ADDRESS BY ABDULAH MOHAMED OMAR, NATIONAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, AT THE OPENING OF THE LIMPOPO TRANSPORT SUMMIT HELD ON 6 AND 7 NOVEMBER 2003

Honourable Premier, Adv. Ngoako Ramathlodi, Honourable Mec for Transport, Limpopo Province
Dr S F Farisani
Senior officials
CEO’s of Spoornet, Sanral, Absa, NPRA and other entities
Private Sector Participants
Representatives of Local Authorities
Ladies and Gentlemen

I thank you for inviting me to address the Limpopo Transport Summit 2003. Comrade Premier – your presence is highly significant and appreciated. It underlines the importance you place on transport – providing infrastructure and transport services. Your leadership has always been inspirational. I have reason to express thanks to you because there have been many occasions that I called on Dr Farisani, your MEC for Transport, for assistance. Sometimes the calls were in the form of an sos. Dr Farisani always responded positively. However, his sense of accountability also always prevailed, because he would always indicate that he was prepared to assist, but that he would need a go-ahead from you, Comrade Premier. And I can say today that over the last few years you have never said no. Thank you for that.

I am also aware of your demands and focus, which are reflected in your leaderhsip, namely that all of us in government must show results which benefit our people, especially the poor.

I share your view that we must not be engaged in process followed by process followed by further process - processes which never end and which never produce results. It is important that we should wherever possible locate our programmes of work within the framework of projects with good project planning, which identifies resources, planning, processes, but above all key results with time frames and monitoring.

Our key performance indicators cannot be on a never never basis. What our people want to see is results which improve their lives. Your presence, Comrade Premier, at this Transport summit, puts us all to terms to deliver results which will help to improve the lives of our people.

I also want to thank Dr Farisani, my colleague in transport and comrade in arms. Your co-operation has been outstanding. Your assistance whenever you were called upon was unhesitating. Thank you for that. You have set an example of co-operation between national and provincial government. The result is good co-operative governance between our two levels of government.

To the Limpopo Department of Transport I also say thank you for helping to build a strong partnership between national and provincial government in transport related matters. Your summit will deal with all important transport issues – road infrastructure, rail infrastructure, transport services, taxi recapitalisation, law enforcement (in various matters such as overloading, vehicle fitness, etc.), airports, financial solutions, freight transport development, human resource development, black economic empowerment, etc. You have invited an array of speakers, who will add value to discussions. My hope is that the discussions will not continue aimlessly, but will focus on finding solutions. The presence of private sector participants and leaders of parastatals does provide us with a reasonable expectation that discussions will lead to solutions to the challenges faced by the transport sector in our country.

In seeking solutions, we must have an overall vision and we do have such a vision in the White Paper on Transport. Arising out of that vision, a number of strategies have been developed, so that over a period of time the objectives stated in our White Paper will be realised. But there are also challenges of an urgent nature to which we must give special attention. In this category is the issue of road safety. We meet at a time when there have been a number of collisions/smashes leading to terrible loss of life. All kinds of vehicles have been involved - trucks, buses, mini-bus taxes and even sedan cars. We have caused these smashes to be investigated by an independent body. We have found that in every single case over the past two months, it is bad driver behaviour or unroadworthiness of vehicles or a combination of the two which have been responsible for these terrible accidents – speed, alcohol, loss of control over vehicles, poor/inadequate brakes, overloading, and also driver fatigue – one of these factors or a combination of them have played a role. Our independent investigations have also shown that in none of these accidents was bad roads responsible for the collision. In every case there was absolutely nothing wrong with the road. In one case there was a bend in the road going downhill. In such a case, you can ask the question: is it the road which is to be blamed, or is it the failure of the driver to take adequate precautions, knowing that he is going downhill and that he has to negotiate a bend. In another case the road was wet. It had been raining. Again it can be asked: is there not an obligation on the driver to adjust speed and his driving generally to the wet conditions? Do you want to blame the wet road for the accident? Elementary training and teaching tell us that when the road is wet, you take additional precautions to make sure that you navigate the road safely. N1 between Beaufort West and De Doorns in the Western Cape is often referred to as a killer road. If you look at the road, there is nothing wrong with the road. It is the drivers who drive at speed or overtake in the face of oncoming traffic or drive without due care and attention. They are often very tired, but do not stop to rest. I am saying that in every case that we have looked at, it is bad driver behaviour or the unroadworthiness of the vehicle or a combination of both, which caused the collision. I have also mentioned overloading. This relates not only to freight transport, but to passenger transport. Often buses and taxis carry more passengers than they are entitled to. They take terrible chances and create dangers not only for themselves, but to occupants and other road users.

Therefore we are facing a very serious challenge. Yes, as I indicated, we face a general ongoing challenge to improve road traffic management throughout the country, but specifically in this period, noting the spate of accidents resulting in such terrible loss of life, our challenge is to put our heads together, work together and find a way to change attitudes and behaviour of drivers, owners of vehicles and road users generally, so as to get them to comply with the rules of the road and thereby save lives. The question is what can we do to compel vehicle owners to accept responsibility for the condition of their vehicles and to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy and safe on our roads. What do we do to compel owners and drivers to desist from overloading their vehicles?. How can we make their failure to comply with rules to be seen in such a serious light, that the penalties and sanctions will far outweigh any benefits which may accrue to them from overloading?. Not only must we make it exorbitantly expensive for vehicle owners and drivers, but make it unaffordable in every respect. Overloading is a very serious problem. The fact of the matter is that today overloading pays. Even though some weigh bridges are in working order and operational and even though many vehicles have been stopped and drivers fined for overloading, there are still far too many who get away with it. What is more, the penalties are inadequate. We must make the penalties and sanctions so severe that overloading will no longer be seen as a profitable enterprise.

