Programme Director
Premier of the Eastern Cape: Ms Noxolo Kiviet
Eastern Cape MEC for Public Works, Roads and Transport: Ms. Thandiswa Marawu
Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor: Zanoxolo Wayile
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
We are gathered here today to pay our last respects to our three Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Councillors, who were killed in a motor vehicle collision on the R72 near Hopewell in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, 15 January 2011.
Mxolisi Gumenge, Phumeza Lose and Noncedo Ngqondi were killed when the Toyota Quantum they were travelling in overturned. Eleven others, Councillors Bungane, Cobo, Gqabi, Jacobs, Ncamani, Stemele, Tofile, Dyantyi, Mlomo, Lindoor and Ndidi sustained various injuries. They were on their way back from the Nelson Mandela Law School at Fort Hare University's East London campus, where they were studying local government law and public administration. We want to convey our condolences to the families and colleagues of these Councillors, as well as to the communities they served.
Road traffic statistics
On Monday, 16 January 2012, a day after the untimely death of these Councillors, we released the national 2011/12 Festive Season Road Traffic Statistics. According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) preliminary figures as supplied by the South African Police Service (SAPS), from 1 December 2011 to 10 January 2012, 1 230 fatal crashes were recorded comprising of Eastern Cape (156), Free State (98), Gauteng (207), KwaZulu-Natal (256), Limpopo (137), Mpumalanga (120), Northern Cape (39), North West (96), and Western Cape (121). This resulted in the preliminary figure of 1 475 deaths. From 1 December 2010 to 11 January 2011, 1 704 road deaths were recorded.
Road deaths dropped by 75% during the past (2011/12) festive season on Africa’s busiest corridor - the N3 highway between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. According to N3 Toll Concession (N3TC), from 12 December 2011 to 10 January 2012, eight people died on the 415 km N3 toll route between Heidelberg in Gauteng and Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal. During the same period in 2010/11, 32 people died on this stretch of road.
From 1 December 2011 to 8 January 2012, 13,439 drivers were arrested across the country, including 2 492 for drunk driving, 162 for reckless and/or negligent driving, 314 for excessive speed, 9 222 for outstanding warrants of arrest, 635 for not being in possession of valid public transport permits, 50 for false documentation, 117 for not being in possession of a valid driving licence and 447 for various other offences. During the same period, more than 1,5 million (1 506 958) vehicles and drivers were checked, 526 735 fines issued for various traffic offences and 6 084 un-roadworthy vehicles discontinued from use.
Here in the Eastern Cape, from 1 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, 99 711 vehicles were stopped and screened. This resulted in 18 900 fines issued, 203 vehicles discontinued or impounded (including 36 buses and 75 mini-buses), 1 078 arrests including 245 for drunk driving, 425 warrants of arrest executed and 34 pedestrians arrested.
While we welcome the reduction in road deaths, this is certainly not where we want to be. Whatever success was achieved during the December holiday period was due to the dedication of our traffic officers, police officers and other members of our emergency services. They were on duty, ensuring our safety on the roads. They sacrificed valuable time with their families and loved ones, and for this they must be commended.
Partnerships
Road safety is everybody’s responsibility.
Road traffic crashes kill nearly 1,3 million people across the world every year, and injure, or disable, as many as 50 million more. They are the leading cause of death among young people, aged 10 to 24 years.
The greatest partners in this struggle against road carnage must be those who have lost loved ones and friends in road crashes, as well as those maimed and injured. We must look beyond statistics to the human face of those who have to deal with the trauma, both at the scene of collisions and in the families left behind, as well as the victims of road crashes who have to deal with injuries and disabilities. They must speak out.
Ladies and gentlemen, the tragedy of our road statistics is that often, when we talk about deaths on our roads, we forget that behind the numbers are babies barely out of their mothers’ wombs; behind these numbers are young people with dreams of a bright future; mothers and fathers who leave behind their families with no source of income. Often, it is people at the peak of their careers that we lose, or are injured or permanently disabled, in road crashes, regardless of race, class or creed. At some point, this tragedy must end.
