main objectives are to afford its members and other industry role players an opportunity to meet informally, network, gain new knowledge, and debate industry matters.

This year, delegates can look forward to interaction with and updates from the legislator, presentations from expert speakers, and a working platform to find meaningful solutions to the many challenges in the industry. The conference is usually attended by bus owners and senior and executive management from bus operations, as well as manufacturers and suppliers in the bus and allied industries. 

Speakers will include officials from high levels of government, international experts, and political and economic analysts. Programme highlights include an update from the Department of Transport (DoT) on pending policy, and a presentation by Standard Bank’s senior economist, Shireen Darmalingum. She will provide an economic overview on the impact of power cuts, high food and fuel prices, high unemployment, lack of service delivery, violence and intimidation, socio-economic issues, and corruption.

Gideon Neethling, company engineer from Golden Arrow Bus Services and chairperson of SABOA’s technical committee, will give an update on the company’s electric bus project and the testing of its two 37-seater BYD K9 electric buses from China. 

Electric vehicles (EVs) are also receiving some traction from the Regulator in July, as the DoT hosts a series of EV regulations framework awareness campaigns across the provinces. 

The DoT is also in the process of implementing its Green Transport Strategy, which was approved by Cabinet in 2018. The strategy aims to reduce adverse effects of transport on the environment; as part of the implementation, the department has developed the Electric Vehicles Framework to map out the uptake of EVs in the country.

Trade union Solidarity recently signed a settlement agreement with the Department of Labour resulting in the union withdrawing its Constitutional Court application to challenge the draft Employment Equity Act Regulations. 

The agreement states that no one’s employment may be terminated because of a company’s affirmative action programme, race may not be used as the sole criterion for employment and promotion, and affirmative action is temporary, “in line with the Constitution”. The economically active population statistics will be only one of many factors that will be considered when assessing an employer’s compliance. In addition, an employer may also not be penalised or incur “any form of disadvantage” if it does
not comply with the targets on justifiable or reasonable grounds.

Thembi Chagonda, Employment Equity Commissioner and joint CEO of Global Business Solutions, will provide an update on the application and implementation of the Employment Equity Act and the impact on the bus sector. 

Breaking news this month has been the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) is constitutional. The Concourt overturned the order of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, which had found AARTO to be unconstitutional and invalid and that it should be scrapped in its entirety. The Concourt ruled in favour of the Minister of Transport, meaning that AARTO is now legal and valid and will remain in place and that the points demerit system can now be rolled out.

The Minister of Transport welcomed the judgement and said: “The AARTO Act is an important cog in our road traffic law enforcement interventions aimed at arresting the carnage on our roads and altering driver behaviour. With this judgement having cleared the path for the implementation of AARTO, we will move with speed to roll out its implementation across the country without delay.”

The Association has previously cautioned the DoT and the Road Transport Infringement Agency about the unintended consequences of implementing AARTO, the challenges with practical implementation of vehicles en route, remediation principles, and increased corruption. 

Seen as a panacea for the high incidents of road accidents and traffic violations without taking into account the challenges raised by the Association may be detrimental to the industry, so SABOA will keep a watchful eye on the AARTO implementation.