Programme Director
Premier of the Eastern Cape Ms Noxolo Kiviet
Road and Transport MEC: Thandiswa Marawu
The Mandela family
Mayors and other councilors
Traditional leaders present here
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am humbled to address you on this occasion of the Zenani Mandela Road Safety certification ceremony. Let me however start by doing the honourable thing and wish the father of our nation a very happy and memorable birthday. I also wish to congratulate our colleague and comrade, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on her election as Chairperson of the African Union Commission. Africa will never be the same again. Indeed this event provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices made by our icon Tata Nelson Mandela, the father of South Africa's democracy whose influence transcends boundaries of the nations of the world.
This celebrated global icon of peace, a man who embodies freedom, courage and integrity has come off age.
We bow our heads and thank The Creator for this wonderful gift of life as Madiba turns 94. We wish our father more years to celebrate. We want to assure him of our undying love, respect and pride for having him as our own.
As we gather here today we remember with sadness the 24 young people and one older woman who tragically lost their lives during a crash between a goods train and a truck in Mpumalanga province this past Friday. On behalf of government and the people of South Africa we wish to convey our sincere condolences once again to the families of the bereaved. We wish all those who sustained injuries a speedy recovery. (A moment of silence)
We are here today because we are responding to a call to action in an effort to make South Africa a better place as envisaged by Madiba and his generation. As we join the Mandela family in marking this milestone, we are requested to dedicate at least 67 minutes of our time to a good and worthy cause. Every action counts.
We have responded to the call as the Department of Transport by working with communities to ensure safety on our roads. Every one of us gathered here has directly or indirectly been affected by a road related incident. We all shudder to remember that fateful winter night when a young promising life was summarily taken away from her loved ones. We are grateful as government that we didn't just sit and join the Mandela family as they mourned their tragic loss.
We are glad to have joined hands with the family to turn this loss into a meaningful cause in pursuit of a better society.
The establishment of the Zenani Mandela Scholarship marked a quantum leap in our campaign to save lives on our roads. The association of our road safety campaign with this name has undoubtedly elevated it to global levels.
In a 2003 United Nations Report, Africa's roads were reported to be the worst in the world in terms of road user behaviour and crashes/fatalities. Road fatalities are still one of the top causes of death and disability for children and young people - and the problem was said to be more acute in sub-Saharan Africa.
Road crashes claim the lives of at least 1.3 million people each year while about 50 million people suffer injuries worldwide. More people die on the roads than from Malaria. Ninety percent of these road causalities are in low and middle-income countries. Each year 260 000 children die on the road and another million are seriously injured, often permanently disabled. This hidden road injury epidemic is a crisis for public health and a major contributor to the causes of poverty. During crashes bread-winners are taken away from their families.
In South Africa, the 2005 Road Traffic Management Report indicates that 90% ofMinisters from the African continent attended the international Africa Make Roads Safe Conference held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania where they recommitted themselves to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of improving road safety and halving the number of road fatalities by the year 2015.
On 2 March 2010 at the first Global United Nations Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Moscow, Russia, road safety was further escalated as a challenge requiring the urgent attention of governments worldwide. Governments around the world took the historic decision to intensify efforts over the next decade to address road carnage. The UN General Assembly resolution proclaimed 2011-2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety. The declaration was tabled by the Government of the Russian Federation and co-sponsored by more than 90 countries. South Africa is proud to be one of the member countries that have committed themselves to the Decade of Action. As part of this declaration, we have committed to reduce the number of road deaths by half by 2020.
Road traffic injuries can be prevented as experience suggests that a national plan with measureable targets is crucial to a sustainable response to road safety. Effective interventions include incorporating road safety features into land-use, urban planning and transport planning; designing safer roads and requiring independent road safety audits for new construction projects.
Other interventions include improving the safety features of vehicles, effective and uncompromising law-enforcement by traffic police and through the use of traffic-calming measures. In addition interventions should include setting and enforcing laws requiring the use of seat-belts, helmets and child restraints; setting and enforcing blood alcohol concentration limits for drivers; and improving post-crash care for victims of road crashes.
Decade of action goals and specific objectives
The overall goal of the Decade will be to stabilise and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities around the world by 2020.
This will be attained through:
- developing and implementing sustainable road safety strategies and programmes
- setting an ambitious yet feasible target for reduction of road fatalities by 2020 by building on the existing frameworks of regional casualty targets
- strengthening the management infrastructure and capacity for technical implementation of road safety activities at the national, regional and global levels
- improving the quality of data collection at the national, regional and global levels
- monitoring progress and performance on a number of predefined indicators at the national, regional and global levels
- encouraging increased funding to road safety and better use of existing resources, including through ensuring a road safety component within road infrastructure projects.
Challenges facing South Africa
In South Africa, the primary risk group is men in the 18-45 year age group. Included in this broad group is the high level of public transport and heavy vehicle crashes and non-compliance with driving permits in these driver categories.
