As part of the Department of Transport's Road Safety Strategy, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele will officially launch the 2009/10 Arrive Alive Festive Season Road Safety Plan (Operation Safer Festive Season) as well as the Siyabakhumbula/Reya ba Gopola Road Safety Campaign on Sunday, 6 December 2009.
More than 5 000 people from the transport family, including Transport MECs from various provinces, Members of Parliament, Members of Legislatures, senior government officials, leaders of faith-based organisations, representatives from several civil society organisations, road safety ambassadors, accident victims as well as families of those who died in road crashes, are expected to attend.
Details of the event are as follows:
Date: Sunday, 6 December 2009
Time: 10h00
Venue: Chris Hani Sports Complex, Orange Farm, Johannesburg
Minister Ndebele will also visit a multi-disciplinary road block not far from Orange Farm on the day after the above event and media are also invited to accompany the Minister to the road block.
It has been reported that Africa has the most dangerous roads in the world and unless we do something drastic about road crashes by 2020 more people will die on our roads than those killed by HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria combined.
During the December holiday period, traffic volumes on the country's roads increase significantly and Operation Safer Festive Season is aimed at reducing road crashes, fatalities and injuries through inculcating lawful road user behaviour. Traffic Officers will out in full force during the festive season and those who commit any road traffic offence will be apprehended and face the full might of the law.
Operation Safer Festive Season is being launched just days after Minister Ndebele returned from the first Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Moscow on 19 and 20 November 2009, where it was resolved that the years 2010 to 2020 will be declared "A Decade of Road Safety".
Through the Siyabakhumbula/Reya ba Gopola Road Safety Campaign, we want to re-emphasise that road deaths are more than mere statistics; these statistics are actually human beings who were killed, maimed or injured in a road crash. Through this campaign, we want to remember those who lost their lives in road crashes as they are our friends, family, fathers, mothers and children. It is the living who closes the eyes of the dead but it should be the dead who open the eyes of the living.
"Your Safety On The Road Is Our Concern and Your Responsibility".
All media are invited to attend. Please note picture opportunities. For accreditation purposes, journalists attending must confirm their attendance by no later than 16h00 tomorrow, Thursday, 3 December 2009 with:
Sello Tshipi
Cell: 073 498 6722
E-mail: TshipiA@dot.gov.za
Mthuzikazi Mbungwana
Cell: 072 645 1792
E-mail: MbungwaM@dot.gov.za
Enquiries:
Logan Maistry
Cell: 083 6444 050
Issued by: Department of Transport
2 December 2009
Source: Sapa
