Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison MEC Vusi Shongwe has called on learners at this year Provincial School Safety debate competition to assist the government in the fight against crime and general lawlessness on the roads. The finals were held at Cyril Clarke High School in Mbombela on Saturday, 25 August 2012.
Shongwe said the learners need not only debate road safety issues but they must be real Road Safety Ambassadors by sharing with their learners, their parents and the general community about the importance of obeying traffic rules and regulations in order to make roads safer.
“You have a responsibility of taking this debate outside this hall. You must engage with your friends, your colleagues, your families and educate them about road safety,” the MEC said.
He said that the learners must assist the department to declare Mpumalanga a no go area for drunken drivers, speedsters and unroadworthy vehicles.
He added that the ideas presented by debaters should be looked at in order to improve road safety initiatives the department is currently employing.
The learners debated on the role played by novice drivers in road crashes and whether South Africa is on track to reducing fatalities by 50% in 2020 as per the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety.
Mpumalanga will be represented by the following five learners in the National Road Safety Debate that will take place in Cape Town: Lungile Thabethe (Gert Sibande Region), Manqoba Sosibo (Nkangala Region), Charlotte Mashaba, Jessica Lubisi (Ehlanzeni Region) and Tiisetso Mohlala (Bohlabela Region).
The debate is aimed at educating learners about road safety through an interactive and academic approach.
The provincial debates on Road Safety project was initiated in 2004 following the escalating statistics of road fatalities which involved young people aged from 0 to 25 years.The road safety debate is therefore dedicated to young road users who utilise the roads as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, novice drivers and passengers. Debate competitions were first introduced by Mpumalanga province and have scooped national competitions in 2007 and 2010.
Enquiries:
Joseph Mabuza
Cell: 082 678 1450
Tel: 013 766 4055
