Programme director
Representative from the Capricorn Executive Mayor’s office, Cllr Manamela
Councillors and Managers of Municipalities
Traditional leaders
Traditional healers
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Transport and other members of the legislature
Head of Department of Roads and Transport and his executive management team
Members of the South African Police Service (SAPS)
Representatives of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC)
Representatives of the Road Accident Fund
Stakeholders in the transport sector
Representatives from the SABC
Members of the media
Protocol observed
Today marks the beginning of an exciting, yet delicate period on our roads and in our province as we officially launch the 2010 Festive Season Arrive - Alive campaign. It is important to highlight that, the launch of this programme today, also marks that time of the year when our people from all walks of life, would be travelling to various destinations to celebrate the festivities of this month with their loved ones, after taking long and deserved breaks from work.
From past experiences, we have learnt that, this is also the month in which there is a high increase in the number of road carnages compared to any other period of the year. It is during period like this when most people get so excited that they disobey the rules of the road leading to deaths and injuries which are caused by preventable road accidents.
When the African ministers of transport met at the African Union Conference in 2006, they committed themselves to delivering the Millennium Development Goals for the transport sector in Africa by 2014. One of the targets adopted was to reduce by half, the rate of accidents fatalities arising from road and other transport by 2014.
Another conference on African Road Safety was held in 2007 in Accra, Ghana and its main objectives were among others to: Advance the development of national action plans for road safety for countries in the region. Identify ways of mobilising resources to rapidly improve road safety. Among the recommendations agreed upon at the conference were the commitment to educating the general public on road safety measure taking into consideration special categories such as drivers and school children.
We are proud to announce that as the province we have just hosted the school road safety debate as well as the Participatory Education Techniques, where scholars in the highest grades participated. They were outstanding and one’s heart melts with joy to realise that the young among our communities know and understand the importance of road safety.
Our department has developed a festive plan with the slogan: “Operation Dumbu” which means “thunder”. This operation denotes that during this festive season all road users are going to see thunders as traffic officers will be all over the province, where road safety law offenders will feel the wrath of traffic officers in every portion of the province.
As we begin with our Christmas and New Year festivities, I call on every pedestrian and motorist on the road to be considerate towards other road users by taking to heart the government’s message of Arrive Alive in the interest of saving lives. I further call upon every motorist and pedestrian in every corner of the province, to exercise maximum restrain and caution on our roads to avoid the increase in fatalities, which are increasingly overburdening our health system and costing the economy millions of rands as well as robbing our country of the required skills that those who die in accidents take to their graves.
Program Director, allow me to indicate that on the 18 November 2010 the National Minister of Transport Honourable J S Ndebele, launched the Festive Season Road Safety campaign and unveiled the theme for this year’s campaign which comes under the auspices of the “Make Roads Safe campaign” driven by the United Nations. This 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.
The “Decade of Action for Road Safety” further aims to stabilise and then reduce the level of road traffic fatalities around the world by increasing activities conducted at regional, national and global levels. This calls upon us as a province to implement road safety activities, particularly in the areas of road safety management, road infrastructure, vehicle safety and road user behaviour including the road safety education.
The carnage on our roads is disturbing. In December 2009, 127 fatal crashes were recorded where 166 people died and in December 2008, 121 fatal crashes were recorded where 174 people died. It is worth noting that there was an increase of 6 fatal accidents and a reduction of eight people who died during that period. Most crashes happened between 18h00 and 06h00. The main contributory factors included the following:
- Speeding
- Unsafe overtaking
- Unroadworthy vehicles
- Drunk driving and drunk pedestrians
- Driver fatigue
- Stray animals
The reduction in fatal accidents and fatalities were registered in Waterberg District, then Sekhukhune followed by Mopani. The districts that showed an increase in fatal crashes are Vhembe and Capricorn.
Comparison on serious injuries in December 2008 and 2009 reflect a registered reduction of 86 serious injuries. Furthermore there is a serious concern about pedestrians who die on our roads since there was an increase from 38 to 49 and for drivers there is was a reduction from 78 to 70. Passengers who died on our roads also reflect a reduction from 58 to 47. But I must emphasise at this point that the reduction of these fatalities does not imply that we are doing well in the reduction of fatalities because “one life lost is a life too many”.
