Address by the Honourable Deputy Minister of Transport, Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga (MP) on the Occasion of the Closure of the Global Road Safety Focused Week, in Vosloorus Stadium, Tembisa, Gauteng
Programme Director and Head of Planning and Stategy (Kasi Road Safety):
Mr Brian Ndlovu
MEC of the Gauteng Department of Community Safety: MEC Nkosi- Malobane.
MEC of the Gauteng Department of Transport: Mr Vadi Mayor of the City of Ekurhuleni: Mr Mzwandile Masina Senior Officials of the National Department of Transport Senior Officials of the Provincial Departments of Transport
The Registrar of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency: Mr Japh Chuwe CEO of the Road Traffic Management Corporation: Mr Makhosini Msibi Founder and Chairperson of the Kasi Road Safety:
Leaders of the Communities of Ekurhuleni All Road Safety Stakeholders Present Members of the Media
Introduction
Ladies and gentlemen I wish to thank the organisers of this event, examples of individuals and groups that continue to inspire hope that one day we will triumph over the scourge of road accidents and road crash fatalities.
I must also mention my utmost pride in a youth that have remained in love with life and are gathered here to be a part of the solution like we all are.
We must show our utmost respect to this youth, who when it has become fashionable for many to disregard the value of life, they have instead sacrificed their time and the fun of youth, in order to be with us here on this beautiful day.
This sacrifice is the essential element in the joint solutions we are trying to find as South Africans broadly united against the scourge of road fatalities, which are sources of immense sorrow and pain for multitudes of South Africans victimised by it.
We are completely aware of the generators of this event: the collaboration among the Road Traffic Infringement Agency from the National Department of Transport (RTIA), the Kasi Road Safety, a youth non-governmental organization of SOWETO and the host metro of Ekurhuleni who, together with the communities around Gauteng, have descended onto this venue with only the single aim of making road safety a living reality.
We give our full respects to all the stakeholders of this initiative.
We thus commend the following Stakeholders for their support and that they continue to support our efforts for road safety:
Community Safety Stakeholders, local, provincial and national government and its agencies, political parties, insurance associations, transport state owned entities, automobile companies, business associations, NGOs, formal associations (car clubs, bikers, motor sport personalities and others), faith- based and religious organizations and road users in general
Road Safety remains a political priority and thus can only be seen within our quest for the protection and affirmation of human life.
By uniting against dangerous and irresponsible behaviour as communities we are defending fundamental rights of our people:
The Right to life, the right of others to live as free, safe and secure citizens.
We say so in the Freedom Charter. We say so in our National Development Plan, which is a birth child of stalwarts of our freedom like comrade President Oliver Tambo, whose lives were bitterly sacrificed so we could gain the freedom to own those rights, especially the right to life.
The Fourth UN Road Safety Focus Week
While we celebrate the Centenary of Oliver Tambo, who would have turned a 100 years old this year we are nevertheless also reminded of our responsibility to the defence of their legacy for the development and the protection of life. The Coincidence of major importance 2017 is that of the Fourth United Nations Global Road Safety Week which was launched in 2007.
This UN Road Safety Collaboration happens in the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week and has been held since the 08th to the 14th of May 2017. The Week has focused on speed and what can be done to address this key risk factor for road traffic deaths and injuries.
Fellow South Africans, it is reported that speed contributes to around one-third of all fatal road traffic crashes in high-income countries, and up to half in low- and middle-income countries.
The UN Road Safety Collaboration acknowledges that countries successfully reducing road traffic deaths have done so by prioritising safety when managing speed.
Pillar 2 of our United Nations Report on Safer Roads and Mobility focuses on road safety ownership and accountability among key authorities, road engineers and urban planners
The proper planning and design of infrastructure development is critical to road safety. A strong need has been established for road authorities to identify and understand road safety risks on a road network level.
Among the proven strategies to address speed include:
- Building or modifying roads to include features that calm traffic. This is being carried out in most of the designed today in South Africa especially in residential and urban areas.
