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Date
: 23/06/2003
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
Title: Ndebele: Focus on road deaths & youth road safety
campaigns
KWAZULU-NATAL DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT FOCUS ON YOUTH UPDATE ON ROAD
DEATHS AND ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGNS FOR THE YOUTH BY THE HONOURABLE
MINISTER OF TRANSPORT MR SIBUSISO NDEBELE, Kwazulu-Natal
Legislature, 23 June 2003
Mr Speaker
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Members of the Transport Portfolio Committee
Friends of the Department of Transport
Distinguished Guests
Fellow Citizens
Both the church and roads have their critics. However the
fundamental commonality between the church and the road is that
they are the only certain route for human beings to get to their
ultimate destinations.
The department has been at the forefront of the country's road
safety initiatives. There are several programmes that have been
started in the province that have ended up as national plans. We
speak here of programmes such as Asiphephe which has now been
termed Arrive Alive, the Public Transport Enforcement Unit (PTEU)
and the Taxi Industry Skills Development Project, among others.
These entire programmes have been done with one thing in mind - the
safety of our people. Among our people we do, off course, include
our youth, whose month we celebrate now.
There is no doubt that the youth have always played a catalytic
role in the development and liberation of South Africa. It was the
youth of 1876, primarily young women, who dared to demand the
freedom of choice - the right not to be assigned a husband but to
choose their life partner out of their own free will. These were
women of the Ingcugce regiment. That right is now ensured in our
democratic constitution. Exactly 100 years later in 1976, the youth
again produced further significant changes to our society. It is
therefore our duty as adults in the seats of power to assist the
future leaders - our children - in realising their full potential.
No dream can be realised when the dreamer's life has been snuffed
out.
ROAD SAFETY YOUTH PROGRAMMES
The Department of Transport through the Road Safety directorate has
three programmes in place that focus on the youth directly. There
is the Young Road User. This programme targets the junior
pedestrian aged three to 14. The activities include Child in
Traffic, Scholar Patrol and Integration into school curriculum.
Over 1860 child in traffic workshops were held in each region of
the department reaching 338 schools and training 282 000
learners.
The second programme is the participatory Education Techniques
project. The target audience here is secondary school pupils
between 14 and 18 years of age. Pupils are required to identify and
find solutions to a road safety problem in and around their school
environment. These problems are then evaluated by engineers and
road safety experts and the winning school's programme is
implemented by the road safety section.
Thirdly, we also have the student Driver Education Project. Youth
aged 16 years and older are instructed in the K53 method of
driving. Presently, this project is held within the Community Road
Safety Councils. Three members of the community will be identified
by each Community Road Safety Council and these youths will be
trained at workshops before they commence their annual driving
instructions.
THE PUBLIC INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME
Another way of ensuring the safety of young people is to stop them
from wondering and exposing themselves to road related dangers.
This we can do successfully with programmes that keep them occupied
and doing socially meaningful activities.
Last year, the National Cabinet approved the National Youth
Development Policy Framework. This policy addresses youth
development across all sectors. It endeavours to ensure that young
women and men are given meaningful opportunities to reach their
full potential.
The National Youth Development Policy Framework 2002 - 2007 states
the following and I quote:
'Youth Development is part of building a non-sexist, non-racist
democratic South Africa and it should be approached in a similar
manner and similar vigour as other crucial areas in need of
transformation - visual disability, gender and economic
participation. This should be done in line with Government's broad
approach to fundamentally address poverty and underdevelopment
through comprehensive, integrated, cross sectoral and sustainable
policies and programmes.'
At the recent Growth and Development Summit, at which the youth
sector was represented, one of the agreements was to create more
jobs, better jobs and decent jobs for all. It was then agreed that
a range of immediate interventions were required and agreement was
reached on the following:
* To intensify public works programmes and public investment
initiatives
As the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport we will be the first
government department to implement these agreements and also to
respond to the President's call of Vukuzenzele.
