NTRACK Conradie Park – testing a model for more integrated development Our multifaceted Updates on Safer roads over the response to COVID-19 infrastructure projects festive season PB ON TRACK TRANSport AND PUBLIC WORKS NEWSLETTER | ISSUE #24 DECEMBONE TRACKR 20201 CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE 3 Message by Provincial Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela 4 Message by Head of Department Jacqui Gooch 5 Conradie Park steams ahead 6 Education infrastructure update 9 Quarantine and isolation facilities 10 Red Dot 12 Key statistics for the 2019/20 financial year 5 14 Health infrastructure update 16 Traffic and road safety 17 Road infrastructure update 19 Consolidated map of road projects at district level 10 14 VISION: Enabled communities leading dignified lives. #JUSTdignity. MISSION: To tirelessly pursue the delivery of infrastructure and transport services that is: inclusive, safe and technologically relevant, seeking to heal, skill, in- tegrate, connect, link and empower every citizen in the Western Cape, driven by passion, ethics and a steadfast commitment to the environment and people as our cornerstone. EDITORIAL TEAM: 18 Editor: Thabiso Mazosiwe Head of Communication: Jandré Bakker Design: Sylvanus du Plessis and CONTACT THE ON TRACK TEAM: Hantie Engelbrecht Telephone: 086 021 2414 Cover photo: Email: [email protected] Contributors: Stephen Heyns, Marion De Vries, Website: www.westerncape.gov.za | Twitter: @WCGovTPW Daniel J Nugent, Ashvind Beetul, Firaas Booley, Please send us your feedback and suggestions. Lev Binkowski. 2 ON TRACK ON TRACK 3 FOREWORD FROM THE PROVINCIAL MINISTER provided by DTPW and private Awards in October. DTPW won sector partners. joint gold in the Best Functioning Provincial Department Award To support the province’s of the Year category, and our response to the pandemic, Head of Department Jacqui DTPW stepped in to launch Gooch won silver in the Best Red Dot Lite – safe transport Head of Department of the Year home for public sector health (Provincial Government) Award employees. The Department also category. These awards represent enabled commuters to provide independent acknowledgement feedback on the compliance of of how well we performed during public transport operators with the 2019/20 financial year. safety regulations through free cell phone messages to a USSD There was a notable decrease number. in road traffic fatalities of 23% over the festive season period The Department and its 1 December 2019 to 15 January contractors set up the 862-bed 2020 compared to the previous Hospital of Hope in the Cape festive season (160 compared to Town International Convention 207 in 2018/19). It is my fervent Centre in a record 26 days. wish that road fatalities for the The year 2020 will be Two other field hospitals were 2020/21 festive season are even remembered for the global established soon afterwards. lower. This will only be possible if COVID-19 pandemic that caused all road users play their part. economies large and small to DTPW had previously engaged stumble and their people to with the construction industry Do not drink and drive. Plan suffer untold hardship. This year which was already on the back your journey to include rest will also be remembered as a foot before the pandemic closed breaks. Do not allow electronic year in which the pandemic down public works projects. devices to distract you. Do not brought out the best in people. In May, work on almost 300 overload. Make sure your vehicle public works contracts worth is roadworthy. Buckle up. Stick to On 12 March, I was privileged to approximately R1.5 billion were the speed limit at all times. Slow hand over title deeds to members permitted to resume work, down near pedestrians. If you are of the Ou Tuin community who bringing about 8 000 people pedestrian, do not drink and walk had been dispossessed of their back into paid employment. near traffic, wear visible clothing, land under apartheid. Two weeks and remove your headphones or later, a “hard” lockdown was There were a number of earphones when you cross the imposed, and South Africans rose highlights in October Transport road. to the challenge of working from Month. The Provincial Taxi home. Lekgotla and its national Bonginkosi Madikizela, counterpart took place during Provincial Minister of Transport The Western Cape Government the month. I opened the R283 and Public Works believes innovation could clearly million upgrade to a dual be seen this year. We saw it when carriageway of a 5 km section of the Department of Transport and Baden Powell Drive (the R310) Public Works (DTPW) quickly between the N2 and Vlaeberg launched the Red Dot taxi Road near Stellenbosch. service with the South African National Taxi Council to provide The national Department of safe transport to and from Public Service and Administration quarantine and isolation facilities. awarded our department