Address by Transport Minister Dr BE Nzimande on the occasion of the 2019 Easter Road Safety Campaign Launch at the Golden Horse Casino & Hotel, In Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal Province 8 March 2019
Deputy Minister Sindisiwe Lydia Chikunga
MECs ; RTMC Board Chairman Mr. Zola Majavu
Members of RTMC Board and other Boards present
Acting Director General Mr. Chris Hlabisa
RTMC CEO Advocate Makhosini Msibi
CEO’s of other Transport Agencies
Heads of Departments
Traffic Chiefs
Officials from the three spheres of government and entities
Members of the media
Distinguished guests ; Ladies and gentlemen; We have come together here today to announce our plans to make our roads safer and combat the scourge of road crashes and fatalities during this Easter period. The impact of road crashes and fatalities cuts across racial, class, age, gender, language and cultural divides.
It has an immense impact on all aspects of society, robbing communities of people who are in the prime of their lives, affecting productivity and placing significant burdens on the state and organisations who have to care for victims of road crashes. It is, therefore, no coincidence that the National Development Plan makes a strong appeal that our country’s laws and institutional capacity must be strengthened to effectively respond to our road traffic needs and road safety. I am therefore delighted to be at this high-powered media launch of our 2019 Easter Road Safety campaign, under thetheme “Arrive Alive”
This period is characterized by increased traffic volumes, with travels to work, leisure and pilgrims. This year’s Easter period will be coupled with the Freedom Day, the Workers Day commemorations as well as the General Elections on the 8th May 2019. Our Road Safety programme is a 365-day and a 24/7 programme. However, during heightened traffic periods, such as the Easter and the Festive season, we are always called upon to double our efforts to save lives and reduce the financial burden that comes with these crashes.
During this Easter period, we have brought together all our road safety entities, RTMC, RAF, RTIA, CBRTA and SANRAL.
We will be joined by the SAPS, the Department of Health and Emergency Services, who will be strategically operating in our known hazardous locations.
I want to categorically state that improving safety is not the responsibility of Government alone. Road safety is everyone’s responsibility. So I call upon all south Africans to take responsibility when using our roads. Through our commitment to the “safe systems” approach as endorsed in the United Nations’ Decade for Action on Road Safety, we continue to create safer road environments that will save our people from the scourge of road fatalities. Safe systems are designed with human being at the centre.
This is the reason why this year we chose to focus our attention on the abuse of alcohol which leads to drinking and driving. Our road safety reports indicated that human factors are the primary reason for 77% of all fatal road crashes. This is followed by road conditions at 16%, and the condition of a vehicle at 6%. The top six reasons for crashes that are human-related are summarized as follows:
1. DRUNK DRIVING - According to the our laws, your blood may not have an alcohol content of more than 0.05%. Depending on one's body, for some people that means that by having just one glass of alcohol, it could put them over the limit. The consequences for this could be a fine that could cost up to R2000, or have you wind up in prison with a criminal record and a suspended license. Or worse, driving drunk could result in a fatal accident.
2. DISTRACTIONS - list things like talking on your cellphone or texting while driving, eating while driving, applying makeup and setting GPS devices while driving, just to name a few. 25% of the crashes that fall within this group are caused by the use of cellphones while driving. A single use of a cellphone results in an average of 52 seconds of distracted driving, which is just over 1 kilometre, impairing the driver's ability to react adequately to changes in the road.
3. SPEEDING - The severity of a crash increases with speed. If you speed, you might not be able to stop. With a reaction time of one second, it will take the average driver, driving at 110 km/h, about 90m to come to a stop on a dry surface. The effectiveness of safety devices such as airbags and safety belts are severely compromised at high speeds, which simply means that there is a greater chance for a crash that can result from speeding, to end in a fatality.
4. RECKLESS DRIVING - We see this everyday - crashes caused by drivers who cut into tight spaces at high speeds, or who don’t concern themselves with the rules of the road, skipping stop signs and robots.
5. PEDESTRIANS - Pedestrians can also cause havoc on the roads. Pedestrian deaths far outnumber those of passengers or drivers. In 2016 alone, there were 5 410 pedestrian deaths, compared to 408 passengers and 360 drivers. This could be as a result of not looking before crossing the road or being distracted before doing such. As mentioned above, human factors serve a great part South African road crashes. However, factors like road conditions and vehicle conditions contribute to this number.