I am happy that after discussions with the Chief Executive Officer
of the Umsobomvu Fund, Mr. Malose Kekana, we have agreed that we
would intensify the involvement of the youth in our programmes and
to provide training and temporal work for the unemployed youth to
carryout socially useful activities. These programmes will equip
young people with training and work experience which should enhance
their ability to earn a living in the future.
These are the objectives of the Department of Transport and
Umsobomvu Youth Fund Service Project:
* To enhance the Department of Transport service delivery capacity
and increase efficiency by reaching out to communities through the
Youth Service Project
* To contribute to reducing youth unemployment by selected youth in
a project that enhanced their employability
* To support the National Human Resource Strategy by providing
training and work experience and opportunities to unemployed
youth.
The project seeks to achieve these objectives by taking
participants through relevant technical training, posting them in
selected regions and directorates within the department of
transport and assisting them access sustainable economic
opportunities at the end of this 12 months venture.
The youth will be trained by an accredited tertiary institution on
both technical and administration skills. We will also engage the
Road Accident Fund to provide training on their role and claims
procedures so that we can also use our One Stop Shops as a place
where crash victims and families can claim.
These young people will also be given an opportunity to participate
in road construction and maintenance programmes to ensure that we
accelerate the pace of delivery especially in rural areas. The
course will also include the private sector in this programme
requesting them to absorb those who successfully complete the youth
service programme.
Success indicators will have to be drawn by both partners and must
be objectively verified. The Memorandum of Understanding will
sufficiently cover all partners' roles and obligations to ensure
that goals of this project are met.
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
It is also not a secret that we continue to have many of our loved
ones perish on the roads each year. During the month of April 56
people died on our roads. A further 58 people died in May and up to
20 June 2003. We still find that more pedestrians die on our roads
each year than other road users. For instance during the Easter
period, between 25 and 28 April 2003, the death toll statistical
breakdown for this Province was as follows:
Seeing these statistics therefore compels us to look more closely
at the pedestrian safety in the province as research tells that
pedestrians are the most vulnerable group of road users.
Research conducted by the University of Natal Interdisciplinary
Accident Research Centre (Uniarc) highlights that road users
perceived the Edendale road to be unsafe. Statistics proved that
this was one of the Province's most dangerous roads as far as
pedestrian collisions were concerned. The KZN Department of
Transport installed a pedestrian bridge over the Edendale road.
Since the bridge was opened for use there has been no reported
fatality involving pedestrians in this area. This bears testimony
to the department's resolve to reduce road related collisions in
partnership with the community.
As further way of ensuring that the whole community is safe,
including the youth, we have installed intelligent road studs, and
recently launched them, in the Melmoth to Ulundi road. The
department has introduced groundbreaking technology promising to
dramatically curb the rate of accidents happening at night on the
province's roads. The self-illuminating studs or "cat eyes" light
up road markings a way ahead of the vehicle and even in worse
weather conditions.
The Ulundi-Melmoth road is characterised by many bends and rises.
In addition sections of the road frequently experience poor weather
conditions especially fog. Under the circumstances conventional
studs, which work on the reflection of the car's headlight, had
been ineffective and night driving in particular had been
hazardous. We have chosen the road for piloting the new Intelligent
Road Studs (IRS).
Most of deaths in the area were fatalities during the night, and
with the road studs which are clearly visible from almost 800
metres, it has saved many lives.
The 10 times extended visibility ahead means that the driver has
enough reaction time to a road hazard. There had been no accidents
in the six months of the project. The new technology, which uses
solar cell, has many other applications, including lighting up
pedestrian crossings. According to the suppliers of the IRS in the
US there had been 80% reduction in crashes at pedestrian crossings.
We will roll out the project on to the rest of the province.
SIYABONA BONAKALA
The process of re-issuing driver's licences to some 700 000
citizens of the province has brought to the fore some interesting
areas of concern. Failure rates of the eye tests offered at testing
stations beg the question: how many people on our roads cannot see
clearly, and how does this impact on the ability of our citizens to
drive safely - especially at night. Another question is whether the
public transport drivers, especially taxi drivers, are themselves
roadworthy?
