Deputy Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga

RTMC Chairman Zola Majavu

RTMC CEO Advocate Makhosini Msibi

RAF CEO Eugene Watson

The Deputy Director General Chris Hlabisa

Executive Managers

The media

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are gathered here to account for the consequences of people’s behaviour and choices. The attitudes and irresponsible choices of our road users continue unabated to cause loss of lives on our roads. I have taken an extra-ordinary decision to brief you about road safety figures for the past long weekend.

Ordinarily we have a media briefing session after the Easter and Festive season holiday periods, but we have decided to brief you at the end of this year’s Workers’ Day long weekend which has been an exception by the nature of the extended holidays we had during this period and the fact that the road safety programme is a 365 day 24/7 programme.

The past extra-ordinary long weekend was one of the longest holiday periods on our country’s calendar. It started on April 27 Freedom Day as many people took two days leave extending right up to Workers’ Day holiday which was on Monday because May 1 fell on a Sunday, making this a six-day holiday period.

This period coincided with payday for many people as well as religious pilgrimages for others. These factors encouraged travelling and an increase in traffic volumes on the roads. We know that payday weekends are generally characterised by high levels of alcohol abuse and this long weekend was not an exception.

These factors conspired to ensure that this past long weekend was one of the most sad moments in the history of our country with many lives lost on the roads and scores injured. I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of government, to send our deepest condolences to families and friends for the loss of their loved ones and wish those who were injured a speedy recovery.

I was particularly perturbed by the four major collisions that claimed about 30 lives throughout the country. The major collisions were in Randfontein, in Gauteng, where 15 lives were lost when a truck collided with a minibus taxi; in the Western Cape five people were killed when an SUV crashed into a sedan in George. In Limpopo nine people died when a minibus crashed into a trailer near Nylplaza in Mokopane and one person died in a multiple car collision involving four cars on the N2 between East London and Mooiplaas in the Eastern Cape. Most worrying are the cause of these major crashes which include drunk driving, overtaking when it is unsafe to do so, reckless and negligent driving as well as speeding.

The major crashes were mainly caused by the minibuses and freight transport and this is quite a significant number and too ghastly to contemplate.

The country experienced 179 fatal collisions from April 29 to May 2 with 237 lives lost. It is worth noting that in the same period under review in the previous year there was an unprecedented increase in the road crashes as well as fatalities.

In 2015 we had 130 fatal crashes and 131 fatalities as opposed to the current figures experienced over the past weekend. By any measure of standards, we are all unanimous that an increase of 106 fatalities is a cause for concern.

I would like to express support to Wits University and the ZCC Church in their laudable endeavours to identify the seven students who perished in that gruesome collision near Mokopane. I hope that the forensic and pathological services would work diligently and with speed to assist families and friends to find closure.

To ensure improved safety on the roads, I have instructed the RTMC to speedy the process of establishing the Traffic Law Enforcement Review Committee to deal amongst others with the determination of norms and standards for the traffic law enforcement fraternity as well as the integration of all traffic law enforcers. Invitations for nominations for the establishment of the Traffic Law Enforcement Review Committee will be widely publicised with a view of recruiting appropriate and relevant skills.

The intensified collaboration and engagement between the Department of Public Service Administration, the RTMC, provincial governments and labour formations will pave the way for the introduction of a 24/7 work shift within the traffic law enforcement fraternity ensuring the availability of officers on the road at all material times.

Informed by the ever escalating road carnages I urge the RTMC to move with urgency and unprecedented speed to conclude engagements with the Department of Justice and Correctional Services as well as the National Prosecuting Authority to reschedule traffic offences with a view of introducing mandatory minimum sentences.

As Winston Churchill once observed: “The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.”

In the recent past, things have looked much better and promising and we could see light at the end of the tunnel. But today things are so bad, really bad that many of our people, fathers, mothers, children, the rich and the poor alike are immensely affected by the scourge of road carnage that is wiping our loved ones mercilessly.

The words of Charles Dickens in his book, The Tale of Two Cities, find resonance in this period. Indeed it was the best of times and the worst of times. Of course, there is still a lot of needless suffering in the world, but overall, now is a better time to live than at any other time in history.

The even deeper effect of road carnage has to do with the reality of the individual being an aspect of everything, as well as a unique life. That concept is universal in all cultures by different names. Yet once it is fully opened to, life changes and becomes freer and the individual seems to be able to affect the environment to become supportive and this is our desired destiny and we will spare no effort and leave no stone unturned in ensuring that our roads are safe.

We are not disillusioned nor over ambitious, nobody ever said that it will be easy. The road we traverse is full of challenges and there are many detours since this road is under construction and this detour is nothing else but a temporary inconvenience and this too shall come to pass.

We have completed the process including the engagement on the development of the Road Safety Strategy which process included robust engagement with Provinces, Municipalities, Road Safety organisations, business, academics, CBOs and NGOs. We will soon be tabling the strategy in the NEDLAC and subsequently submit the strategy to the Cabinet for approval.

I thank you all