Today, as we celebrate Mandela Day, we also mourn the loss of 13 Malawian nationals, killed in a road crash yesterday (17 July) involving a bus on the N1 near Louis Trichardt in Limpopo.
According to Traffic Officials, forty one (41) others were injured as the driver of the bus, en-route from Malawi, apparently loss control when the brakes failed and the bus overturned. The bus was un-roadworthy and its licence had expired. This is, yet again, an unnecessary loss of innocent lives, which could have been avoided.
On 11 May 2011, South Africa joined the rest of the world when we officially launched the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 to 2020 at Boksburg in Gauteng. This Decade of Action for Road Safety is a global declaration of war against road crashes and fatalities.
By all accounts, the death of approximately 1.3 million people every year on the world's roads is fit to be described as an epidemic. By all accounts the death of some 14 000 people every year, the death of at least 1 000 people every month, the death of no less than 40 people every day on South Africa's roads must be described as an epidemic. Alone we might not be strong enough, but we now stand together with the world to declare that road deaths can be stopped.
Every member of society, especially those who have lost loved ones in road accidents, must become Road Safety Ambassadors and the natural driving force of this Decade. It is all in our hands.
This call must reverberate throughout the length and breadth of our beautiful country: in our homes, in our workplaces, in our institutions of education, in hospitals, in places of worship and everywhere! Most importantly, this call to end road deaths must be heard on the country's streets, freeways, avenues and by-ways.
Mandela Day
Today, 18 July the people of South Africa and the world unite in celebration of one of the living icons of our time, Isithwalandwe, former President Nelson Mandela. This day also marks Madiba's 93rd birthday.
The 18 July was also declared in 2009 by the United Nations General Assembly as the annual International Nelson Mandela Day. The celebration of Nelson Mandela Day recognises and honours our former President's commitment to the objective of building a National Democratic Society; that is united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous.
On this day, and indeed during the entire month of July, citizens of the world and in particular all South Africans, are encouraged to dedicate at least 67 minutes of their time to do community work in celebration of the values and principles that our first democratic President stood for. Later today, we will visit road accident victims here in Mbombela and assist them with their Road Accident Fund claims, as part of our 67 minutes of community work.
Mandela and the road safety decade
Ladies and gentlemen, on 27 April 2011 we commemorated 17 years since the demise of apartheid and the ushering in of a new democratic order. As we commemorated Freedom Day, we recalled the historic day all South Africans went to the polls for the first time as a united and free nation.
The 10 May 2011, was also a historic day in our country: we celebrated the occasion on which our founding President Mr Nelson Mandela was inaugurated to the highest office in the land, 17 years ago. As a nation, we have woven the tapestry of our post-apartheid story around Mandela's trials and tribulations. As a nation, we now see many areas of our lives through the mirror that is Nelson Mandela.
In 1969, when Nelson Mandela was on life imprisonment on Robben Island , he received news that his eldest son, Thembekile, had been killed in a road accident. To add to the pain and loss, he was not allowed, as a prisoner on life sentence, to attend the funeral of his own son. Many years later, as a retired President, Mr Mandela was to experience the same loss again when, as South Africa celebrated the opening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, his great-grand-daughter Zenani died tragically in a road accident.
Writing about the loss of his son in his autobiography ‘Long Walk to Freedom’, Mr Mandela expresses the feelings of many today who have lost loved ones in road carnage when he says and I quote: "I do not have words to express the sorrow, or the loss I felt. It left a hole in my heart that can never be filled".
Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship
It was with that sense of pain and irreplaceable loss that on 12 April 2011 in London, we joined members of the Mandela family, represented by Zindzi and her daughter Zoleka, and the Commission for Global Road Safety to launch the Zenani Mandela Scholarship for Road Safety. The scholarship will contribute to the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action and is also a key part of Mandela Day. We used the occasion to remind the world that while it is the living who close the eyes of the dead, it is the dead who must open the eyes of the living.
Launching the Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship, Zoleka Mandela, the late Zenani's mother said: "A crash robbed me of my daughter, a beautiful, bright 13 year old who was full of energy and hope for the future. I will never recover from this, nor will my family. My heart is already broken, but what makes this even worse is that so often road accidents are preventable. We must all support the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety. It is our duty to end the suffering."
The Scholarship reflects the ethos and values of the Mandela family and Nelson Mandela Foundation, in helping young people make a difference to their own communities and society as a whole. The scholarship was established to inspire young leaders of South Africa to join a global movement, as represented by the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 - 2020, which aims to save millions of lives over the next 10 years.
The successful candidate is given the opportunity to learn, with and from other talented professionals from around the world, with the common aim of improving road safety, and to develop their expertise in all key aspects of road safety management and policy-making for the communities of South Africa.
Annually, 12 to 14 scholars from around the world take part in the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile(FIA) Foundation Scholarship programme. This initiative further helps to build capacity and leadership in road safety, particularly in developing and emerging economies.
Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of this year’s Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship is Ms Sianne Abrahams from Cape Town. Please put your hands together, as we congratulate her on being the first recipient of the Zenani Mandela Scholarship (Applause).
