 
SPEECH BY THE KWAZULU-NATAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, MR S’BU NDEBELE DURING THE ROAD SAFETY PARTNERSHIP LAUNCH WITH THE RICHARDS BAY MINERALS (RBM)3 April 2004 His Worship the Mayor of Kwambonambi
We are gathered here today to launch the first Road Safety Partnership of its kind between a Transport Department and a major company. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport in conjunction with the Richards Bay Minerals have signed a Road Safety Partnership. This initiative is a holistic one and will cover a period of five years during which two full-time officers from our Department will be seconded to the Project with support from RBM security and our Road Safety Directorate. This is a mutually beneficial partnership between the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport and Richards Bay Minerals (RBM). On our side as the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport we will perform all enforcement activities, heavy motor vehicle inspections, ad hoc road safety educational activities. We will staff and operate public roads within the mining lease on a permanent basis. We will also perform render the following services:
Our partnership with RBM comes shortly after we launched our Easter Holidays Road Safety Plan together with other ventures. Our road safety programmes do not occur in isolation to other areas of human activity. We work within the parameters of national and international spheres of co-operation. For instance our Easter Road Safety Plan has been structured and integrated to support both the United Nations Road Safety week, which runs from 5th to 11th April 2004. The World Health Organisation under the auspices of the United Nations has declared 7th April 2004, World Health Day on Road Safety. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport will commemorate this day by holding a Prayer Day at the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium on April 7 commencing at 10h00 under the theme, "Road Safety is no Accident". I would like to take this opportunity to personally invite each one of you to show your commitment to road safety by supporting this event. The focus on the concept of self-policing is being given priority to ensure that road users take the responsibility for safer roads and make road safety everybody’s business. This concept is reinforced through our Mpimpa hotline. The aim of this line is ensure that road safety becomes everybody’s business by affording all road users the opportunity of reporting road users that break the law. These added challenges, is more reason why we require support from all road users to ensure that they do their individual bit to ensure safety on our roads. We also want to encourage all motorists to support our "Day Time Running Lights Campaign" by ensuring that you drive with your headlamps on during the day. I believe one has outlined some of the major activities that our Department will be involved in during this Easter period and I do not want to end without congratulating RBM for the marvellous job they continue to do with regards to road safety. Very few companies invest in human safety in general, let alone in the safety of road users. Too often there is a general predilection towards capital investments to the utter disregard of human assets as if the lives of people do not matter. This kind of thinking is not new. It is an incorrect understanding of John Stuart Mill’s economic philosophy of utilitarianism that judges the value of certain human activities in terms of their economic usefulness. Today the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport, together with the Richards Bay Minerals wants to bury this false notion six feet underground. For those of you who may not be aware of all road crimes, I want to re-emphasize the following: It is a crime to jaywalk. I thank you.
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