of the eighth World Conference on Injury and Violence Prevention and Safety
Promotion in South Africa, International Convention Centre, Durban
2 April 2006
Programme Director
Isilo samaBandla neNdlovukazi
Her Majesty, the Queen of Jordan
Africa Regional Director of the World Health Organisation
Honourable Ministers and Ministerial Delegates
Deputy Mayor of eThekwini
International and local guests present
Members of the Conference Organising Committee
Ladies and gentlemen
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to this conference, which is
being held for the first time on African soil. To our visitors from afar, I
would like to particularly welcome you to our beautiful country and the warm
city of eThekwini. I trust that you will enjoy the hospitality of our people
and you will have an opportunity to see more of our country in between and
after the conclusion of deliberations on the serious matters we have gathered
here to discuss.
As we observe this special occasion of the opening of the eighth World
Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, I would like us to
remember a very tragic incident where the entire Kubayi family from Soweto
perished in a car accident last week.
The tragedy of road accident has affected many including the Premier and MEC
for Health in this province of KwaZulu-Natal, who each lost a son in separate
car accidents. Let us therefore use this opportunity to remember the many
people who have become victims of trauma on our roads and all those who passed
on as result of non-natural causes of death.
Programme Director, in South Africa, the year 2006 marks 100 years since the
Bhambatha Rebellion. In 1906, Chief Bhambatha led a major resistance against
poll tax which was introduced by the colonial administration in Natal to force
indigenous African communities away from subsistence farming and turn them into
cheap migrant labourers. Many people lost their lives when Bhambatha's
resistance was violently suppressed just like many other efforts of tribal
leaders in our continent who sought to defend the dignity of their people and
the right to self-determination.
Despite the violent nature of successive colonial governments, many of the
struggles for liberation were initiated as peaceful demands for basic human
rights. We remember the launch of Satyagraha the unique non-violent struggle
that liberated India, which was launched here in South Africa a 100 years ago
and we remember the formation of the African National Congress in 1912 which
liberated South Africa.
These legitimate struggles were met with violent suppression and the killing
of innocent people. History has taught us that violence is a central character
of an oppressive system and it is the main tool used to respond to demands of
the oppressed.
Programme Director, I would like to submit that poverty and
underdevelopment, social disruption and the disintegration of social fabric are
the main factors underlying many social challenges facing our communities today
including violence and injury. The struggle for survival and competition for
limited resources leads to various form of antisocial behaviours including
violent crime.
Therefore, equity in the distribution of global resources, freedom and
democracy are critical to prevent conflicts and violence and to ensure peaceful
coexistence of all nations of the world.
The global statistics with regard to injury and violence are indeed of
concern.
It is estimated that up to 69% of women world wide report having suffered
physical assault by an intimate male partner at some point in their lives.
These figures highlight the major challenges that women still face in many
parts of the world.
Here in South Africa, we speak of emancipation of women from triple
oppression because the majority of women were oppressed on the basis of their
race, class and gender. Our government has made deliberate efforts to improve
the socio-economic status of women and to create gender equality.
We provide comprehensive management of survivors of sexual assault which
includes appropriate medical care, social support and legal services to support
survivors and bring perpetrators to book.
The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2000 approximately 57 000
homicides took place among children under 15 years of age and in the same year
over 1.6 million people lost their lives to violence world wide.
Road traffic accidents claim 1.2 million lives per year. They also injure or
disable an estimated 20 and 50 million people per year.
Programme Director, it is clear that violence is a growing public health
concern. It poses a great challenge to the already burdened health system in
terms of the increasing number of people with injuries presenting at health
facilities. A huge amount of resources goes towards rehabilitation, healing and
overall management of survivors of injuries.
The South African Government is committed to the cause that has brought us
together this week. At the last meeting in Austria, I made a commitment that
South Africa would support the prioritisation of dialogue on injury prevention
and safety promotion. I am pleased to report that as African Ministers of
Health, we raised this matter at the World Health Assembly in Geneva last
year.
Yesterday we hosted a consultation of African Health Ministers and their
representatives to focus attention and action on this important agenda. The
meeting adopted a statement of our commitment to injury prevention and safety
promotion, which we hope will also receive your support.
Since this meeting is being held in Africa, we hope it will address the
challenges facing our continent with regard to violence and injuries. The
development of Africa, through the New Partnership for Africa's Development and
various national initiatives is critical to improve the health of our
population. Economic upliftment of Africa will put us in better position to
address challenges such as poor road networks and lack of capacity to enforce
laws aimed at preventing crimes and will reduce the vulnerability of poor
communities to violence.
South Africa had the honour of hosting the launch of the World Report on
Violence and Health in 2002 and since than, numerous initiatives have been put
in place to address this challenge.
We have what is called the Arrive Alive campaign aimed at reducing the
number of road traffic accidents by ensuring that un-roadworthy vehicles are
not allowed onto our roads and modify the behaviour of road-users.
One of the critical messages of this campaign is to highlight the risk of
using the road while under the influence of alcohol for both motorists and
pedestrians. A new licensing system has been introduced to ensure that drivers
are skilled and they undergo regular eye-tests as a condition for holding a
driver's licence.
Efforts are currently underway to replace the minibus taxis that I am sure
you have noticed on our roads. Government has initiated a Taxi Recapitalisation
programme which will lead to all these minibus taxis being replaced by safer
and more comfortable types of vehicles. The Recapitalisation programme is part
of the broader efforts of Government to improve our public transport system in
the country.
Government's interventions against violent crimes are bearing fruit with
reduction in levels of crime being observed since the attainment of our
democracy in 1994. Recently, the Institute of Security Studies released a
report which indicated that serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder,
car theft and hijacking are decreasing across the country.
The report indicates that cases of murder decreased by 30% between 1994 and
2004 and it attributes this progress to better policing and the more people
being covered by the social security net which has alleviated financial stress
among the poor.
A number of interventions have been put in place to alleviate the plight of
the poor including free primary health care and free health service for
pregnant and lactating women, children under six years of age and people with
disabilities. The number of people receiving social grants has increased
significantly. There is free housing for the poor, about 3.9 million households
receive free basic water and free basic electricity reaches 2.9 million
households.
The report highlights the need to deal with drug related crimes and drunken
driving. We are putting in place interventions against alcohol abuse. In
addition to legal restrictions in terms of the sale of alcohol, we have
included alcohol abuse as the main focus area in our Health Lifestyle
Programme.
We are also working on regulations to introduce labelling of containers of
alcoholic products with health warnings. Our aim is to raise awareness amongst
our people about the harmful health and social effects of alcohol. Currently,
our communities are bombarded by messages that encourage alcohol consumption.
We have to ensure that there is some balance between the promotion of these
products and the understanding of the negative effects of irresponsible
drinking.
We are looking forward to the outcomes of this conference. We hope that the
deliberations will assist us to enhance the interventions we introduced to
reduce high levels of violence and trauma in our society.
Your Majesties, ladies and gentlemen it gives me a great pleasure, as the
Minister of Health of South Africa, to declare the eighth World Conference on
Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion open.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health
2 April 2006