The department has, as per international standards, always examined
issues of sobriety, fatigue and vehicular condition. However, no
attempt has been made to clarify whether there is a link between
the accident, and the driver's ability to see clearly.
Of course, you may say, every person with a licence has had an eye
test. However, we wish to say instead that, not only should they be
fit to pass the test, but that they can see twice as well as that
test demands - with 6/6, perfect vision. Fellow road-users deserve
nothing less, and there should be as little margin for error as
possible.
Though optometry services and glasses supply is just becoming
available in some public hospitals of KwaZulu-Natal, the urgency of
the question of vision and road safety compels the department to
take a serious and pro-active stance.
The campaign "Siyabona Bonakala" will be launched to ensure that
all those who drive on our roads, can see clearly. Those who fall
under the auspices of the transport department: bus services, taxi
services, and ultimately all those who drive government vehicles,
must be screened by a professional, and given a pair of affordable
spectacles if they need them. We are proposing that a basic pair of
glasses should cost between R60 and R250, depending on the
prescription. We therefore want to introduce public sector delivery
of eye care services and in the process produce a model for eye
care in the public sector for the ultimate benefit of the
patient.
The debate of whether drivers can see clearly must always be
married with a programme that will assist those who can't. No
government wishes to enforce legislation with the concurrent
fall-out of making criminals of those who simply cannot afford the
solution.
In the case of vision and vision screening - for which there are
bound to be failures - legislation allows for persons who have
failed the eye test to approach an optometrist. This person will
then be supplied with glasses. However, the sad fact of this
country is that it is precisely those who fail, who just don't have
glasses simply because they cannot afford them.
In this way, a driver, who may be the sole breadwinner, will lose
his licence, lose his job, and in this way, whole families are
condemned to lives of poverty. It is not our intention to enforce
legislation, and paralyse a person's ability to earn. Let it never
be said that a family must starve simply because the principle
breadwinner cannot afford a pair of glasses.
The department therefore undertakes - through a series of strategic
alliances - to ensure that optometrists are made available, and
glasses are made affordable to all those who fall under our
umbrella. People also need to be screened for those diseases which
impact on vision: our chronic diseases of diabetes, hypertension
and glaucoma. Any of these can rob a person of their sight - and we
must ensure that those who rely on their sight to earn a living
need not live in fear of losing their sight if this is
preventable.
Not only will we then be able to say, that those on our roads who
drive are able to see clearly, we are also able to contribute
significantly to improving the quality of life of all our
citizens.
The "Siyabona Bonakala" campaign will initially focus on ensuring
that the eye screening procedures employed in our traffic
directorates across the province are entirely uniform. This
training will be undertaken by an optometrist in August. This is to
ensure that whatever screening takes place is of the same standard
as that offered currently to those who have their eyes screened in
private practices.
This standardization will also allow for the statistical evaluation
of the extent to which poor vision currently impacts on the ability
of our citizens to drive safely. This long-term strategy will
supplement the department's commitment to addressing this issue as
a matter of urgency.
We are also committed to joining hands with the private sector. The
third-biggest block of road users are those employed as long-haul
truck drivers. If business can ensure that their drivers have been
screened and offered affordable spectacles, they will adopt a
significant role in stemming the carnage on our roads.
"Siyabona Bonakala" will examine issues of visibility on our roads.
The majority of our road deaths involve pedestrians, and the
"Siyabona Bonakala" campaign will concentrate, among other areas,
on school children - currently walking to school in the dark,
re-claiming our pavements and rural pedestrians who at night may be
invisible to the taxi they are trying to hail.
The department is confident that in pro-actively addressing the
issue of whether people can see, and be seen, we will move forward
significantly in addressing previously unidentified areas of
concern.
THE PUBLIC INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME
Road crashes have become almost a part of South Africa's public
transport landscape. Ever so frequently do we hear, see or read
about a bus or taxi that has overturned and killed numerous
passengers in the process. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of
Transport condemns these kinds of incidents, as they are
unnecessary and uncalled for. Passengers board taxis and buses to
reach the destinations safely and comfortably, not to be harassed
and ultimately killed in road crashes.
