Programme Director,
KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC,
Mayors and Councillors,
Honoured Guests – Zoleka and Zondwa Mandela,
Representative from the UN Office: Dr Zack,
Head of Department,
Representatives from Eqstra Fleet Management,
Government officials present,
Members of the SAPS and Metro Police,
Distinguished guests,
Members of the media.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Programme Director, before I commence I will appreciate that we all stand and observe a moment of silence in honour of one of our own fallen stalwarts, Inkokheli uJudge Pius Langa who will be laid to rest today. May his soul rest in peace.
Programme Director, ladies and gentlemen, we gather here at a momentous occasion of the Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship Certificate Award and Road Safety Initiative. We do this with the confidence and the hope that as we move into the future our efforts to reduce traffic crashes will continue unabated.
As he continues to receive treatment in his hospital bed in Pretoria we continue to harness the essence that former President Mandela, is the pupil of the eye of humanity and the focal point through which many people around the world can form and build a perspective. A global and astounding icon, Tata Mandela continues to be a shining example of generosity, dedication and inspiration among us.
Singumnyango weZokuthutha KaZwe Lonke sithi YemuYemu ululame ngokushesha Qhawe lombutho wabantu iAfrican National Congress (ANC).
As we highlight some of the measures to curb the road carnage, we also pay tribute to the late Zenani Mandela through the formation of the Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship. Her painful death continues to inspire us to work harder in curbing road carnage.
An international and national statistics synopsis
Programme Director, road fatalities are a major contributor to unnatural deaths. According to the World Health Organisation, it is disturbing that some 1.3 million people are estimated to die on the world’s roads each year, while as many as 50 million are injured, almost 3200 road fatalities are recorded around the world per day.
South Africa contributes about 40 deaths per day, 1 000 a week and 14 000 per annum. Nationally from 2009 to 2011 annual fatalities per road user were estimated at 30% drivers, 34 - 36 % passengers and 34 - 36% pedestrians.
If you sum up the number of fatalities from 2009 to 2011 period a sum of 41 689 lives were lost. The contribution of KwaZulu-Natal as a province is 8394 over a three year period and is second highest after Gauteng. The contributory factors include human factors (83.5%), status of vehicle fitness (7.46%) and roads and the environmental conditions (8.66%).
Although many governments including South Africa already have programmes in place to reduce road deaths and injuries, the number of road fatalities is increasing and if current trends continue, road crashes are predicted to become the leading cause of death by the year 2020.
Programme Director, road crashes have become recognised internationally as a social and economic burden particularly in developing countries like South Africa. Each year around the world, 260 000 children die on the road and another million are seriously injured, often permanently disabled. This hidden road injury epidemic is a crisis for public health and a major contributor to the causes of poverty. During crashes bread-winners are taken away from their families.
Challenges facing South Africa
Distinguished guests; most of us are familiar with our road safety challenges that continue to claim lives of various ages. Every day we lose brothers and sisters. We lose uncles and aunts, we lose politicians, academics and musicians and all kinds of people who are economically active and are bread winners at home.
In South Africa, the primary risk group is men in the 18 - 45 year age group. Included in this broad group is the high level of public transport and heavy vehicle crashes and non-compliance with driving permits in these driver categories.
Driving under the influence of alcohol plays a large negative role in crashes; lack of compliance in respect to consistent wearing of seat belts and excessive speeding are serious causes of road crashes. Our statistics reveal that many accidents occur during high peak periods such Festive seasons, Easters, School holidays, major events and long weekends.
Furthermore, in South Africa, research reveal that Friday to Sunday are the days which reflect a high number of road accidents accounting for 61.27% of all weekly fatal crashes, Saturday alone being the leading day with 24,16% of the weekly fatal crashes.
The economic ramifications of these road fatalities include the increase in the social development and health budgets spent. At least R306 billion rand is lost to the economy due to road fatalities each year.
Annually we transfer a total of R15 billion to the Road Accident Fund and RAF spends R1,5 billion every month to pay for victims of road crashes, and this is unsustainable. The loss is endless and we need to be the drivers of change and masters of our own destiny.
If we can heed the call to reduce speed, wear seatbelts, do not drink and drive and avoid overtaking at dangerous zone. The R15 billion can be redirected towards other developmental needs such as building and maintaining our road infrastructure.
The UN Decade of Action
In response to this endemic, in July 2009 Transport Ministers from the African continent attended the international Africa Make Roads Safe Conference held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania where they recommitted themselves to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of improving road safety and halving the number of road fatalities by the year 2015.
On 2 March 2010 at the first Global United Nations Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Moscow, Russia, road safety was further escalated as a challenge requiring the urgent attention of governments worldwide. Governments around the world took the historic decision to intensify efforts over the next decade to address road carnage.