- Establishing speed limits to the function of each road
- Enforcing speed limits
- Installing in-vehicle technologies
- Raising awareness about the dangers of speeding
Today we gather here to commit ourselves to the call “SaveLives_SlowDownZA” a theme we must follow every day.
It is against this background that the RTIA decided to partner with Kasi Road Safety, a Soweto based youth non-governmental organisation. Kasi Road Safety is dedicated to the distribution of Road Safety information, raising public awareness of road safety issues and promoting the standards of good practice for road users.
Slow Down ZA – Campaign Objectives
- To instil a better understanding by society of the importance of adhering to Speed Limits
- To send a message of awareness and convincing Road Users to sign our Pledge
- To create a positive attitude towards road safety campaigns
- To strengthen communication with society on the topic of Road Safety and Speed
- Active participation from all in Road Safety and Speed Management programmes
- Adopting and making road safety a daily lifestyle
- To reduce this road blood bath by fifty percent by 2020.
Programme Director, we cannot pretend not to know that speed is the main killer. We cannot pretend that it is not our youth that die the most on our roads. And we cannot pretend that it is not speed that kills them. We know it is because of speed. And these past Easters reckless behaviour seems to have gone unchecked by many motorists.
More than 2 800 motorist were arrested for drunken driving, inconsiderate, reckless and negligent driving, possession of false document and driving without licences and public driver’s permits. Seven motorists were detained for driving at excessive speeds above 160 km an hour on 120 km zone. These included a motorist who was arrested on the N6 in Reddersburg in the Free State driving at 227 km an hour while and another was caught driving at 225 km an hour on the N1 in Pretoria. These are examples of the worst among the worst motorist who have no regard for road rules and the risk they pose to other motorists who obey the rules of the road.
It is largely due to irresponsible speeding that we continue to lose our children to car crashes causing immeasurable damage to the well-being of families that have hopes about the newly graduated, the newly employed young man; and these days the newly employed/ newly graduated young women whose number of car crash fatalities seems to grow over the years.
It is clear that it is not only families and friends that are affected by road crash incidents, but the consequences become a burden to all of us as nations. It is a worse feeling when we realise that more than 80 percent of these crashes are caused by human factors as opposed to those caused by road or vehicle related factors, such as tyre bursts or so.
It is today our plea to the youth to heed the calls that are being made to reduce speeding. We call on all the youth to stop impressing friends with the lives of others. Speeding is not cool. Speed will kill you.
It should also be noted that most young people want to speed with no experience of handling a car. People graduate, find a job, do a short learner driver course, buy a fast car and rush it into the road mostly with no effective driving experience and want to drive like they were born with a driver’s license.
The demerit system
The new demerit system will disadvantage a great number of our youth who want to approach the road all-knowingly, because as new as the license may be, we will take it away from you once you have lost your points, and some of you will lose those jobs that depend on your driving.
It is necessary therefore to know that while reckless driving might not kill you, it will certainly threaten your mobility and your job. It will take away your means of living, your means of advancing yourself in life.
We wish that the youth gathered here passes these messages on among your neighbours and friends and encourage them to obey the law, because that license remains our property and we will take it away from anyone that misuses it.
Vehicle Requirements and Standards (Seatbelts): Regulation 213 of the National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996
The National Road Traffic Act stipulates very clearly the requirements of seatbelts in vehicles as much as it clearly stipulates the requirements for occupants of a moving vehicle operating on any public road to always wear seatbelts or child restraints for infants.
It therefore is a requirement that new vehicles introduced into the SA market comply with seatbelts and anchorage requirements as well as specific crash test requirements, including other safety related aspects. Take care of yourselves as passengers too by fastening your seatbelt, because we will come to you too.
