Programme director
MEC North West province: Howard Yawa
Acting Mayor: Tlokwe Municipality: Inna StoltzMembers of the Tlokwe Mayoral Committee
Road Accident Fund (RAF) CE Mr Jacob Modise
Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) Acting CE Collins Letsoalo
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
We stand here today to launch the Festive Season Road Safety Campaign for 2010. This year’s campaign comes under the auspices of the “Make Roads Safe Campaign”, driven by the United Nations. The Make Roads Safe Campaign will also kick-start the “Decade of Activism for Road Safety”, whose major aim is to cut road deaths in the world drastically between 2011 and 2020.
In addition, Sunday is World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. It was started by RoadPeace in 1993. Since then it has been observed and promoted worldwide. On 26 October 2005, the United Nations endorsed this campaign as a global day to be observed every third Sunday in November each year, making it a major advocacy day for road traffic injury prevention.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration encourage governments and non governmental organisations (NGOs) around the world to commemorate this day. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has this to say in a statement for this year’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and I quote:
“We mourn the estimated 1.3 million people who lose their lives on the world’s streets and highways each year, and we renew our resolve to prevent further deaths. Many tragedies can be avoided through a set of proven, simple measures that benefit not only individuals and families but society at large. Earlier this year, the UN General Assembly declared the first-ever ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety,’ providing an opportunity for global action.
I call on Member States, international agencies, civil society organisations, businesses and community leaders to ensure that the Decade leads to real improvements. As a step in this direction, governments should release their national plans for the Decade when it is launched globally on 11 May 2011”.
The UN Secretary General said the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration would soon release its global plan for the decade, which calls for measures to make roads and vehicles safer, improve the behaviour of drivers and pedestrians, and enhance emergency services. The UN Secretary General has also issued a directive to all United Nations staff instructing drivers of UN vehicles to practice road safety, including by wearing seatbelts, obeying speed limits and avoiding the use of mobile phones and other distractions.
South Africa has experienced a very high rate of road crashes and fatalities averaged at over 16 000 deaths every year. Approximately 1.3 million people die each year on the world’s roads and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries.
The latest global report on road safety in 178 countries shows that road traffic injuries remain an important public health concern, especially for low-income and middle countries. Road deaths are now the leading global cause of deaths for children and young people aged 10 to 24. In addition, road deaths cost the countries billions of dollars, money that could instead be spent on education, health and poverty eradication. Standing up against road deaths means we must respond to this epidemic which kills on the scale of malaria and will soon overtake it.
In March 2010, the United Nations General Assembly resolution proclaimed a Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 to 2020. Its goal is to stabilise and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world by increasing activities conducted at national, regional and global levels. The resolution calls upon Member States to implement road safety activities, particularly in the areas of road safety management, road infrastructure, vehicles safety and road user behaviour including the road safety education and post-crash care.
National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP) and recent demonstrations against Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO)
In this regard, on 10 September 2010, we announced the new National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP). The NREP is our response to the carnage we see on our roads every day. It is a call to action for all of us. From 1 to 31 October 2010, 1 053 million vehicles and drivers were stopped and checked and thousands of fines issued for various traffic offences.
This marked the start of a major law enforcement drive in South Africa. It reflects our commitment to reducing road carnage by half in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In due course, we will announce the date for implementation the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO). AARTO seeks to change driver behavior with a view to cutting down road deaths drastically because behavior is a huge cause of road accidents.
Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO)
AARTO introduces 12 chances for self-correction by drivers. Under the current Road Traffic Act, that chance does not exist. Together with the nine Transport MECs, we currently have on our desks thousands of appeals for leniency by drivers who have broken the law.
Currently once your driving licence is endorsed, appeal to the MEC and Minister is the only avenue available. AARTO introduces an improved regime. A bad driver is afforded a window to become a good driver. This happens over time. This happens not after just one infringement, as currently is the case, but after 12. AARTO makes the distinction between a traffic infringement and a traffic offence. AARTO deals with traffic offences administratively. At any stage, the offender may choose not to subject themselves to AARTO, but to normal criminal procedure.