The UN General Assembly resolution proclaimed 2011-2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety. South Africa is one of the member countries that have committed themselves to the Decade of Action. The overall goal of the Decade will be to stabilize and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world by 2020. As South Africa, we also committed to reduce the number of road fatalities by half by 2020. To achieve this we need all hands on deck.
Road safety programmes and approach
As a Department of Transport we are cognizant of our mandated to provide sustainable, affordable, reliable and safe transport services and the relevant infrastructure. Our Road and rail networks are engines of economic growth and road carnage is a deterrent to economic development.
In line with the MGDs to halve road deaths by 2015, we have instructed the Department of Transport and our public entities to assess our performance thus far. Moreover, our strides in response to the call by UN Decade of Action to reduce and stabilie road carnage; we can indeed attest that we have stabilised roads fatalities and the mammoth task now is to reduce these road accidents.
To this end, we recently embarked on a process of working with our entities in order to produce and align an integrated 365-Days Road Safety Programme. It is a programme which is enhancing the Department of Transport and its entities to drive towards one direction working towards achieving one goal that is Making Our Roads Safer.
Programme Director, I must say a high-impact thematic National Programme has been created which is set to be taken through the appropriate Transport family structure and channels wherein provinces are involved.
We have invested a significant amount of financial resources to promote awareness and to intensify enforcement and up-scale general traffic officer visibility. Awareness campaigns were launched and some are still running in all official languages, across different media platforms, including radio, television, newspapers and line media.
We have strengthened our partnerships with the media and the private sector and have partnered with companies and associations such as Eqstra, the Road Freight Association and others. In the implementation of these campaigns, we found that the main causes of the road fatalities are drunken driving, excessive speeding, dangerous overtaking, not using seatbelts, and road unworthy vehicles the majority of which are human factors.
As part of our thematic 365 Days Road Safety Programme, during the months of May and June 2013 we focused on Pedestrian Safety through our Think Pedestrian Campaign which is partnered with Eqstra Fleet Management. In the months of July and August 2013 we are concentrating on strengthening Cycling Safety initiatives.
We remember Mr Barry Stander a South African International Medalist in the cycling sporting field, who was very young, and an asset to the country, but a victim of road fatalities. We as the Transport Team are in discussions to consider putting infrastructure suitable for cyclists in our cities and towns.
The Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship
Programme Director, This is also the month where we certificate the recipient of the Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship. An Ambassador of Road Safety who has undergone a Road Safety Training from the United Nations Road Safety Programme.
The Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship is an initiative by the FIA Foundation based in the United Kingdom working with the Unite Nations in collaboration with the Department of Transport and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. The Scholarship contributes significantly to the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 - 2020.
The purpose of the Scholarship is to offer young South Africans an opportunity to learn with and from other talented professionals from around the world with a common aim of improving the state of road safety for communities in their home countries.
The Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship is also to further inspire the young leaders of South Africa to join the global movement as advocated by the UN Decade of Action which aims to reduce and stabilize road deaths by 50% by year 2020 and beyond.
The Scholarship awarding process is managed and coordinated at the National level by the Department of Transport and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in conjunction with the Road Safety Directorates in all provinces.
I am proud and honored to inform you that the successful candidate of this Scholarship for 2013 is from KwaZulu-Natal. We congratulate and wish our candidate the best in providing a role – model leadership on road safety.
As we hail the Zenani Mandela Scholarship today we call upon you to work with the national government, provinces and municipalities in reducing the road carnage. Achieving the goals that we have set as the department for the greater safety of all South Africans is a long term programme. It will require greater cooperation between the department and all citizens.
It will require all of us to strengthen every aspect of our integrated, coordinated and comprehensive 365 Days Road Safety Programme. The department is committed to carrying out this responsibility to reduce road fatalities by 50% by the end of the United Nations Decade of Road Safety in 2020.
In maximising the use of this campaign we must also commit ourselves to obey the rules of the road at all material times. No road safety campaign can succeed without the citizens paying attention to what authorities are saying.
I want to thank all of you for attending this event as a response to our clarion call to participate and make the Zenani Mandela Road Safety Initiative and Certification Ceremony a success.
Through a collective effort and determined minds to change the way we do things we can win. Road Safety is a battle plan for the all citizens. We must win it.
To all the women and girl children who are present here today, as August is our month, we need to know and understand that we are our own liberators not only for economic, social and political emancipation but also for the provision of secure and safer transportation services.
Do not drink and drive, refuse to be driven by a drunk driver, wear your seatbelt and refuse to get into a vehicle that does not have safety belts, do not speed and refuse to be driven at high speeds for the prevailing circumstances. You are Woman you have a voice… Use it and save lives.
Safer Roads Attitude is indeed a Great Attitude.
I thank you!
