MEDIA STATEMENT

SOUTH AFRICA'S 2003 DRIVER OF THE YEAR

Motametsi Mogatusi from the North West Province is R15 000 richer after being named South Africa's 2003 best heavy motor vehicle driver at the annual driver of the year prize-giving ceremony held at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban last Friday (2003/10/31).

Jose de Abreu (KZN) won the male bus driver category, Lourens Swart (Western Cape) the rigid truck category and Viresh Sewrathan (KZN) the articulated truck category. The winner in the female bus category, which was introduced for the first time this year, was Lillian Magerman (Northern Cape). All these winners were awarded cash prizes of R10 000 each. The winning province was the Western Cape.

A South African team was also announced to provisionally represent the country at the International Driving Competition to be held during September next year in Croatia. Negotiations are already at an advanced stage for Protea Colours to be awarded to them.

The two-day competition, arranged by the National Department of Transport in partnership with the private sector, took place on Thursday and Friday (30 - 31/10/2003) at the Kings Park Soccer Stadium in Durban where 72 participants representing all nine provinces competed. Drivers of heavy motor vehicles, including buses had a chance to showcase their finest, safest driving skills and road safety knowledge during the National Driver of the Year Competition.

This annual event aims to stimulate driver education in the country and to improve the standard of drivers of heavy motor vehicles. The event was held last year in the Western Cape and the 2004 competition will be held at Sun City. The competition drivers compete in three categories - Rigid Truck (without trailer), Articulated Truck (with trailer) and the Bus categories.

Participants comprised 54 male drivers - six from each province- and eighteen female drivers who competed in the Best Female Bus Driver category. During the competition drivers underwent four tests; track test, road test, theory test and pre-trip inspection test. They were tested for their ability to manoeuvre vehicles in confined areas, their attitude and ability to drive safely and their road handling skills as well as for their knowledge of road rules.

In light of the recent high number of accidents that have taken place that involved heavy vehicles across the country, a competition of this nature is important as it would encourage safe driving among drivers of heavy vehicles. The competition also aims to instil awareness about the need for cautious driving to help reduce fatal road accidents. The competition would also benefit companies that owned such vehicles because if they encouraged safe driving among their drivers it would save them money as there would be fewer accidents involving their vehicles.

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Mr S'bu Ndebele highlighted the fact that a competition of this nature should not only be about winning, but also about deep commitment, thoroughness and self fulfilment. "Through initiatives such as this, we want to encourage drivers and transport companies to work in partnership with us to bring down the unacceptably high number of crashes on our roads," Ndebele said.

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