Road Safety Educational Awareness Programmes and Campaigns
The achievements of the road safety awareness campaigns is informed by an integrated and intensified approach to road safety awareness activities targeting cyclists, pedestrians, passengers and drivers through the pooling of traffic management resources across the various levels of government and through the implementation of the 365 day road safety programme. The following awareness campaigns, among others, were undertaken to form part of our 365 Day Programme:
- Child Restraint Campaign: It aims at educating communities on the child restraint regulation and child car seats are being distributed in strategic areas in the promotion of that objective.
- Cheki-iCoast: An imaginative campaign to promote road safety among younger audiences on campuses and schools.
Our interaction with our communities through several Izimbizo focusing on development-related issues have committedly emphasised matters of road safety and so have we communicated with the media too. Because community safety as well as road safety are necessarily about development.
Road safety educational programmes have focused on the development of sophisticated road users that will allow our youth to be the most responsible users of roads – abasebenzisi bemigwaqo abaqavile.
Road Safety Educational Programmes
- Junior Traffic Training Centres/Mats Programme: aims to teach and instil safer road conduct to children in a safer, miniature simulated road environment.
- Scholar Patrol: The programme is one of the longest existing road safety projects and it ensures the safe crossing of learners to and from school by learners under adult supervision.
- Safe Kids Walk this Way: The project creates a safe environment for kids to operate in thereby contributing to the reduction in pedestrian fatalities and injuries. This project has been rolled out in all Provinces.
- Road Safety Schools Debates: The programme is directed at secondary/high school learners in grades 10 and 11 and is conducted in line with the World Schools Style of Debating adapted for the purposes of imparting road safety knowledge amongst peers.
- Participatory Educational Techniques (P.E.T) Programme: The program is aimed at encouraging high school learners to identify road safety challenges in their communities and being part of developing and implementing sustainable solutions that will positively contribute to safer road users and roads.
- Professional Drivers’ Awareness: The programme assesses the road safety competencies (skills andknowledge) of heavy vehicle drivers. South Africa is a member of the Union Internationale des Chauffeurs Routiers (UICR) a world body which coordinates the interest of professional drivers worldwide.
- Road Safety Education in Curriculum: The back to basics approach of government to inculcate a culture of road safety at a young age has resulted in the mandatory implementation of road safety at primary schools as part of life skills.
- Scholar Transport: The programme aims at addressing the problem of scholar transport safety, the implementation of the Shova Kalula programme is part of a low cost mobility solution to improve rural accessibility and urban mobility “by cycling” to basic services including educational centres. It is directed to youth (leaners) and farm labourers who walk more than 3km to schools and work.
- Cross-Alive Road Safety Programme: The aim of the programme is to address challenges such as:
- Safety of scholar transport
- Cycling and helmets
- Child restraint and safety belts
- Distracted walking
Set and seek compliance with speed limits
The deployment of Average Speed over Distance (ASOD) on approximately 700 km of National and Provincial Routes, namely the N3, N1, N2, R27 and R61.
Community Participation
We know that the many adults that are gathered here must have laid the foundation of community; of working together to find solutions to the many challenges we face as South Africans and as communities of Ekurhuleni.
The Department created a mass community movement of road safety activism known as the Road Safety Community Councils which was officially launched in 2010. These are ordinary community members committed to extraordinary impacts in their communities and working very closely with government at the provincial and local level advocating for safety on the roads and proclaiming a ZERO-tolerance message.
These Community Councils are often the first to arrive at any scene of a crash happening in the townships (residential areas). The Department facilitated training for all these men and women of the Community Councils so that they are empowered and knowledgeable about what to do at the scene of a crash while waiting for the traffic officials and emergency services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it must be clear to us all that road safety activism is important. Road Safety affects us all and stands as one factor that must unify us as communities, because it cannot be separated from the commitments we made in our Constitution in defence of the right to life.
We must look at road safety as an essential element of developing our communities, the building of united and cohesive communities for effective community programmes.
We hope that this event shall instil within us the kind of responsibility that shall build our young people and will help our drive to halve road crash fatalities by 50 percent by 2020.
Let us make the right choice, slow down and stay alive. Thank you.
