F Mahlalela: Provincial Prayer Day

14 January 2007

Programme Directors
Executive Mayors and councillors
Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders
Leaders from all religious faith groups
Members of the Moral Regeneration Movement
Representatives of the bus and taxi industry
The South African Police Service, Commissioner O A Khumalo
Our road safety ambassadors
Members of the media
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is indeed with honour that we gather here today to mark the end of our
Festive Season Arrive Alive campaign. I am also pleased to note that we end it
in a form of a prayer where we continue to ask the guidance of our almighty God
as we pray for safety on our roads.

Firstly, I wish to congratulate the team from the department for putting
together an excellent programme, a programme that enabled us to come together
and share good ideas on how to eradicate carnage on our roads. The majority of
you may have noticed that we are still learning the ropes as we hope to improve
even further in our next phase of the campaign.

I am saying in the phase because arrive alive has phases but are designed to
cover the whole year with different approaches.

My word of appreciation also goes to our partners, ambassadors, other
departments, municipalities and other role-players for their initiatives, their
participation and dedication to this campaign.

As you are all aware that most of our partners; role-players and
stakeholders; were in their reflective jackets and uniform at most road-blocks
issuing traffic fines, information pamphlets and interacting with the public in
the form of road-shows and at rest stops. Why I say we are learning? I also
took turns to visit our law enforcement officers in order to give them moral
support for their immeasurable contribution in saving the lives of our people.
During these roadblocks one learnt quite a number of things.

May I also extend a word of appreciation to the media for the valuable
contribution you are making towards the success of our programmes especially by
reaching areas that are out of reach through other means and otherwise.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I further take this opportunity to remind all of
us that the main objective of the Arrive Alive (as it is an ongoing activity)
since its inception has been "to reduce the number of fatalities on our roads."
However the achievements shown in our figures reflect that a lot of work
remains to be done if we are to achieve our stated objectives.

In 2003, the Department of Transport released figures to show that drunk
driving caused half of South Africa's accidents. Statistics continually prove
that drunken driving and drunken pedestrians are also an ongoing problem on our
roads. It is a fact that drinking and road usage has received the benefit of
considerable funding and concern in recent years, but the figures are rising at
alarming rates.

We need to find answers to the following questions; are we treating the
symptoms and not the cause when we attempt to keep heavy drinkers off the
roads? What is it that causes so many people to drink so heavily? Should
pedestrians benefit out of the money they sink into drink, would it not be used
more meaningfully?

As at 31 December 2006, generally the figures shown that more pedestrians
were killed compared to the more previous years. Are our strategies working, if
not, how then do we plan to improve the status quo? But what has all these
questions got to do with Arrive Alive.

We have to persuade ourselves that these challenges must, can and will be
solved. We must not succumb to panic and pessimism, as we are often prone to do
in this province. If our challenges are complex, we must learn to come together
in this fashion, analyse them, unpick them, break them down into manageable
parts and solve them together. Our coming together here today is one such great
leap forward.

Still, to this very day, as we look at the fatality figures, what we must
not, at all costs, do is run all the challenges related to safety on our roads
with one big stew and look for scapegoats in order to compensate ourselves
psychologically, for our own failure to become part of the solution. We need
extra muscles built into Arrive Alive in order to meet the long term challenges
of road safety.

I am convinced that these prayers would in the long run produce best
results.

Research

Effective research has repeatedly highlighted the effects of alcohol on the
brain and the Arrive Alive has also taught us very important lessons about
co-ordinating resources, sharing of responsibilities and combining our efforts
in order to make a more meaningful contribution towards our objectives.

Programme directors, let me give two notable examples which are considered
as interesting facts of which every drinker should be aware of.

The first part of the brain to be affected by alcohol is the frontal lobe,
conscience and executive control (including co-ordination) which means drinkers
are less able to control their vehicles or react sufficiently in accidents
situations. This can be seen in their assurance that 'just fine' to drive or
walk home after several drinks.

The cerebellum is the next part of the brain to feel the effects of alcohol,
which controls co-ordination of all types, but especially hand or eye
co-ordination, the drinker slurs his or her speech, suffers memory loss and
double pictures appears to him or herself that there is no more than a warm,
fuzzy or comfortable atmosphere.

After a big night booze, even after blood and breath alcohol levels have
dropped the brain still has not recovered its former capacity to perform normal
than translate into 'still drunk.' Therefore, this means that our reactions and
judgment takes time to return to normal.

Alcohol affects both drivers and pedestrians in a sense that pedestrians are
a real cause of accidents where a motorist cannot avoid a drunkard person,
therefore lives of everyone in a vehicle and other vehicles are also in danger.
It is realistic to suggest that a single drunken pedestrian on the road is
liable for the death of an entire minibus taxi or bus full of passengers.

Frankly, light clothing or bright seldom makes pedestrians visible enough at
night to avoid death and can alert drivers to slow down in order to avert
collision. This analogy tells us that we need to put more efforts in trying to
change the behaviour of our pedestrians.

Education

Ladies and gentlemen, I have also visited our road safety officers during
the road-shows and have since noticed that we need to broaden our strategy of
educating communities about the effect of safety on our roads.

