MEDIA STATEMENT

NDEBELE SAYS SEE AND BE SEEN - SIYABONA BONAKALA

The process of re-issuing driver’s licences to some 700 000 citizens of the province has brought to the fore some interesting areas of concern. Failure rates of the eye tests offered at testing stations beg the question: how many people on our roads cannot see clearly, and how does this impact on the ability of our citizens to drive safely – especially at night. Another question is whether the public transport drivers, especially taxi drivers, are themselves roadworthy?

Speaking at the KZN legislature, the KZN Transport MEC, S’bu Ndebele said Department of Transport has, as per international standards, always examined issues of sobriety, fatigue and vehicular condition. However, no attempt has been made to clarify whether there is a link between the accident, and the driver’s ability to see clearly.

‘Of course, you may say, every person with a licence has had an eye test. However, we wish to say instead that, not only should they be fit to pass the test, but that they can see twice as well as that test demands – with 6/6, perfect vision. Fellow road-users deserve nothing less, and there should be as little margin for error as possible,’ says the KZN MEC for Transport.

Though optometry services and glasses supply is just becoming available in some public hospitals of KwaZulu-Natal, the urgency of the question of vision and road safety compels the department to take a serious and pro-active stance.

Ndebele says the campaign SIYABONA BONAKALA will be launched to ensure that all those who drive on our roads, can see clearly. Those who fall under the auspices of the transport department: bus services, taxi services, and ultimately all those who drive government vehicles, must be screened by a professional, and given a pair of affordable spectacles if they need them.

‘We are proposing that a basic pair of glasses should cost between R60 and R250, depending on the prescription. We therefore want to introduce public sector delivery of eye care services and in the process produce a model for eye care in the public sector for the ultimate benefit of the patient,’ says MEC Ndebele.

The debate of whether drivers can see clearly must always be married with a programme that will assist those who can’t. No government wishes to enforce legislation with the concurrent fall-out of making criminals of those who simply cannot afford the solution.

In the case of vision and vision screening – for which there are bound to be failures - legislation allows for persons who have failed the eye test to approach an optometrist. This person will then be supplied with glasses. However, the sad fact of this country is that it is precisely those who fail, who just don’t have glasses simply because they cannot afford them.

Ndebele says in this way, a driver, who may be the sole breadwinner, will lose his licence, lose his job, and in this way, whole families are condemned to lives of poverty. It is not our intention to enforce legislation, and paralyse a person’s ability to earn. Let it never be said that a family must starve simply because the principle breadwinner cannot afford a pair of glasses.

The department therefore undertakes – through a series of strategic alliances – to ensure that optometrists are made available, and glasses are made affordable to all those who fall under our umbrella. People also need to be screened for those diseases which impact on vision: our chronic diseases of diabetes, hypertension and glaucoma. Any of these can rob a person of their sight – and we must ensure that those who rely on their sight to earn a living need not live in fear of losing their sight if this is preventable.

‘Not only will we then be able to say, that those on our roads who drive are able to see clearly, we are also able to contribute significantly to improving the quality of life of all our citizens,’ continued Ndebele.

The SIYABONA BONAKALA campaign will initially focus on ensuring that the eye screening procedures employed in our traffic directorates across the province are entirely uniform. This training will be undertaken by an optometrist in August. This is to ensure that whatever screening takes place is of the same standard as that offered currently to those who have their eyes screened in private practices.

This standardization will also allow for the statistical evaluation of the extent to which poor vision currently impacts on the ability of our citizens to drive safely. This long term strategy will supplement the department’s commitment to addressing this issue as a matter of urgency.

‘We are also committed to joining hands with the private sector. The third-biggest block of road users are those employed as long-haul truck drivers. If business can ensure that their drivers have been screened and offered affordable spectacles, they will adopt a significant role in stemming the carnage on our roads,’ says MEC Ndebele.

SIYABONA BONAKALA will examine issues of visibility on our roads. The majority of our road deaths involve pedestrians, and the SIYABONA BONAKALA campaign will concentrate, among other areas, on school children – currently walking to school in the dark, re-claiming our pavements and rural pedestrians who at night may be invisible to the taxi they are trying to hail.

‘The department is confident that in pro-actively addressing the issue of whether people can see, and be seen, we will move forward significantly in addressing previously unidentified areas of concern,’ concluded Ndebele.

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