So, far from taking the drivers’ rights away, they are afforded a range of alternatives to settle a traffic infringement or offence. AARTO was passed more than 10 years ago; so it is by no means new legislation. It was to be introduced from 1 October 2010, simultaneously with the NREP. As Minister I have decided to suspend the introduction of the demerit system in AARTO till further notice. We were therefore baffled as to the exact cause of the current protests. We welcome engagement on this issue.
However, protests that hamper the free movement of people and leave commuters stranded show utter disrespect for our people. We will continue engaging with all stakeholders, including unions, business and commuters.
As part of this on-going engagement, at a meeting with the department and Satawu last Thursday, 11 November 2010, we agreed that a five-a-side team will take our engagement forward. We therefore must applaud the stand taken by the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) members not to join the protest on Tuesday. It demonstrates that we are in an equal partnership with the taxi industry that is built on trust, respect and belief in the correctness of dialogue and discussion as a means to reach common agreement.
The truth remains: we are losing our best people to accidents. Many more are maimed because of the way we drive. We however have hope. A few months ago, we rewarded outstanding truck drivers in South Africa at the National Driver of the Year Competition. Some of them have been driving for 30 years, 25 years, 15 and 10 years without a single traffic violation.
The good drivers who do not break laws are plentiful in our society. Bad drivers are a tiny but deadly minority. We therefore call for partnerships with organised labour, business, the religious community and civil society to end this scourge.
It is our children, our brothers and sisters; our sole breadwinners who are losing life and limb. The carnage on our roads must stop.
December 2010 to January 2011 operation
During the December-January period, we will focus on driver and vehicle fitness and moving violations. We expect high volumes of traffic along key arterial routes such as the N3 to Durban N1 to Limpopo, the N4 to Witbank and Mpumalanga and the high movement of traffic in various urban and rural locations. Traffic enforcement will be visible, proactive and effective.
This festive campaign is aimed at:
- driver and vehicle fitness
- tyres, brakes, lights and shock absorbers and
- use of seatbelts, both front and rear will be rigorously enforced.
Drivers are urged to ensure all passengers in their vehicles are buckled up. Traffic Officers will also be on the lookout for drunk pedestrians, pedestrians on freeways and pedestrian jay-walking.
Focus on drunk driving, speeding
We must stress that absolutely no mercy will be shown to drunk motorists. Since the World Cup, an average of 2000 motorists have been arrested monthly, nation-wide for driving under the influence. These random operations will continue on various routes and at various times until such time that every driver knows that drinking and driving is just not worth the risk. Alcohol enforcement operations have gathered momentum after the establishment of Dragar Centres in the main centres of our country. We will also use the “draw-blood” method to secure prosecutions.
To those motorists not displaying registration plates, deliberately obscuring plates and displaying fraudulent plates, they will be treated as suspect and dealt with accordingly. Number plate recognition devices will be used to detect errant vehicles. Overloaded and unroadworthy public transport vehicles will be removed from the roads and drivers fined heavily.
In addition, there will be zero tolerance for drivers who continue to travel at excessive speeds with impunity. In some authorities, mobile violations recorders will be used to detect moving violations while others will use “Distance over Time” technology to determine average speeds. Through the NREP, we have a unified, consistent and harmonised approach to traffic law enforcement which will make an impact on offences and crashes.
NREP since 1 October 2010
Underscoring the NREP is the target to stop and check a minimum of I million vehicles and drivers nationwide every month. The principles of interpersonal, active stopping and checking a minimum of 15 vehicles per officer per eight hour shift will be enforced by all participating authorities.
Additional support of the South African Police (SAPS) and other relevant stakeholders such as justice, defence, education and health will be secured at various tiers in order to realise our objectives. Through personnel from these departments, efforts will be made to undertake enforcement operations along critical days, times and routes to have the greatest impact on offences and accidents. At all times traffic personnel will act in a professional and ethical manner ensuring that motorists’ support for road safety is secured.