We need to come up with a vibrant campaign throughout the year in order to
reach out to the more vulnerable group of people. Let us move with speed and
strengthen our Cabulela Ekhaya Tournament concept; sell this noble idea to
other areas within the province. Let us visit clinics, churches, schools,
taverns, cultural groups, orphanage homes, pension payments points, old age
homes, taxi and bus ranks and let us do all we can to even reach mothers and
fathers in order to instil good behaviour to all road users.

We must teach individuals to know when they have had enough alcohol, clearly
and in no uncertain terms indicate that it is the culture of drinking that
causes road death and that it can be overcome.

Now that we are marking the end of the festive season Arrive Alive campaign,
we need to take stock of our road shows and without looking for scapegoats,
make proper analysis of whether or not our strategy are anything to go by, take
stock of the impact of our Road Safety Prayers. This we will do in order to
come up with more strategies that would take us to 2014 where we expect to
halve road accidents.

As part of our strategy to educate communities about road safety issues, we
have sought the participation of our road safety ambassadors which we must
strengthen and give moral support in order to have more role models coming to
the fore. This contribution cannot go unnoticed hence we commend the good work
they do.

Legislation

Our legislation makes provision to deal harshly with transgressors but the
question we need to ask ourselves is, to what extent do we enforce the law, to
what extent do we refrain from taking bribes and to what extent are we prepared
to say enough is enough and arrest those found on the other side of the
law?

Smokers have also learned to smoke only in designated areas so why can we
not move towards limiting public consumption of alcohol to safe places such as
homes or hotels and so on. I am convinced that we can limit the amount of
alcohol to be consumed by individuals. I am sure that smokers would agree with
me that it was not easy but they had to comply.

As drinkers enter the system continually we need to make all means available
at our disposal to show them as early as possible that they have entered into a
fray and shall be dealt with severely, should they be found on the other side
of the law.

Statistics at a glance 2005/06

As I indicated in all my speeches that our main objective is to reduce road
deaths and serious injuries and key factors in achieving this objective are
improved road user behaviour and acceptance of engineering and enforcement
initiatives that increase road safety. At the centre of all these, is publicity
and education.

As at 31 December 2006, there was a dramatic increase in the number of
deaths of drivers, passengers and pedestrians respectively. We have
recorded:

Drivers:
2005: 39
2006:46

Passengers:
2005: 39
2006: 40

Pedestrians:
2005: 35
2006: 38

These figures are showing that some battles have been lost but the war is
not over.

Our basic approach should be to mix emotions and facts that raise the
profile of road safety. We must encourage partnerships with a range of media
channels; television, radio, press, posters, ambient and so on in order to
provide for a platform to stimulate complimentary activities and to encourage
private sector companies and churches to cascade messages of their employees
and members.

Our Cabulela Ekhaya tournament is one such good example, where, if used
properly, can get our messages across to a wider audience using the celebrity
approach. Such campaigns raise public awareness that accidents do not just
happen, rather they are caused. Gatherings such as prayer days also help to
influence the attitudes and behaviours that cause accidents.

Throughout the year, our campaigns, though specific, but should not be about
motorists, pedestrians, cyclists or passengers, it must be about people, about
the citizens and about each and all of us. It must be about how we all use our
roads safely, whether we happen to be motoring, walking, cycling or
whatever.

Our road safety education should set out targets in terms of age, group,
child or adult with an aim of instilling good practice at a very early age with
frequent reminders for teenagers and adults. Teach parents to teach their
children. "Each one must teach one." Teaching road safety must be a process.
Parents must always set a good example. Children learn by example and by
joining in, whereas adults learn the hardest way. Let us teach them how to
teach and not just what to teach.

Ladies and gentlemen, this tells us that we must unite as churches,
communities, spheres of government in order to encourage regular dialogue with
stakeholders, road safety officers or agencies and this dialogue can only be
carried out via meetings, electronic communications, publishing calendar of
events, police, private and other voluntary sector supporters.

In this regard, we have also launched our website which we hoped was going
to serve this purpose. These events would bear witness to the fact that we
subscribe to the notion, that, 'road safety is a shared responsibility' and we
can ask the question, 'are you doing your part?'

It is therefore our considered view that each of us who use the roads
carries a clear responsibility for our own safety and that of others. The
wearing of seatbelts and of bright clothes during the night are simple but
clear example of that responsibility.

Seatbelts are proven lifesavers and have been shown to reduce the severity
of injuries in the event of a collision. It is therefore significant that they
are worn front and rear on every journey no matter how long or short.

Programme directors, let me reiterate the point that one of the lessons we
have learnt in recent years regarding road safety is that the best approach is
to adopt a co-ordinated one, involving all those who can contribute to safer
road travel hence our meeting here today.

In fact, as indicated, co-ordinated approaches remains bedrock for our road
safety activities and are best instruments to evaluate and measure our
performance. All our measures and efforts taken together should in the long run
lead to a reduction in the number of people, particularly pedestrians being
killed on our roads.

In conclusion, let me end by indicating that the range of initiatives that
were undertaken which were part of the Arrive Alive campaign was focused and
very impressive. We welcome those initiatives and we urge all of us to
participate meaningfully.

It is an undisputable fact that, at the end of the day, we need the
co-operation of everyone, motorists, and pedestrians, young and old to take
responsibility for their own safety and to make our roads safer.

Thank you

Arrive Alive, Cabulela Ekhaya, Khumbula kutsi Sivuth'Umlilo.
Obey the rules or face the fire

Issued by: Department of Roads and Transport, Mpumalanga Provincial
Government
14 January 2007