Programme Director
To ensure that our roads become user friendly this festive season and beyond, the department has spending R363 Million on preventative maintenance projects and Roads Agency Limpopo has been allocated a budget of over R700 Million to improve the state of our roads especially from gravel to tar as only 30% of our network is tarred. Indeed we have a huge backlog hence our accelerated programme to deliver 9 major roads projects in the following areas:
1. The route between Polokwane to Matlala to Tibane to Scaffhausen at a cost of R48 Million;
2. The road between Tshisaulu to Phiphidi at a cost of R121 Million
3. The route between Lebowakgomo to Middelkop to Dithabaneng to Tooseng to Marulaneng (D4045) at a cost of R76 Million;
4.The road from Rita – Tikkieline – Burgersdorp – Julesburg – Callaise - Balloon to Sekororo at a cost of R98 Million;
5. The route between Ga-Matlala and Ga-Mmela to Tsimanyane to Kromdraai at a cost of R64 Million;
6. The road between Tshituni to Musekwa at a cost of R83 Million;
7. The route to Maredi and Senyatho at a cost of R47 Million.
8. The road from Mmahlogo to Sepharane to Bakenburg at a cost of R87 Million;
9. The R33 from Marble Hall to Modimolle to Mabatlane at a cost of R175 Million. This is an important corridor linking with Lephalale and the crucial Medupi project.
Programme director
I am proud to announce that the long awaited construction of Lutanandwa Bridge will be opened next week, so that motorists and road users in general can enjoy a smooth and safe ride, especially those visiting Vhembe district. The bridge is situated across the Lutanandwa River on the road P98/1 from Louis Trichardt to Thohoyandou in the Vhembe district. Already an amount of over R29 Million has been spent to reconstruct the bridge.
Programme director
It is evident that our road fatalities have increased to an alarming degree with a substantial percentage of pedestrians, passengers and drivers. These fatalities involve a high number of teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 to 30.This age group is also one that is most vulnerable to HIV and AIDS, which is a cause for concern from the economic point of view. It is beyond doubt that the country is losing the best people to accidents caused by bad drivers who are fewer than good drivers who do not break laws.
In South Africa, more than 13 000 lives are lost on the roads every year and the cost to the economy is estimated at around R43 billion per annum, which we can ill afford as a country which is still faced with a huge legacy of underdevelopment, high rate of poverty and unemployment.
As we launch Arrive Alive campaign today, our aim is to unveil a comprehensive plan which will ensure that we respond to challenges which attribute to the increase of road crashes and fatalities in our roads. The plan is executed in partnership with SAPS, Health, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), district disaster management and local municipality’s traffic law enforcement.
Programme director
Our province is going to experience a high volume of traffic along arterial routes leading to neighbouring countries, migrant labourers returning home as well as members of the Zion Christian Church who will be attending the Christmas pilgrimage. The high volume of traffic in our province during the festive season will pose challenges which will include:
- Drunken driving and over speeding
- Reckless and negligent driving
- Breakdown of trailers along the N1
- Pedestrian jaywalking
- Overloading of public passenger transport
- Heavy passenger vehicles which lead to congestion and delays at toll plazas and border gates.
However, we have drawn the battle lines and rallied the troops as our men and women in Khaki uniform will be equal to the task, ensuring that they will go all out so that everyone is safe on the roads. We are aware of that small, but dangerous number of motorists who are reckless on our roads, to them we say your time is numbered, and the possibilities are they may have not so enjoyable Christmas.
Programme director
On 10 September 2010, the National Minister of Transport announced the new National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP) which is a response to the carnage we see on our roads every day. The NREP mandates the law enforcement officers countrywide to stop and check one million vehicles per month. The mandate was carried for the month of October 2010 as the Minister of Transport announced that from 1 to 31 October 2010, 1 053 million vehicles and drivers were stopped and checked and thousands of fines for various traffic offences were issued.
The objectives of NREP are the following:
- Reduce accident fatalities and serious injuries
- Create a heightened awareness of road traffic safety issues
- Inculcate good road user behaviour and encourage voluntary compliance
- Increase detection and prosecution of critical road traffic offences and
- Reduce offences rates on all key safety indices.
During the October Transport Month we exceeded our target of 60 000 by stopping 75475, and going forward we will continue to make our due contribution because the safety of our people cannot be compromised.
