North West provincial Road Safety debating team was announced winners of the 2009 national road safety debate after beating Northern Cape in the finals held in Bloemfontein on Thursday afternoon.
All five team members won themselves laptops valued at R7 000, ipods valued at R3 000 and electronic albums after beating defending champions of the national debate Gauteng, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in the opening, semi finals and finals respectively. Yvette Kayingo, a grade 10 learner at Sol Plaatjie High School and a member of the team scooped the award of best speaker in the debate. The best trainer award was won by John Pitjeng, a teacher at Mafikeng High School.
North West MEC for Public Safety, Howard Yawa has hailed the team composed of learners from Mafikeng, Sol Plaatjie and Motswedi High Schools in Ngaka Modiri Molema District as worthy road safety ambassadors who will spread the call for youth to stand up and be counted as ambassadors of a new patriotism and campaigners for road safety.
“Each year, almost 400 000 young people under 25 years old are killed in a road traffic crash - about 1 049 youngsters everyday across the globe. Working together with our youth, we can do more to turn the tide of the carnage on our roads in order to reduce fatalities and injuries that are brought about by non-compliance with rules of the road,” says MEC Yawa.
The objective of the road safety debate aimed at high school learners is to educate learners and communities about road safety through a participatory education approach in order to instil a culture of safe traffic participation and address the underlying problems of road safety.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 381 9171
Cell: 083 629 1987
Fax: 018 381 9164
E-mail: LKgwele@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Public Safety, North West Provincial Government
10 September 2009