In our road to safety strategy we dealt with this issue. A number of suggestions were made to ensure that not only drivers pay the price, but the owners of vehicles also. Overloaders must be stopped and not allowed to continue. Heavy penalties must be imposed upon drivers and action must be taken against owners. Let us make overloading an offence carrying dire consequences for driver and owner.

I have mentioned driver fatigue. This is a problem in respect of trucks, buses and minibus taxis. Often drivers complain that they are under tremendous pressure from their employers to reach their destinations by a certain hour. This means that they have to drive through the night without stopping, despite fatigue. And they do not rest. A sure recipe for disaster.

I mention some of these challenges, not because there is reason to panic. There is no need to panic. I mention them because they feature in your programme and rightly so. I mention them because in the current period these issues have come up and we need to intervene to make a difference in the short term. Yes, we need to continue developing our medium to long term solutions and implement all our programmes in the road to safety strategy. But that is not enough. In the current period we must extract from our strategy and programmes those actions that are relevant to the current crisis. It can be done. About 2 to 3 weeks ago, national and provincial departmental officials met and hammered out a plan of action. I looked at elements of the plan of action and it is a good plan. It is relevant to the issues which I have raised. The core of the plan of action is:

1. Law enforcement

Of course first prize is voluntary law compliance and an acceptance of responsibility by all road users. But law compliance will remain a pipe dream in many instances without effective law enforcement. I know very well that we are dealing here with provincial functions, but is necessary for all the provinces to implement a plan of action to which they have agreed. We must have maximum traffic police visibility and maximum law enforcement. I also know that there is a lack of resources, sometimes a lack of appropriate equipment, and so on. Whilst we will continue to fight for more resources to enable provinces and local governments to employ more traffic police, we need to ensure that we manage resources better and that we engage in strategic deployment, so that there is visible traffic policing where it matters. To the best of our ability we must act against violators of the law. For so long as owners of vehicles and drivers as well as other road users generally hold the belief that they can break the law with impunity and that nothing will happen to them – for so long will there be weak law compliance. Law enforcement and law compliance go hand in hand.

We have agreed in our planning sessions on a zero tolerance approach throughout the country. All our provinces, with the support of national government must act to make it a reality.

2. The second element flows from the first, namely addressing the issue of vehicle fitness. As part of the law enforcement drive, in every province vehicles must be stopped, especially trucks, buses and minibus taxis and checked for roadworthiness. If the vehicle is not roadworthy, it must be removed from the road. Drastic action must be taken and heavy penalties imposed. Where owners persist, action must be taken against the owners as well.

3. The third area is driver fitness. It also relates to law enforcement. Vehicles must be stopped and the documentation of drivers must be examined. Where a driver does not have a valid driver’s licence, he or she must be removed from behind the wheel and not allowed to continue. Again tough action and penalties must follow.

4. The fourth element of the plan of action is dealing with overloading. In the short term overloaded vehicles must be stopped and not allowed to continue. Heavy penalties must be imposed, not only against the drivers, but against owners of vehicles.

5. The fifth element is dealing with driver fatigue. In some provinces already, compulsory stops have been organised. In addition to checking on vehicle and driver fitness, drivers must be compelled to take a break and to rest. This is an area which we need to investigate more seriously, because action should be taken against owners where unreasonable targets are set which compel drivers to drive for hours on end without stopping. Vehicles must be stopped and not allowed to continue until drivers have rested sufficiently. Of course the law requires that in respect of the type of vehicles to which I have referred, there should be two drivers. But even this does not help where drivers are compelled to work under tremendous pressure and to reach their destinations by a particular hour. In these instances it is not only driver fatigue which is involved, but also speeding and often reckless and negligent driving, when drivers hope to make up time.

6. Intensification of the arrive alive campaign to help change attitudes and behaviour.

This six point plan was put forward at the last consultation between national and provinces. We must implement the plan and assist each other. From the side of national, we will do whatever we can to support the provinces in the actions which they take.

Friends, let me also commend the Gauteng Government for speedily starting implementation of the project which is called operation juggernaut. I also need not remind you that in terms of our vision for the future, local authorities and provinces will be largely responsible for the development of integrated transport plans. It becomes urgently necessary that sufficient capacity be developed to enable the various authorities to comply.

I am currently consulting with my officials with a view to coming up with a novel medium term plan relating to the implementation of AARTO (the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences), policing on national roads and a sweeping programme to promote vehicle fitness. As soon as we have prepared and are ready with the draft, we will be consulting with our colleagues in the provinces. Of course we will rely on the officials to assist us. This can be an exciting programme which can solve many of our problems, provided of course we receive the necessary resources. We will persist to develop the plan and if we obtain approval, we will interact with treasury and national cabinet to secure support.

The situation on our roads is such that drastic action is necessary in the short to medium term and I am confident that at cabinet level I will receive a sympathetic ear.

I have spent a great deal of time on road traffic management issues, because of the serious challenges which we are facing. I raise them, because I am confident that we can turn the tide and begin to change the situation for the better. I hope that this summit will assist in refining the solutions which we must implement with almost immediate effect.

Allow me to conclude by wishing you a very successful summit. I look forward to the results of the discussions with great eagerness.

Thank you.

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