6. TYRES - One of the many causes of these crashes are the tyre failures. Research done by the CSIR indicates that nearly 20% of crashes involving minibuses have tyre failure as a contributing factor. This, however, doesn't exempt drivers of light moving vehicles.
I am deeply saddens by the fact that the single largest category of road fatalities affected by these crashes remains the youth.
Ladies and Gentlemen
As the Department of Transport, in seeking to find solution to the many challenges confronting our sector, including road safety, we now have embraced disruptive innovative methods brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The use of technology, will greatly enhance our ability and success in implementing of National Road Safety Strategy and plans.
Today, as the Department of Transport, we will be showcasing the Evidentiary Breathalyser Alcohol Testing (EBAT) as one of our interventions to deal with this challenge.
I must indicate that the road towards the realisation of EBAT has been a difficult one. It had legislative as well as administrative challenges, but at the end, all those challenges have been overcomed.
This includes ensuring that at all times during our roadblocks targeted at alcohol testing, we have registered nursing sisters.
This will ensure that no driver will evade being arrested for drinking and driving.
Joined by the MECs and the leadership of our entities, I will be undertaking a walkabout at the Alcohol Evidence Centre (AEC) here in Pietermaritzburg. I invite you as members of the media to join us at this walkabout.
Another intervention to ensure that we have skilled drivers on our roads, the RTMC is currently piloting a project where they assisting learners in schools to obtain their drivers licences.
The project is currently piloted at the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, North-West, and Limpopo Provinces.
Through this initiative, there are 927 learners who will graduate in October this year. Certainly, this project will remove pressure from these learners once they graduate from Tertiary Institutions.
In partnership with the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA), we will be expanding this training to KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces, with 100 learners recruited per province.
Ladies and gentlemen
To ensure that there are consequences for road traffic offenders, the long awaited AARTO Amendment Bill has been passed by Parliament. The Bill is now ready to be signed into law by the President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Through the AARTO Amendment Bill, we will be introducing the Points Demerit System. This system will allow us to identify, rehabilitate and ultimately eliminate habitual offenders found on our road transport network.
We have started with the rollout of the AARTO Service Outlets at selected Driving Licence Testing Centres in Gauteng.
These Service Outlets will contribute towards eliminating “runners” who wait outside the Registering Authority / Issuing Authority or Licensing department where they trick road users by claiming that they have connections inside and can help to resolve traffic fines quickly in return for payment.
We will continue to roll out these centres countrywide
This, ladies and gentlemen means that all road users will be accountable for any deviant and reckless actions perpetuated on our roads.
Ladies and gentlemen
We continue to take firm and urgent measures to deal with fraud and corruption within our traffic law enforcement personnel. Working together with the National Anti-Corruption Unit and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, we continue to arrest traffic officers who instead of issuing fines for traffic violations, they demand gratification or bribes from motorist.
I want to appeal to all the motorists and law enforcement officers that they must avoid all forms of temptations that might lead them to be collaborators of crime.
I warn you that we will arrest everyone involved in crime without fear or favour!!!
We will continue to crackdown of corruption and the fraudulent issuing of driving licenses and roadworthy certificates. Our anti-corruption units will be keeping a close watch on traffic officers who will be deployed on our country’s roads during this Easter period. Members of the public are called upon to report bribery and corruption on 0861400800/ or at ntacu@rtmc.co.za.
Whilst tightening up road safety enforcement and education, our attention is also not diverted from enhancing our post-crash care.
The Road Accident Fund (RAF) provides a social security safety net to the country and economy by making available compulsory social insurance cover to all users of South African roads.
If all road users remain committed to roads safety, resources that government spends unwittingly on crashes would be redirected to other government priorities such as infrastructure, education and health.
Currently, South Africa spend in the region of R162 Billion annually on road crashes, which is equal to 3.4% of the country’s GDP.
As I conclude, I would also like to implore all my counterparts, the Transport and Safety MECs from all the provinces, to continue to be road safety activists during this Easter Period. We would also like to appreciate the unflinching willingness by South Africans who continue to heeded our clarion call and continue to contribute towards road safety by obeying the rules of the road and we urge them to continue to do so.
I would also like to make a call to all South Africans to exercise their democratic rights bestowed on them, to go to polls on 08 May 2019 and vote. With those words, I wish you all a Happy and Safe Easter.
Travel safely and enjoy the time with your loved ones.
I thank you.
