Programme Director
MEC Penny Majodina
Councilors and Mayors
Reverend Themba Vundla
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
From 1 December to 31 December 2009, ten road crashes claimed 38 lives here in the Ngcobo area. Again from 1 January to date, road crashes have claimed 11 lives in the area. Globally, road traffic accidents are an increasing concern, claiming our people in the prime of their lives in every corner of the world.
We are gathered to pay tribute to those who perished on our roads. Today we say these deaths were unnecessary because they could have been avoided. Today we say we must open a new chapter in the way we deal with the scourge of accidents in our country. Road deaths can be stopped!
We have no doubt that accidents can be stopped. We have just emerged from one of the most successful events in the history of our country.
On Monday FIFA President Sepp Blatter delivered his glowing final assessment on the 2010 World Cup complimenting Africa for squashing doubts about its ability to host the tournament. We scored nine out of 10 for the organisation of the 2010 World Cup!
According to FIFA, a total of 3.1 million spectators attended the 64 matches of the 2010 tournament. This is the third highest aggregate attendance behind the United States in 1994 and Germany in 2006. Add to this the millions of people who travelled to the fan fests, public viewing areas and other entertainment centres to watch the matches.
Millions of fans criss-crossed a country three times the size of Germany, with the majority of them using public transport, mainly trains, planes, buses and taxis. We moved about 1.5 million by train, 100 000 by taxis and 12000 by bus. Many more used our transport networks including airlines and roads to get to the stadiums. The total number of aircraft handled during the World Cup period between 1 June and 12 July was 58 045 at the three main international airports, O R Tambo (35 964), Cape Town (14 600) and King Shaka (7 481) .We have delivered!
Here is the remarkable thing about this period of such great activity in our country; there were no major accidents during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Except for the start of the tournament, we just had no reports of any major snarl ups match days around stadiums, fans parks and public viewing areas! Something very, very significant happened during these 31 days and we must build on it. We behaved!
Public transport formed the backbone of transport plans for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Government invested billions of rand to ensure a safe, efficient and reliable public transportation system for the World Cup. This investment included customer-focused and world class airports, upgraded train stations and refurbished coaches to luxury buses and integrated rapid public transport networks such as the bus rapid transit system.
We have spoken at length about the infrastructure legacy of the World Cup and its significance as an enabler for the economic growth of our country. We now must add an important aspect to that legacy - decreasing road accidents and deaths over the next 4 to 5 years
In this regard Programme Director, we take this opportunity to pay our respects to Ms Akhona Felicity Geveza who passed away on 24 June whilst serving on a United Kingdom registered vessel that was sailing in Croatian waters. Ms Geveza will be laid to rest on Saturday, 17 July 2010, at her home in Nxarhuni here in the Eastern Cape. May her soul rest in peace!
Returning to our topic today, globally, road safety has become an international concern. As the Department of Transport and government we have joined the global movement to address road-related deaths in Africa. In the world, some 3400 men, women and children are killed every single day on the road and between 20 and 50 million people sustain non–fatal crashes. The latest global status report on road safety in 17 countries shows that road traffic injuries remain a public health concern, particularly for low-income countries.
In July 2009, ministers and other high level government officials and road safety activists from across Africa pledged support for a United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety on the continent and around the world. In the new make roads safe report issued to delegates at the conference, delegates were warned that road injuries could become another killer epidemic on the scale of HIV and AIDS.
The problem with road traffic accidents is that they do not have warning signs like HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Road Accidents occur in the blink of an eye. In a couple of minutes a speeding vehicle might overturn and in the process people are killed. In most of our communities, it is the poorest children who have to negotiate very dangerous routes to schools and clinics. Governments and donor communities must step up to meet this challenge and to commit to a decade of action for road safety.
The most recent Make Roads Safe Campaign revealed a critical situation of Africa’s roads in that:
- Africa has the highest road death rate per population in the world – 32.2 people per 100 000 population are killed in road crashes
- Africa’s road deaths, currently over 200 000 a year, are predicted to rise by at least 80 percent by 2020
- Road crashes are estimated to cost African countries between 1 to 3 percent of their Gross National Product (GNP).
- By 2015, road crashes will become the number one killer of children aged 5 to 14 in Africa outstripping Malaria and HIV and AIDS
The Global Status Report on Road Safety in Africa indicates that 62 percent of the reported road crashes involve vulnerable road users, pedestrians, cyclists and those using motorised two and three-wheelers. In South Africa vehicle crashes cost the economy more than R50 billion per annum. This is a very costly epidemic! We cannot afford it!
