 
SPEECH BY KWAZULU-NATAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, MR S'BU NDEBELE, ON THE ADVENT OF THE UNVEILING OF THE PLAQUE OF THE RENAMED ASIPHEPHE DRIVE9 October 1999
Deputy President Jacob Zuma Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great sadness that I stand in front of you today during the unveiling of the plaque of the renamed Asiphephe (Let Us Be Safe) Drive. I do not want to want to delve much on the nature and the character of our presence here as I hope most of you were present here on Thursday when we paid tribute to all those children and adults who died a very tragic death on 15 April 1998. We are therefore gathered here today to witness the unveiling of the plaque which is dedicated to children, women and men whom we shall never see flesh and blood again. Let me start by first passing words of condolences to all those who lost their loved ones whose names are engraved in this plaque. Your pain is our pain, your suffering is our suffering because we all share a single humanity. Whatever tragedy befalls you in your personal and collective lives befalls us al in our personal and public lives. It may happen that some of you here have given up hope in the meaning of life. Some of you may seem to agree with Halet that life is a long story told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Many will nod that life is an endless pain with a painful end while others will join the late Minister Joe Slovo in saying that life is a terminal illness. Whatever your beliefs are about life, these do not stop the Department Of Transport from making concerted efforts to improve road safety through enforcement, engineering and education. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to explain some of the programmes and projects that the Department is implementing to ensure the safety of all road users. It is easy for arm-chair critics to demand immediate solutions to all road related tragedies. That Criticism can be a good motivation for even as we know that we cannot put an end to all road tragedies overnight, but we have to work as though this can be achieved within one single day. However, to accuse the Department of negligence is an exaggeration based on insufficient evidence. It is true that there are two types of disasters, one natural and the other man-made and that both of them can be avoided if all of us are committed enough to the welfare of others. It is also true that we as the Department Of Transport can do far more better through strict law enforcement to prevent carnage. However the law enforcement alone cannot go into the hearts and souls of reckless and irresponsible individuals to transform them into responsible individuals who care about the safety of others. The Department as an arm of Government can regulate road user behaviour but it may never legislate the attitude. Strict traffic laws are already preventing most road users from drinking and driving but can never eliminate the love of liquor. Police may arrest reckless drivers but may never eliminate recklessness. Only education can do that. This it is for this reason therefore that the Department of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal started Asiphephe (Let Us Be Safe) Project which goes beyond enforcement but towards educating the public about acceptable road user behaviour. I have talked about this Project many a time but I feel it is important at this stage to unveil some of the most interesting aspects which this Project entails. The Department of Transport is busy facilitating the establishment of Road Safety Councils as a way of involving the entire civil society in road safety campaigns. I therefore urge each one of you here, and particularly the youth, to become actively involved in these road safety councils. It is a said fact, however, that production in traffic enforcement cannot be counted in things invented but in accidents prevented. Once death is prevented it no longer becomes an issue for it has been prevented anyway, so goes the logic! It is for this reason therefore that a lot of dedicated traffic officials rarely receive positive comments from the public because their "production" cannot be counted anymore than one can count bottles in a beer case. Theirs is a "production" which can only be observed in human behaviour which takes months, years and even decades to transform. In renaming former Wessels Drive Asiphephe Drive we send a message to all and sundry that never again shall the lives of innocent citizens be lost just because some of us cannot observe stipulated laws. As the Minister Of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal I have a moral obligation to urge every one of us here including myself to do a thorough introspection as to what each one can do to stop this carnage. Today therefore we erect this plaque as a sign of respect to all those who left us on that fateful day. Yet we are also gravely conscious that there are cynics among us who will want to turn this tragedy into a political debate. They may even go as far as turning human beings into statistics simply because they do not want to believe that a democratic Government is doing something to cater for the safety of its citizens. When people die in rail accidents somewhere in Europe it is a tragedy but when that very same tragedy happens here in Africa, No! It is Government's failure to manage its functions properly. Some will say that we are wasting time by erecting this plague. They may say we ignore plagues but create plaques, that we prefer education to dedication but it is true that in spite of temporary setbacks we are slowly but surely moving towards a society that cares and sooner the Statue of Liberty which pierces the American sky will be matched by the statue of Responsibility in South Africa. GOD BLESS AFRICA. I THANK YOU.
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