Program Director
The Deputy Minister of Transport, Mrs Sindisiwe Chikunga
All MECs of Transport present
CEOs of State-Owned Entities and Agencies
Heads of Departments of Transport
Industry players in the transport sector
Officials from all spheres of government
Road safety activists
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
I must confess that making the closing remarks to what has been a successful and enlightening two-day summit feels rewarding. I think that we had some very worthy and stimulating discussions that were made possible by your robust participation in commissions.
The reports by the seven commissions point to the commitment and intellect that you, as Road Safety Activitists, have demonstrated towards holistically achieving the objectives of this 2nd National Road Safety Summit.
This National Road Safety Summit puts us in a positive trajectory towards advancing South Africa’s democratic and sustainable development agenda by enhancing active cooperation and progressive deliberations between the ruling government and citizens.
However, without dampening our excitement, please allow me to emphasise that, despite the successes of this important summit, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels because there is still plenty of work that needs to be done before we can achieve our overall objective of reducing severe and fatal road crashes.
Let me warn you in advance, we are not going to have another summit next year unless all resolutions taken at this conference are implemented. Those given the responsibility to implement the resolutions but fail to do so will be held accountable.
Ladies and gentlemen, As we sitting here yesterday, there was a tragic bus crash that took place in Warden, in the Free State province, where two children between the ages of two and four were killed and others hospitalised, I want to say that we need to speed up and intensify our efforts in our fight against road carnages. The purpose of this Summit is precisely to find real and lasting solutions to the carnage we see on our roads.
We are shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic occurrence. It is deeply saddening and most unfortunate that this tragedy has struck us in the midst of our dialogue and on the eve of World Remembrance Day tomorrow.
Our heartfelt condolences go to the families and friends of the deceased and injured children. We wish those that are injured a speedy recovery as law enforcement agencies dig to the bottom of the occurrence. I, again, want to urge you all to remember that, together, motorists, passengers and pedestrians; we can put a stop to this. If we all work together and obey all the rules of the road, without exception – we can stop this carnage on our roads. We all need to be extremely vigilant and cautious at all times on the road.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In our quest for collaborative solutions, yesterday we tasked seven area focussed commissions to brainstorm and propose lasting solutions to challenges posed by their respective group themes.
You will have duly noted that the commissions were outlined as follows: Commission 1: Road Safety Management Commission 2: Safer Roads and Mobility Commission 3: Safer Vehicles Commission 4: Safer Road users Commission 5: Post-crash care & Response Commission 6: Regulation & legislation Commission 7: Youth and Road Safety As we all got the enriching opportunity to carefully observe, all seven commissions reported back to us on their solutions and findings made during the course of the summit.
I must say that you have all excelled and taken to your respective tasks very well.
Your critical inputs have the potential to catapult the country closer to realising the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action on Road Safety goals. Furthermore, these contributions will serve to help modify the National Road Safety Strategy 2014-2019 to its optimal form. I, therefore, want to congratulate all team members for their hard-work and commitment to the cause. I have underlined the context and purpose of our engagement over the past two days but the question is what's next? I think it should be our reflection now - what's next?
We talked a lot, we discussed a lot and we also recommended a lot of things numbering numerous concrete suggestions.
To answer this, having drawn lessons from the 1st National Road Safety Summit, it is imperative to develop an updated and aggregated Action Plan capturing and incorporating the inroads and viable proposals made at the 2nd Summit. And format all the action points in an Action Plan, which will be implemented as part of the Annual Performance Plans of the relevant organisations to avoid non-implementation of resolutions. Hold implementers to task and have timeframes in the quarterly APPs of those concerned and monitor developments per quarter.
Furthermore, the implementation of the resolutions will form the integral part of the Performance agreements of both the Director General and the DDG responsible for Roads at the National Department of Transport. As a flagship project, it will prove imperative to establish a formal youth structure that will be active in Road Safety. As such, there will be a youth Commission for the first time to formally take up and carry on with all the issues that were raised in consultation with the PYA structures at my office just before October Transport Month (with entities).
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to especially express my appreciation to the presenters. I think the quality of the presentations and the papers for this summit are quite high as expected from the role players in the economic backbone of our country – the transport sector. Moreover, I want to thank the event organisers for putting together a well-planned and smoothly facilitated programme, the Deputy Minister of Transport and MECs who took time from their busy schedules in order to be with us on this momentous occasion.
Special thanks go to every single person who contributed towards making this event the success that it deserves to be given the scale and implications of our dialogue. I hope to see you all again tomorrow at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Khayelitsha where we will be commemorating World Rememberance Day.
On this annual and internationally recognised day, we spare our thoughts for those who have suffered injuries and fatalities on roads as well as extend our solidarity and empathies to the victims’ survivors. In concluding, kindly allow me to borrow from Hellen Keller who said “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”.
Therefore, colleagues, I believe we can all collectively take pride in how our sector is performing as we are indeed achieving plenty through our collective efforts.
I think we deserve a round of applause.
I thank you.
