Speaker’s notes for Ms Dipuo Peters, Minister of Transport at the Colloquium on Road Safety hosted by SANRAL and the University of Pretoria
Programme director, distinguished guests etc.
Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you on a very historic weekend in our country’s recent history. This past Thursday we commemorated 40 years since the Soweto Uprising took place – a truly pivotal day that started a chain reaction, a social and political revolution that eventually culminated in our democratic transition in 1994.
Reflecting on the events of 16 June 1976, the founding father of our democracy, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, referred to it as “the start of the last mile towards our promised land.” Indeed, all of us who are gathered here today have been liberated because of the courage of those young people during that tumultuous period in our country’s history.
I come from a generation of South African activists who cut our political teeth in the 1970s. We joined the liberation movements, became active in student politics and took to the streets of our country to demonstrate our commitment to the struggle for freedom and fundamental human rights in the country of our birth.
Today, as we think back with a great sense of gratitude to the contributions made by the 1976 generation and those before theme we must also commit ourselves to build a community based on the principles embodied in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution.
Programme director,
We have come together her today to find solutions to make our roads safer and combat the scourge of accidents on our roads. On this we as South Africans can stand together despite differences in political views and divergent opinions of how we see the future should unfold.
It cuts across divides of race, class, age, gender, language and culture. It has an immense impact on all aspects of society, robbing communities of people who are in the prime of their lives, affecting productivity and placing significant burdens on the state and organisations who have to care for people who are victims of road crashes.
It is, therefore, no coincidence that the National Development Plan which serves as the blueprint for our country’s future trajectory, makes a strong appeal that our country’s institutional capacity to manage road traffic needs to be strengthened.
It then goes further. “This includes the upgrading of safety mechanisms, the rigorous enforcing of compliance with road safety rules” and – I want to emphasise this – “wide-scale road safety education.”
“Success”– the National Development Plan concludes – “will be evident in road users changing their behaviour.”
With this in mind, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be at this high-powered gathering and to join you in the discussions on the steps we can take to encourage behavioural change associated with the use of our roads through a number of important interventions.
I want to commend SANRAL for taking the initiative to organise this colloquium but also for the lead it has taken to launch this study and coordinate the research. SANRAL has grown into much more than a mere engineering entity responsible for the design, project management and maintenance of our national road network.
It has also pioneered many of the innovative interventions that contribute to safer roads that we benefit from every day. Through its commitment to the “safe systems” approach as endorsed in the United Nations’ Decade for Action on Road Safety, SANRAL has taken the lead to create safer road environments and make an impact on human behaviour.
Programme director,
Safe systems are designed with the human being at its centre. It takes human fallibilities and vulnerabilities into account. It accepts that even the most safety conscious person will make a mistake at some point.
Through safe systems human errors can be minimised that will lead to less severe crashes.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The provision of safe infrastructure can, however, not be separated from the need to provide road users with sufficient information and road safety training that will result in changed behaviour.
In turn, long-term changes in behaviour can only be affected through a comprehensive understanding of the environment within which we operate. One of the greatest minds in history, the physicist, Albert Einstein, once remarked that his primary purpose was not to teach his pupils – but to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
This is the reason why this study initiated by SANRAL is of such importance. The researchers from the various universities acknowledged by Prof Chitiga-Mabugu took the time and the effort to go right into our communities, our villages and small towns in five provinces across our country. They talked to pedestrians, to passengers in taxis, to educators, to school children and their parents.
Through their research they were able to get a comprehensive picture of attitudes towards road safety among our youths. The data was collected, sifted and analysed to the point where we can today discuss the results and consider how it will have an impact on future road safety education and awareness programmes in our country.
Programme director,
The study underlines the value that the collective efforts of government, state-owned companies, our universities and research organisations can bring to society. This is research that is relevant and its findings and recommendations can be applied to bring about better decision-making.
Some fourteen years ago the University of Pretoria took a deliberate decision to set up a dedicated unit to partner with the broader communities of South Africa to support us all to apply the outcomes thereof and to apply it everyday life. This is once again such a collaboration to make our roads safer.
I want to commend SANRAL for the initiative and congratulate the research team for an excellent study. We were able to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to the research – combining the efforts of researchers coming from a wide range of academic background and institutions. One of most positive aspects of the study was the fact that the team could call on the energy and fresh approaches from graduate and post-graduate students who conducted part of the research.
My appreciation goes towards the research coordinators and the field workers who have worked tirelessly to conduct this study and analyse its results. It is encouraging to note how we have been able to bring together some of the best minds in the fields from different universities and different academic disciplines to focus on an issue of national importance and to provide us with comprehensive cross-cutting findings.
This type of cooperation bodes well for our current process to develop a National Road Safety Strategy. If we can mobilise the best thinking from the academic and research communities, our experts in education, sociology, public administration, engineering and law enforcement we can, without a doubt, produce a plan that can address this national priority.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have no doubt that road safety education that starts at an early age should be one of the core focus areas. But, at the same time we must think about this from fresh perspectives. Formal education and training will remain important but we must also broaden our minds and find ways to include road safety messages into the wider curriculum, into mathematics and science, geography and civic education.
At the same time we have to realise that the world view and experiences of our young people are changing all the time. We now live in the era of social media, of free Wi-Fi and of video-on-demand. If our road safety messages are not sufficiently fresh and creative they will get lost in the clutter of competing ideas.
This is the reason why I am so excited by this behavioural study. It gives us a comprehensive picture of where to start today in terms of behavioural change. It tells us what the next generation thinks and how they respond to road safety messages. It provides us with the insights and allows us to develop and design learning content appropriate to the needs of our communities.
The new content discussed today is a direct result of the research done by SANRAL and its continued efforts in supporting the Department of Basic Education. We renew our relationship with this Department on an annual basis and look forward to take the educational material to teachers and learners.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend the opening of SANRAL’s development project in Mpumalanga where the first sod was turned for the new Moloto Road. One of the enduring impressions of my interactions with communities has been the realisation that road safety goes way beyond statistics, graphs and diagrams.
We can quote the facts about traffic crashes and road deaths in South Africa. We can warn about the fact that South Africa has a road death toll of 23.5 per 100 000 of the population, way above the global average. We can celebrate the fact that there has been a turning point and that the latest statistics show a steady reduction in road fatalities over the past few years.
But in the final analysis, it is about people. Every person who dies on our roads belongs to a family; someone’s child, husband or wife; somebody’s friend or colleague; a breadwinner, a talented sportsman or musician, a teacher, an activist, a member of a club or a congregation, a child whose place in the classroom is now empty.
I am convinced that when we look at road safety from this human perspective – in addition to the scientific and academic approaches we apply – we will be able to build on the gains that we are making and achieve victories in the new struggles we are waging in South Africa in 2016.
I thank you!
