SPEECH DELIVERED BY KWAZULU-NATAL MEC FOR TRANSPORT, S'BU NDEBELE, AT THE EDITORS' BRIEFING DURING THE LAUNCH OF THE ASIPHEPHE ROAD SAFETY 2000 - 2001 CAMPAIGN, Durban, 31 October 2000
 

Every year in South Africa, we experience more than 500 000 traffic collisions. These traffic collisions make the South African motorist our number one killer.

Virtually all South Africans, as road users contribute in one way or another to the carnage on our roads. Our behaviour patterns range from passive acceptance of unacceptable and indeed criminal actions on our roads to road rage and blatant disregard for the law.

Clearly it is only when South African road users internalise road safety norms and values that we will experience peace on our roads. The KwaZulu-Natal Department has for sometime now introduced programs that encourage public participation and public empowerment in road safety campaigns. The objective of these programs is to allow the public to openly voice their support for programs that crack down on road crime.

Our first mass road safety campaign was called 'Siyabakhumbula, we remember them (1997)'. Siyabakhumbula was an intense communication strategy designed to heighten public awareness concerning the non-accidental nature of most road collisions and their associated costs.

The Siyabakhumbula campaign focussed on remembering those who had died on KwaZulu-Natal roads. The campaign looked beyond statistics on our road carnage to the human face of those who had to deal with the trauma both at the site of collisions and in the families left behind. It was a highly personal campaign that allowed people to share their grief. The Siyabakhumbula Campaign brought grieving families together in a way that they no longer felt alone. The 1997 Siyabakhumbula Campaign ended at Kings Park Stadium in Durban on the 30 August 1997. More than 40 000 people attended the event in a massive display of public support for programmes designed to end the carnage on our roads.

The Siyabakhumbula Campaign fundamentally altered the way emergency services co-operated with each other to deal with trauma in a holistic way. Trauma units were established to assist families in dealing with their grief and religious leaders from all denominations participated in the campaign, pledging their support in establishing a safe road environment. For the first time the public came to realise the tremendous personal sacrifice and trauma that emergency service officers experience at the site of serious traffic collisions. It is these very same officers that today need the support of the public in implementing zero tolerance measures.

In 1998, Asiphephe was established. In that same year, road safety focus days were held throughout the province. The campaign focussed on individuals and their families who were left to deal with the disabilities of those severely injured in road collisions. The campaign highlighted the lack of supports for people who were both disabled and poor. A product of the 1998 Road Safety Campaign in KwaZulu-Natal has been the establishment of Community Road Safety Councils throughout the province and a commitment by our Road Safety Directorate that it will assist resource poor communities to establish Community Road Safety Centres.

Because virtually all South Africans have been affected in one way or another by the carnage on our roads we have been able to recruit celebrities, church leaders, civil leaders, musicians, sportsmen and women to share our platforms and to endorse our campaigns. This year as the festive season approaches we are going all out to target specific groups to heighten public awareness on all of our responsibilities to create a safe road environment. We believe that we will achieve maximum public exposure of road safety goals if we are partnered by the media, industry, schools and religious leaders in getting our message into everyone's home and work environment.

In our mass mobilisation campaigns, we in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport have been mindful that our youth are over represented in statistics on fatal accidents. South Africa has a young population and as custodians of road safety, we need to be attentive to what appeals to them. Indeed, during the Siyabakhumbula campaign, I cut a CD with Phuz'ekhemisi called Isixaxambiji (Lets hold together) and I feel energised and motivated when I hear young people rap:

Mkhuzeni lo driver ophuz' ophuz'
aphuze adakelw' emgwaqeni
Mkhuzeni lo driver

Music is a powerful communicator.

I am particularly pleased today to launch our new Road Safety CD, which has been recorded by top South African artists who have a national and international following. When musicians join Government to campaign for road safety and when musicians endorse road safety values, it assists all of us in building commitment to fight against road crime and to fight for a safe road environment. Let us join in thanking this contribution by our local and internationally acclaimed musicians that are with us today. They are led by Jabu Khanyile of Bayete, Joseph Mshengu Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Mandoza. There are also others not here today but are part of the final product such as Busi Mhlongo, Boom Shaka and others.

500 000 traffic collisions every year! We have a long way to go to bring this totally unacceptable high rate of collisions, down to something that we as a developing country and as a nation can cope with. We cannot afford such a loss in human resources. Nor can we afford to finance the costs associated with 500 000 collisions. We can do something about it but only if we want to.

For those who continue to break the laws of the road I am pleased to announce that the Administrative Adjudication Act, 1998 was accepted by Parliament in September 1998 and that amendments have now been passed which allow this Act to be implemented. AARTO will speed up the prosecution of traffic offenders and will give teeth to the POINTS DEMERIT SYSTEM. Further, The Road Traffic Management Corporation Act was accepted by Parliament in April 1999 and will be implemented during 2001. The Act provides for a National Law Enforcement Code and creates the institutional capacity to further professionalise traffic law enforcement. I would like to thank you all today for being here and for participating in a campaign that might well save someone's life over this festive season. That someone could well be you or someone that you love.

Thank you.

Issued by: Office of the MEC for Transport, KwaZulu-Natal, 31 October 2000

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