Government needs to ensure that breaking road laws is a big deal and drivers must worry about it greatly than they do now, KwaZulu-Natal Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Mr Willies Mchunu, said during the official launch of the provincial Easter season road safety campaign recently.
He said that while there is a mass hysteria about violent crime in this country, the single biggest cause of violent death and serious injury in South Africa is road crashes.
“I see that the violation of road laws is still not considered a big deal and people worry more about getting caught speeding or drinking and driving rather than the consequences of committing these crimes.
“I have formed a technical committee to look into various pieces of legislation with a view to allowing the MEC for Transport to revoke the drivers’ licences of the serial law breakers who are responsible for wantonly maiming and murdering our people.
“The revocation process shall run parallel to the judicial one of prosecuting the driver for breaking the traffic rules. This revocation process will help to temporarily, if not permanently, remove the erratic drivers from our roads quickly while the wheel of justice grinds towards a conviction. We do not want to wait for the judicial process while the offender continues with his wayward behaviour on the road,” said Mchunu.
The launch also featured Siyabakhumbula, a programme that the department uses as an intense communication strategy designed to heighten public awareness concerning the non-accidental nature of most road collisions and their associated costs.
This campaign focuses on remembering those who died on our roads. The campaign looks beyond statistics on our road carnage to the human face of those who have to deal with the trauma both at the site of collisions and in the families left behind.
“The fact that we work as government and diverse religious faiths is a confirmation of our belief that our efforts as government are worthless if they exclude religion, the very centre and core of the lives of more than 65% of the people of this country.
“I want to thank all clergy from various religious faiths for giving their full support to the Road Safety Awareness Campaigns we are conducting. I request that we use our churches, mosques, temples and every other place of worship to preach to our fellow worshipers about the observance of road rules,” concluded Mchunu.
Issued by: Department of Transport, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
31 March 2010
Source: Department of Transport, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government (http://www.kzntransport.gov.za/)