Programme director
During the December - January period our festive season plan has incorporated top five roadblocks as per Minister’s priority aiming at:
- Driver and vehicle fitness
- Use of seatbelts, both front and rear and
- Driver behaviour
Programme director
I want to urge drivers to ensure that all passengers in their vehicles are buckled up because this will be rigorously enforced.
For this festive season the department has crafted an Arrive Alive plan that will ensure that we reduce the number of road crashes and fatalities in our province. The main objective of the plan is to reduce fatal accidents by seven percent this festive season, compared to the same period last year. This will save human lives and accident costs.
The statistics as echoed by the Minister of Transport rated the Limpopo province as number 5 in terms of speeding. To redress this anomaly the department is going to enhance the operations of Moving Violation Recorder (MVR).The system has been installed in 8 traffic vehicles. This system will be able to detect over speeding while the vehicle is in motion and the officers will then chase the over speeding motorist .Be rest assured, there will be no time for motorists to bribe our traffic officers as the system will be able to video clip all action taking place.
I want to inform all motorists that speed operations will be deployed throughout the province and there will be no mercy to all who will exceed the speed limit and those who transgress will be arrested. In the month of October 2010 fourteen motorists have been arrested for excessive over speeding and driving more than 160km/hour. This was just a start as this festive season we will come out gun blazing.
Special focus on our planning has been placed around school holidays, period when industries close, Christmas, period when schools and industries re-open in January next year. During the course of this month 20 enforcement vehicles fitted with High-tech Automated Number Plate Recognition system will be in full operation across five districts in the province. The Automated Number Plate Recognition system is able to detect and release particulars of offences and outstanding fines committed by the targeted vehicle.
Today I want to send a stern warning to all road users who have been using the province’s roads illegally. The fraudsters who have been using our roads being fully aware of the fact that they have outstanding fines and warrants will be brought to book. My simple advice is to implore everyone out there with outstanding fines and warrants to settle them to avoid inconveniencies at roadblocks.
For this festive season, the department will mobilise approximately 1048 traffic officers and 39 road safety officials who will be deployed throughout the province to intensify law enforcement and road safety promotion campaigns aimed at drawing road users into heightened awareness of road traffic dangers, greater commitment to safer road usage and improving road user’s behaviour.
In order to ensure visible policing for good results, we will deploy approximately 500 marked and unmarked traffic police and road safety vehicles on 30 identified critical roads daily, and 35 High-impact road blocks will be conducted.
The Minister of Transport noted with concern that since the World Cup, an average of 2000 motorists have been arrested every month nationally for driving under the influence of liquor. We must stress that absolutely no mercy will be shown towards drunken motorists.
The department is currently in partnership with South African Breweries finalising an agreement to establish Alcohol Evidence Centres in the five districts of the province. In the current financial year two centres will be established in Capricorn District and Mopani District whose main objective is to protect innocent bystanders, passengers and pedestrians from the irresponsible behaviour of drivers under the influence of liquor.
Programme director,
Our province is still faced with the challenge of stray animals on our roads which also contribute to crashes and subsequent fatalities. The department is engaged in a campaign with live stock owner’s education campaign in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, SAPS, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and local municipalities. In this campaign the department will be distributing 50 000 Faun Alert reflective belts to maximise visibility of stray animals especially during the night.
The Arrive Alive Festive plan also incorporated the communication plan to support the campaign in the electronic media. The department will also stage 50 road side promotions, including five high profile road shows in the five districts.
Programme director,
In conclusion, we commit ourselves to a total reduction of accidents and ensuring safety on our roads. We can only achieve this if we work hard together as partners.
Let me conclude by extending my heartfelt condolences to the families of those involved in the horrific and shocking accidents on our roads. It says as Roads and Transport department, we must do more to enhance our enforcement operations this festive season. We also appeal to motorists to be patient, as time lost can never equal the life of a human being.
Traffic authorities will intensify their operations throughout the day and night to deal with the scourge of avoidable accidents. I call upon everyone to join government in our “Make our roads safe” campaign, by driving with your headlights on during daytime to improve your visibility.
Finally, I wish you all a joyful festive season and best wishes for the New Year.
"Life is a gift – take care" and let us all arrive alive!
Thank you.