Measures to address road carnage
The call for international dialogue was endorsed in February 2007, by ministers from Africa responsible for transport and health. This was reaffirmed through the declaration by African Ministers of Transport and Infrastructure in Addis Ababa in April 2005. At this session, African Ministers recalled the United Nations resolution which endorsed the world report on road traffic injury prevention.
The ministers also recalled the UN resolution which recognises the need for continuous awareness rising. They called upon the G8 Summit, held in Germany in June 2007, to recognise the urgent need to improve road safety in Africa particularly in Sub- Saharan Africa. At the first ever global United Nations Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Moscow last year November ministers debated how to develop road safety national plans and how to implement over a decade, a safe roads programme globally.
The road safety strategy
Our Road Safety Strategy and the Public Transport Strategy are our pillars to implement actions that turn the tide in reducing road crashes. Four fundamentals dictate the requirements of a South African safety strategy: These are:
- The Millennium Development Goals for the transport sector
- The contribution that traffic management can make to the achievement of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) goals
- The provision of enabling environment to pursue road safety and
- The need for reduction in unnatural causes of death.
The targets set by the African Transport Ministers in the MDG document includes among other issues, halving of road fatalities by 2014. The number of deaths and injuries that take place in developing countries due to traffic crashes is recognised by the World Bank as a priority health issue. South Africa is unfortunately part of this international trend.
To improve this situation in South Africa, we need recognised safety measures that must be implemented and should include:
- Enforcement – heavy, visible and identification and prosecution of repeat offenders
- Education and communication – emotive advertisements, showing consequences of unsafe behaviour and dealing with a single common offence at any one time
- Engineering – low cost engineering at hazardous locations have the highest possible impact, a substantial amount of which must be aimed at protection of pedestrians
- Evaluation – research to ensure a data driven, scientifically based strategy
- Tight stakeholder management between all role-players and involvement of business, industry and civil society
- Community Road Safety Councils – these will identify local road safety education issues and bring them to the attention of the relevant bodies and authorities
- AARTO – we will promote the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences through the Road Safety Councils
- 1000 road blocks – we will have 1000 road blocks per day for every three months
- Vehicle testing – we will implement periodic vehicle testing to ensure the roadworthiness of our vehicles.
Measures taken in the Eastern Cape
The R61 is a gateway that connects the former Transkei region, where people migrated to other provinces for job opportunities. Drivers and public transport owners do not exercise caution as they normally leave one driver to drive more than 17 hours alone from Cape Town or Johannesburg. The duty to make sure that drivers alternate and take turns to rest is on public transport owners.
The figures released by the Eastern Cape 2010 FIFA World Cup task team on law enforcement are a clear revelation that extra ordinary traffic operations must be done in all our provinces. Among others the task team had the following commendable achievements:
- Arresting of more than 5 000 people for drunk driving
- Issuing of 46 828 summonses
- Suspension of 2 286 vehicles, including public transport vehicles
- Confiscation of 220 misused government vehicles.
These figures are a clear indication that provincial MECs of Transport and the traffic law enforcement officers should be on top of their provinces 24 hours a day. It has become a trend that after 18h00, you do not see any traffic officers patrolling the roads and many motorists take advantage of that to transgress the law. It is important that our roads are patrolled most hours of the day so that we leave very little room for traffic offenders.
The 2010 road traffic management corporation plan
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is implementing a national road traffic management plan for 2010. The plan includes: Integrated operational plans in conjunction with SAPS and provinces. We have a focused action plan for cross border, load management and roadworthiness of public transport vehicles and the establishment of a national traffic call centre. The Department of Transport has identified the implementation of the road safety strategy, which aims to prioritise law enforcement in public transport, with the Road Traffic Management Corporation at the core of that initiative, focusing on roadworthiness of vehicles amongst others.
Ladies and gentlemen, having all factors on road safety into context, road safety, rural roads, and public transport are closely related to road safety. Moving forward, I would like to encourage more ownership of road safety efforts at community, provincial and local levels. As Government, we will continue to monitor and punish perpetrators’ of law enforcement. We want to see our roads being used safely and efficiently to augment the huge investments that we have injected in transport infrastructure.
I thank you