two top The facilities themselves were National Batho Pele Excellence 2 ON TRACK ON TRACK 3 the reality is that most of them FOREWORD FROM THE rely on public transport. DTPW responded by launching Red HEAD OF DEPARTMENT Dot Lite – a safe public transport service for public sector health service workers returning home. This year began with a bang – the realisation that the world was Since the advent of Alert Level 1 on the brink of a major public of the National State of Disaster, health crisis. On 30 January, the many of DTPW’s activities COVID-19 outbreak was declared have come back on stream. a Public Health Emergency Construction, refurbishment and of International Concern. On repair works have resumed on 11 March, it was declared a roads, schools, clinics, hospitals pandemic. Two weeks later, the and general infrastructure. South African government had Of course, we have all had to imposed a “hard” lockdown to adapt the way we work so contain the spread of this highly that the wearing of masks, contagious and potentially fatal social distancing, washing and disease. By that time, most sanitising of hands have become Department of Transport and a part of life. This will be the case Public Works staff were already for the foreseeable future. working from home. A highlight of the year was when The lockdown regulations the Department of Transport stalled many DTPW construction and Public Works won joint projects in the fields of roads, gold in the Best Functioning schools, hospitals and clinics, Provincial Department of the and general infrastructure Year category of the 2020 Batho projects. However, true to form, Pele Excellence Awards. our Department very quickly responded to the national I really appreciate this government requirement for acknowledgment by the national provincial departments of public Department of Public Service and works to establish quarantine and Administration. It’s an incredible isolation (Q&I) facilities for those achievement; something for the residents of the Western Cape Department and its staff to be who are unable to quarantine or proud of. An opportunity like this isolate themselves. Q&I was a is something which allows us to critical contribution to helping say thank you to the leadership to slow down the spread of team and to every single staff COVID-19 and mitigating the member in our Department for risk that our health care facilities the work that they do each and would be overwhelmed by a every day in trying to improve sudden increase in cases. citizens’ lives in the Western Cape. By doing this important Most South Africans do not work, they help enable citizens have their own private means to lead lives that are filled with of transport, and the COVID-19 dignity. As a Department, we are transmission risks are very high continually striving to improve on public transport. DTPW what we do. Awards of this responded by quickly entering nature help us to know that we into an innovative agreement are moving in the right direction with the South African National and are actually achieving Taxi Council to provide safe something which others public transport to and from Q&I appreciate and acknowledge. facilities. Public sector health care workers are obviously vital Jacqui Gooch, for dealing with COVID-19, but Head of Department 4 ON TRACK ON TRACK 5 Testing the Better Living Model Conradie Park Conradie Park is a pilot to test the Western Cape Government (WCG) Better Living Model to redress the legacy of apartheid-era spatial planning in the development province. The WCG’s approach is to make well-located state land available to the private sector to develop steams ahead into residential-led, mixed-use, mixed-income “live- work-play-learn” environments (Figure 1). The private company appointed to develop each Better Living A Better Living Model project to build 3 500 housing Model site is required to comply with the terms of units in a residential-led, mixed-use, mixed-income a LADA. Strong partnerships with other spheres of development on the former Conradie Hospital site in government are a key success factor, as is access to Pinelands is well under way. Concor, the company that certain government grants for the building of the won the contract to develop the 22-hectare site, must necessary infrastructure. Lessons learned from Conradie ensure that at least 49% of the housing units (1 715 Park will be taken into future integrated and sustainable units) are affordable, grant-funded units. In addition, live-work-play-learn developments on state land in the Concor must build two new independent schools with Western Cape. a total capacity of 1 600 learners that are affordable to the Conradie Park target group. Over 2 000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase. A condition of the rezoning approval of the site is the construction of a bridge from Forest Drive Extension to Voortrekker Road over the Maitland Cemetery.