His Excellency, the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, joined by the Minister of Transport Mr. Fikile Mbalula will on Saturday 5 October 2019 officially launch the October Transport Month campaign and the revamped Arrive Alive programme of the Department as approved by Cabinet.
The official launch will introduce the revamped Arrive Alive programme that is set to put road safety firmly under the spotlight using unconventional interventions through the 365 Days Road Safety Action Agenda to transform road user behavior.
South Africa’s Road Safety Action Agenda will mainstream road safety interventions into the daily activities of transport authorities, cultivate round the clock traffic law enforcement and discourage unsafe road user behavior.
The spate of road deaths in South Africa continues to account for untold suffering for families, friends and loved ones in the loss of their beloved, unmistakably at a huge cost to the economy - some R166Billion at minimum.
Only this past Friday, 27 September, seven innocent lives were cut short resulting from a horrific multi vehicle crash near the Pumulani Toll Plaza on the N1 freeway in the Hamanskraal area. Many other such crashes have claimed scores of lives on the country’s roads.
In commemorating the many lives lost on the country’ s roads, the President and the Minister will unveil a Memorial plaque on the N3 Weighbridge and reveal a new logo of the Arrive Alive programme underpinning the 365 Days Road
Safety Action Agenda.
President Ramaphosa officially signed into law the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act on 13 August 2019 paving the way for the ushering of a new regime in driver and road user behavior for the country.
At its full implementation, the AARTO Act will discourage bad and persuade good road user and road traffic behavior by providing a scheme for road traffic contraventions and facilitate the adjudication of road traffic infringements.
The President will give a keynote address during the official launch of the October Transport Month campaign to be attended by a contingent of traffic and law enforcement officers from all the provinces, and key stakeholders including the private sector, transport industry, motorcycling association, the religious and interfaith fraternity and family members of those who lost their lives to road crashes.
President Ramaphosa will also be joined during the official launch by Gauteng Premier Mr. David Makhura, Provincial MECs of Roads, Transport, Police, Community Safety and Public Works and senior government officials.
The details of the official launch of the October Transport Month campaign are as follows:
Date: Saturday, 05 October 2019
Time: 07:30 (for accreditation purposes)
Venue: N3 Highway Southbound, Heidelberg Weighbridge, Gauteng.
All media are invited. Members of the media attending the event are requested to confirm their attendance by completing the attached template and forwarding it to Takalani Mukwevho on 082 227 9308 or or Tshegofatso Maake on 063 281 9453 or by 12:00 on Wednesday 2nd October.
NB: Media accreditation for the event will be made available earlier at the venue. Members of the media are requested to arrive earlier for this purpose and produce their press cards, green bar-coded South African ID documents, or passports.
Enquiries:
Khusela Diko - Spokesperson to the President
Cell: 072 854 5707
Collen Msibi - Head of Communications, Department of Transport
Cell: 082 414 5279