Ms Sianne Abrahams attended the Global Road Safety programme from 3 to 14 July 2011 in London.
Road Safety interventions
Road deaths have indeed, like the global icon that is Mandela, now become a global phenomenon. The struggle to end road deaths has now become a matter for international solidarity.
Through the Decade of Action, South Africa, with the support of the South African community and the international community, is committed to implement road safety plans, described in the Decade of Action Road Safety Global plan as the “five - pillars”.
This comprises road safety management, road infrastructure, vehicle safety, road user behaviour, road safety education and post-crash response.
Unless we act now, we can predict that road crashes, which have already killed tens of thousands of people, will become the leading cause of premature deaths and disabilities for children and young people. Fortunately, while we can predict, we can also prevent. We can save millions of lives with more commitment to road safety.
It is time for action.
To show government’s commitment to road safety in South Africa, on 10 September 2010 we announced the new National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP) and committed to no less than a million vehicle checks every month as of October 2010. From 1 October 2010 to 30 June 2011, 10,877,203 vehicles and drivers have been checked, 4,537,272 fines issued for various traffic offences, 16,828 drunk drivers arrested and 42,960 un-roadworthy vehicles discontinued from use.
Drunk driving is a major contributory factor to road crashes and road deaths in South Africa. It is for this reason that the Department of Transport is considering a total ban on alcohol use for drivers. As of May 2011, no less than 10,000 drivers are being screened every month for drinking and driving.
Other interventions include South Africa’s soon-to-be-implemented National Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan 2011-2020. The strategy will focus on better utilisation of human and financial resources, across spheres of government to address road deaths. To achieve this, each province, each district municipality and each local municipality will report every month on the number of road accidents occurring in their area, what the causal factors are and how these are being addressed.
As part of the Department of Transport’s long-term strategy to improve driver behaviour and competence, steady progress is being made towards ensuring that road safety education forms part of the life skills curriculum at schools. This will ensure that every Grade 11 learner will have a learner’s licence and every 18 year old a driving licence. The programme has already commenced at certain schools in this province (Mpumalanga) as well as North West, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. It is also in place at the University of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal and Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape.
We are also working on an initiative to encourage youth from disadvantaged communities to obtain their driving licences, by obtaining private-sector sponsorship for the payment of their driving tuition.The Transport department will be hosting a Driving School Summit this year, to ensure that driving schools are better regulated in order to produce well-educated and trained drivers.
Special focus is also being placed on the physical roads infrastructure, at both provincial and local municipality levels. Through the S'hamba Sonke - Moving Together roads infrastructure upgrade and maintenance programme launched in April this year, the Department of Transport is embarking on a new roads upgrade and maintenance initiative to fix and upgrade the entire secondary road network.
In partnership with all provinces, the S'hamba Sonke programme will improve access to schools, clinics and other social and economic opportunities, by drastically upgrading the secondary road network and fixing and repairing potholes throughout the country. R6.4 billion has been set aside for this initiative in 2011/12, R7.5 billion in 2012/13 and R8.2 billion for 2013/14, amounting to a total of R22.3 billion in the medium term. The programme is also expected to create around 70 000 jobs in 2011/12.
Road safety is not what you do to a community; road safety is what you do with a community. Therefore, community-driven road safety through Community Road Safety Councils must become the primary driving force of this Decade of Action. Our yard-stick during this Decade is going to be what communities are doing about road safety in their respective areas. We are pleased to announce that, here in Mpumalanga, there are more than 250 Road Safety Council Members.
A number of current road safety initiatives that will continue include the National Traffic Intervention Unit launched in April 2011, regular departmental meetings with Traffic Chiefs and Licensing Officials as well as amendments to Road Traffic Legislation. The department will also host a summit, as part of the consultation process, ahead of the national roll-out of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act and the Points Demerit System, and will soon announce details on the provision of a more secure, tamper-proof driving licence card.
In a speech delivered in 2009, Tata Madiba said: "We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference". It is in this context that we call on South Africans to take action now and make everyday a Nelson Mandela Day.
Madiba spent 76 years of his life working to build a better life for all. We can certainly afford to spend at least 67 minutes of our time working to improve the lives of our fellow citizens.
Road safety is not only government’s responsibility; road safety is everybody’s responsibility. We are pleading with all South Africans to take personally the fight against road deaths, and to work together to bring down road deaths in the country.
Report bad driving to 0861 400 800.
We are also proud to announce that, in memory of Zenani Mandela and to raise awareness for the Decade of Action for Road Safety, Tottenham Hotspur and Orlando Pirates will wear the UN’s road safety symbol on black armbands during their Vodacom Challenge match at this stadium tomorrow (19 July 2011). A range of sports stars, celebrities and high profile figures have been killed in road crashes and their families and colleagues are wearing the yellow Tag and supporting the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.
We all have the potential to make a difference in our own small way; however insignificant it may seem to us. Let us all, individually and collectively, strive to become agents and ambassadors for safer roads. It is in our hands!
Thank you.