Special blitzes, announced and unannounced, will be conducted nation-wide by various traffic authorities to ensure that habitual and reckless drivers who have no respect for road safety are dealt with severely. Special inter-provincial corridor enforcement operations will take place on the:
- N1 (Joburg – Cape Town)
- N1 (Joburg – Polokwane)
- N4 (Pretoria- Nelspruit and Pretoria – Mahikeng/Mafikeng )
- N3 (Joburg – Durban)
- N2 (Cape Town – Umthatha)
- Regional corridors such as the K573 Moloto Road in Mpumalanga and
- The R80 Soshanguve in Gauteng as well as other routes that are considered hazardous will also be covered extensively.
We have curtailed leave days for uniformed officers and all senior officers have been instructed to be out on the roads during peak traffic flow periods to assist with monitoring and supervision. Added to this, management will make a concerted effort to supervise effectively. When and where possible, RTMC Senior Managers and Traffic College Staff members will also monitor and provide guidance to officers on the road.
Decade of action – “make roads safe campaign”
Today we continue with our steadfast commitment to end death on our roads.
This is a battle for the entire nation, the whole continent and the world. This war is to end the trauma and death caused by road accidents. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Department of Transport through the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is instituting further tough measures aimed at reducing traffic accidents.
They include the following:
- the make Road Safe Campaign
- rest Stops which will be staged on selected notorious routes during this festive season
- a call to motorists to sign the Make Roads Safe petition at those Rest Stops.
Since the campaign was launched we have secured more than 500 000 signatures of South Africans who pledged to Make Roads Safe. We are targeting one million signatures and urge all of us to sign the petition to Make Roads Safe.
You are all being urged to get involved and sign on the board or visit the Make Roads Safe Face book hosted by the RTMC and backed by SABC News.
- Wear your seatbelt
- Do not drink and drive
- Adhere to the prescribed speed limits
- Fatigue is a silent killer so for every stretch of 200km drive, pull aside and rest or stretch
- Avoid moving violations
- Pedestrians and cyclists should wear bright clothes at all times when using the roads.
SABC Radio News will be giving a countdown during this festive season of how many signatories we still have to go.
We can’t go on pretending day by day that someone someday will come and make a change, road safety is our absolute responsibility and it can only be through us that we transform to a good image on our road traffic horrors.
In conclusion, the Department of Transport and the RTMC require all the necessary support from all road users on our immense task of curbing deaths on South Africa’s roads and to actively promote all road safety campaigns. We are therefore pleased that we are receiving growing support from all sectors of South African society.
South Africa’s Retail Motor Industry organisation (RMI) has initiated a road safety check campaign aimed at ensuring that vehicles are roadworthy for journeys undertaken over the Christmas holiday period. The RMI has obtained a commitment from a selection of the country’s private and municipal vehicle testing stations to provide their resources for free to conduct vehicle safety checks between 22 November and 4 December.
In a similar campaign held prior to this year’s Easter holiday period – 78% of vehicles tested for safety critical defects were found to require repairs. “With the festive season being synonymous with a high rate of road deaths and injuries, the RMI urges all motorists to take their vehicles to participating testing stations to have them checked for safety. The purpose is to ensure that vehicles are in a roadworthy condition, especially with regard to safety critical items that could make the difference between life and death,” said the RMI’s CEO, Jeff Osborne.
For the festive season campaign, the RMI affiliated National Vehicle Testing Association (NVTA) has joined forces with the Department of Transport and Arrive Alive to launch the initiative as part of the country’s Make Roads Safe campaign.
Participating testing stations will check for free the following:
- all lights including indicators
- seat belts
- windscreen wipers
- front and rear tyres
- brakes front and rear, including the parking brake
- steering mechanisms including control arms, steering boxes and tie rod ends
- front and rear suspension
- exhaust system
- wheel alignment.
For details of participating testing stations contact the RMI’s regional offices at:
- Johannesburg: 011 789 2542
- Pretoria: 012 348 9311
- Port Elizabeth: 041 364 0070
- Cape Town: 021 939 9440
- Durban: 031 266 7031
- Bloemfontein: 051 430 3294
Furthermore, we are pleased that our campaign is also receiving support from the taxi industry. SANTACO has announced the start of Operation Hlokomela/Operation Qaphela, in which the industry will help police their drivers and operators to ensure they adhere to the rules of the road. All of us want to end this carnage. All of us must end this carnage. It is now or never.
Thank you.