Driving under the influence of alcohol plays a large negative role in crashes; lack of compliance in respect to consistent wearing of seat belts and excessive speeding are serious causes of road crashes.
Another major concern for us is pedestrian deaths which make up almost 46% of the total road fatalities we record annually.
Road safety programmes and approach
Our observation is that if long-term strategic interventions are not put in place road deaths will continue to rob communities of their loved ones. In this regard here in South Africa we have come up with annual performance plan focus areas as our key focus areas and these are:
- Learners and Drivers licenses for Grade 12 and Tertiary
- Community Road Safety Councils
- The Roll-Out for the Decade of Action for Road Safety programme
The Learners and Drivers' license programme for Grade 12 and Tertiary level leaners are aimed at producing 1200 learners with driver and learner licenses annually. We believe that we need to catch them young and begin the process breeding a new cultured, responsible driver. Our observation is that drivers learn bad behaviour at an early driving age and the bad ways stay with them for their entire driving life and of course that's if they are able to live that long.
With the introduction of Road Safety Councils, we aim to involve communities in road safety work. Members of a particular community know their neighbourhood better than any traffic law enforcement officer from elsewhere. You know exactly where road crashes occur more often and therefore you are our eyes with regard to introducing measures that could help address road safety challenges in a particular area, in your community.
We are saying reclaim ownership of your roads. Make a commitment that pedestrians are not going to be killed in your street. Make a pledge that drunk drivers are not going to drive into the walls of the houses in your street. Make a declaration that petrol-heads are not going to test the speeding ability of their cars in your street. Road safety is your responsibility.
Programme Director, honourable guests, ladies and gentlemen
Road safety is a huge responsibility that requires all hands on deck. To ensure that the Decade of Action for Road Safety is a success; we will have sub-programmes and Road Safety initiatives which will address different in order to change driver attitudes and behavior of road users.
The following will be the sub-programmes and initiatives undertaken in 2012, among others include:
- Zenani Mandela Scholarship Initiative
- THINK Pedestrian campaign
- Introduce Road Safety education to primary schools in partnership with the Department of Education
- The Number 1 Brandhosue Taxi Driver Initiative
- The Friends of the Decade and the Tag educational campaign
- Work-related Road Safety programmes for organizations
- Periodic vehicle testing of heavy and public vehicles
- First Aid Programme for Taxi drivers and Hlokomela in partnership with SANTACO.
The Zenani Mandela scholarship for road safety
The Zenani Mandela Scholarship for Road Safety is an initiative of the FIA Foundation working with the United Nations based in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the Department of Transport and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.
The Zenani Mandela Scholarship for Road Safety contributes significantly to the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
The Scholarship has been set up to inspire the young leaders of South Africa to join a global movement as represented by the UN Decade of Action, which aims to save millions of lives by 50% come 2020 and beyond. The purpose of the Scholarship is to offer young South Africans the opportunity to learn with and from other talented professionals from around the world with the common aim of improving road safety for communities in their home countries.
The scholarship is open to all South African nationals who are working to improve road safety in their respective communities. It also aims to recruit outstanding individuals who will make a future impact on road safety in their countries; develop their understanding of the management of road safety and equip them with strategies for promoting safer roads and build an international network of young professionals committed to road safety.
Objectives of the scholarship
Annually 12-14 participants from around the world take part in the FIA Foundation Scholarship programme. This initiative helps to build capacity and leadership in road safety particularly in developing and emerging economies. The Zenani Mandela Scholarship exclusively supports a candidate from South Africa, to help develop their expertise in all key aspects of road safety management and policy making.
The Scholarship focuses on the following key objectives:
- An introduction to the "Systems Approach" to Road Safety Management
- An overview of the role of international organizations in promoting
- Visits demonstrating safe road design and local authority partnership rogrammes,
- Information on vehicle safety standards, driver training and education,
- Seminars with the Road Traffic Police exploring issues of enforcement,
- Data collection and training,
- An introduction to the UK Department for Transport’s policy development and campaigns,
- Sessions on sustaining political support and effective campaigning on road safety issues
- A group exercise on devising and implementing a national road safety strategy.
As we handover the certificate of achievement we are confident that the graduate Ms. Beauty Makuwa will set the scene and be a dedicated road safety ambassador and lead by example. Ms Makuwa is expected to share her knowledge and expertise gained during her training with fellow road safety council activists here at home. She will be expected to go around the country and preach the gospel of road safety, working with our provincial Road Safety Directorates and other stakeholders involved in road safety.
Programme director, distinguished guests
Road safety has become a global concern. It can only be through heeding the call and a change in behavior and attitude when we use our roads that we will win the battle against this carnage. Government is determined to work with organisations and communities to achieve a reasonable degree of a reduction in road traffic fatalities. I wish to thank our partners in the private sector among them Equestria Fleet Management, Imperial Holdings, BrandHouse for their continued partnership and support. Working together we can save more lives on our roads.
I thank you.
