Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele has instructed his legal team to lodge an appeal against the suspended five-year prison sentence imposed yesterday, 11 May 2011 by a KwaZulu-Natal magistrate on Ms Nicolette Goss who was found guilty of culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving.
Goss (35), a Sydenham resident and former Pinetown Police reservist, was also sentenced to three years house arrest. She also has to perform 16 hours of community service for each month of the three years and her driving licence was suspended for six months.
In 2006, Goss had been drinking when she hit a concrete block and ploughed into a group of children crossing the road to Charles Hugo Primary School in Randles Road, Sydenham. Thabani Mngadi (12) was killed in the crash and Mhlengi Ngobese and twin, Phumelela and Nomnotho Kweyama (aged 11 at the time) were injured.
“We are of the view that the sentence imposed on Ms Nicolette Goss is not commensurate with her conduct and must be reviewed. For offences such as speeding, the courts have imposed heftier sentences including fines of more than R100 000. We have therefore instructed our legal team to engage the National Prosecuting Authority on this sentence and to also bring the matter to the attention of the Minister of Justice. Drunk driving is a major contributory factor to road crashes and road deaths in South Africa. It is for this reason that the Department of Transport is considering a total ban on alcohol use for drivers. As of this month (May 2011), no less than 10,000 drivers will be screened every month for drinking and driving,” said Minister Ndebele.
Meanwhile, yesterday, Wednesday, 11 May South Africa joined the rest of the world to officially launch the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. The programme kicked off in a rolling launch in major cities around the world with events starting in New Zealand at the beginning of the day, and ending in Mexico. The South African launch was held in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, and was hosted by Minister Ndebele.
During his address Ndebele highlighted the urgent need for global intervention to promote road safety, citing that in South Africa approximately 14,000 people are killed in road crashes every year, 1,000 every month, 250 per week and 40 every day. This, he went on to describe as an epidemic.
To show government’s commitment to the promotion of road safety in South Africa, the Minister drew attention to the results of the on-going National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP), in which, from its inception in October 2010 to the end of April 2011, almost 9 million (8,828,004) vehicles and drivers have been checked, 3.5 million (3,550,768) fines issued for various traffic offences, 13,877 drunk drivers arrested and 34,467 un-roadworthy vehicles discontinued from use.
Other interventions announced by the Minister include the finalisation and implementation of South Africa’s National Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan 2011-2020, in consultation with government, business and civil society. “The strategy will focus on the better utilisation of human and financial resources across spheres of government to address road deaths,” said Ndebele. To achieve this, he said “each province, each district municipality and each local municipality will report every month on the number of road accidents occurring in their area, what the causal factors are and how these are being addressed.”
As part of the Department of Transport’s long-term strategy to improve driver behaviour and competence, Minister Ndebele announced that progress is being made towards ensuring that road safety education forms part of the life skills curriculum at schools. This will ensure that every Grade 11 learner will have a learner’s licence and every 18-year-old a driving licence. “We are working on a programme to encourage youth from disadvantaged communities to obtain their driving licences, by obtaining private-sector sponsorship for the payment of their driving tuition,” said Ndebele. The Transport Department will also be hosting a Driving School Summit this year, to ensure that driving schools are better regulated in order to produce well-educated and trained drivers.
Special focus will also be placed on the physical roads infrastructure at both provincial and local municipality levels. Through the S'hamba Sonke - moving together roads infrastructure upgrade and maintenance programme which was launched in April this year, the Department of Transport is embarking on a new roads upgrade and maintenance initiative to fix and upgrade the entire secondary roads network of South Africa. “In partnership with all provinces, the S'hamba Sonke programme will improve access to schools, clinics and other social and economic opportunities by drastically upgrading the secondary roads network and fixing and repairing potholes throughout the country”, said Ndebele. The Department of Transport has set aside R6.4 billion for this initiative in 2011/12, R7.5 billion in 2012/13 and R8.2 billion for 2013/14, amounting to a total of R22.3 billion in the medium term. The programme is also expected to create around 70 000 jobs in 2011/12.
Minister Ndebele further stated, “Road safety is not what you do to a community; road safety is what you do with a community. Therefore, community-driven road safety through Community Road Safety Councils must become the primary driving force of this Decade of Action. Our yard-stick during this decade is going to be what communities are doing about road safety in their respective areas.”
Minister Ndebele also listed a number of current road safety initiatives that will continue, which include the National Traffic Intervention Unit launched in April 2011, regular departmental meetings with Traffic Chiefs and Licensing Official as well as amendments to the national Road Traffic Act. The department will also host a summit as part of the consultation process ahead of the national roll-out of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act and the Points Demerit System, and will soon announce details on the provision of a more secure, tamper-proof driving licence card.
The Minister pleaded with all South Africans to take personally the fight against road deaths and implored everyone to work together to bring down road deaths in the country. “Alone we might not be strong enough, but we now stand together with the world to declare that road deaths can be stopped,” he said. “It is all in our hands.”
Enquiries:
Logan Maistry
Cell: 083 6444 050