A great deal of work must still be done, in line with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. Key to this campaign is the critical pillars of safer roads, safer vehicles and safer road users.
We will only win the battle against road deaths once all sectors of society take responsibility for safety on our roads.
Towards safer roads in SA
Going forward, we will soon officially launch a new road safety strategy: “Towards Safe Roads in South Africa - 2015.”
We have adopted several measures, which we have no doubt, will help us deal with this challenge of road carnage, including:
- Road Safety Education at Schools - It gives me great pleasure to announce that this year, at least 1 200 students from high schools and tertiary institutions will graduate as licensed drivers. This pilot project, which we announced last year, is currently being undertaken in the North West, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and here in the Eastern Cape. In conjunction with the Department of Basic Education, progress is being made towards ensuring that road safety education is part of the life skills curriculum at all schools.
- Community Road Safety Councils (CRSCs) - We are continuing to ensure that CRSCs become part of the groundswell movement, to assist all spheres of government in the formulation and practical implementation of road safety programmes. The Road Safety Councils are based on the “Road Safety is everybody’s business” philosophy.
- Friends of the Decade - “The Friends of the Decade” forum seeks to directly involve the private sector, labour organisations and other stakeholders in matters of Road Safety. The socio-economic costs of work-related road traffic crashes and injuries are substantial both for government and companies (employers). The safety of employees should be over-emphasised by companies in their business strategic focus. For companies, a Road Safety Culture will include safety policies and procedures, and the commitment to implement and raise Road Safety awareness within. The areas that companies should emphasise include the importance of Road Safety to employees as they drive or commute to work, safety during working hours, safety of employee families, implementing stringent Road Safety policies to improve compliance to basic Road Safety rules such as wearing of seatbelts and not using cell phones when driving.
- Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship - This is a UN Road Safety Collaboration initiative, which was launched in London last year as part of the global Decade of Action for Road Safety. This is an annual event where a young Road Safety Activist is nominated to be trained further on Road Safety together with young people from other parts of the world. Again this year, the Department is in the process of nominating another young activist who, after training, will go back to their community and plough back the skills and knowledge obtained.
- Voluntary Traffic Observers - We are urging all South Africans to no longer be by-standers. We must all become active participants, by joining our Voluntary Traffic Observer Programme at www.rtmc.co.za or by calling the RTMC Call Centre on 0861 400 800. Report traffic offenders.
Decade of Action
We cannot have a Christmas road death and an Easter road death. There must be no road deaths in January, February, March, Easter, April, May ….. right until Christmas.
As we lay our deceased Councillors to rest, we must all ensure that this message of road safety rings across society – the message of road safety must ring in our schools, churches, mosques, temples, taverns and workplaces. The more than 1 000 drivers, passengers and pedestrians who will die next month, February 2012 have not died as yet. Those who will kill these 1 000 innocent people have not killed them as yet. Just don’t do it.
The time has come for South Africans to unite against the carnage on our roads, just like we did against apartheid, violence against women and children, crime, HIV and AIDS and smoking in public places. We cannot fail to deal with road deaths, when we managed to successfully deal with so many other challenges. Road crashes can be avoided and prevented. It is in our hands.
The reduction in road deaths is not just desirable; it is an urgent non-negotiable, and has become our daily mission, which has called upon world leaders to work together and to share solutions to this challenge during this Decade of Action for Road Safety. Through the National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP), during 2012 we will continue stopping and checking no less than a million vehicles and drivers every month, as well as aggressively pursue dangerous drivers who drink and drive, drive recklessly or drive inconsiderately - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. It is time that all right-thinking and like-minded South Africans say: Enough is Enough – we need to take back our roads! We are on the side of all law abiding road users, and would like to appeal to the rest to comply or feel the heat.
Thank you.