It is a well-known fact that more than 65 per cent of people in
South Africa use taxis as their mode of transport. It is also true
that the taxi industry has been characterised by chaos and violence
caused by neglect during Apartheid years. As early as 1995, the
National Taxi Task Team identified lack of education and training
as one of the major hindrances to economic development and
contributory factor to the high taxi related taxi road crashes and
disputes. This factor also formed part of the recommendations of
the Alexandra Commission. To respond to these recommendations, the
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport took an initiative to
implement the skills development programme for the taxi industry in
the province.
In 1998 the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport initiated
training sessions for taxi drivers in Port Shepstone,
Pietermaritzburg, Wentworth and Empangeni.
This training focused on driver training attitudes, advanced driver
training, customer care and anti-hijacking. The success of the
training motivated the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport to
start working with the Transport Education and Training Authority
(TETA) in 2001 with the aim of providing education and training,
which is in line with the National Skills Development Strategy. The
ultimate goal of the whole exercise was the formalization,
democratisation and legalization of the taxi industry so that it
could compete equally with other professional businesses.
Before outlining facts about the Nquthu Taxi Driver Training
Project, I think it is necessary to state that:
* there are 22 000 minibuses in KwaZulu-Natal
* the taxi industry in KwaZulu-Natal spends about R2.5 million
monthly on fuel
* the taxi industry in KwaZulu-Natal spends about R20 million per
month on insurance
* the taxi industry in KwaZulu-Natal spends about R2.5 million
monthly on repairs
Having outlined the state of the taxi industry in KwaZulu-Natal, I
feel it is important to explain certain fundamental facts about the
skills development project at Nquthu. The KwaZulu-Natal department
of Transport, in co-operation with the taxi industry has completed
a pilot project in Nquthu training 150 taxi drivers and 150 taxi
owners in road safety and business development management. Of all
the people who registered for this course we have had 100%
attendance and participation. We achieved this with co-operation
from the local municipality and the local taxi industry. With 252
taxi associations in existence one would wonder how Nquthu became a
pilot site. KWANATACO set certain criteria for the launch of this
Project and based on the standards described below:
* The site must be organised, disciplined and violence free
* The site must be from a rural area * Travelling and training
centres must be at minimum costs in terms of transport and
time
The KZN Transport Department has invested R1, 2 million in this
groundbreaking project (a first in the whole country) and its
success has guaranteed that we will be extending the venture to
other regions of KwaZulu-Natal and to other provinces.
For this financial year, we have budgeted another R1.2 million for
this project. In August we will start with the second leg of this
project by training the 160 executive members of the regional taxi
councils. This will then be followed by training of another 200
drivers from across the province selected by their regional taxi
councils. This project will continue for the coming three years to
cover all 22 000 taxi drivers currently on our database.
Our approach to Road Safety is that we wish to include everyone who
uses private and public roads in our campaigns to save lives. We
have to date approached the executive of the KwaZulu-Natal
Agricultural Union (KWANALU) with the intention to assess the
number and distribution of driver-training centres in the
agricultural sector. We also wished to determine gaps where they
existed with a view to providing a service that would meet the
needs of small scale farmers. It is anticipated that the department
of Agriculture will play a cooperation and supportive role in this
process. The Road Traffic Inspectorate will coordinate the testing
of drivers and support driver training. To this effect we have
already ordered over 2000 IsiZulu learner's license instruction
guides to be used as teaching material.
Whereas, presently most of the driver training facilities for the
agricultural sector are in the hands of the corporate, it will be
necessary to extend such training to emerging farmers.
CONCLUSION
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport is very much committed to
Zero Tolerance. As I have indicated, our Zero Tolerance goes hand
in hand with education and training. You will recall that on 6 May
during a memorial service of the 13 children that died in a taxi
crash at Emalangeni in Umzinto, I promised to expedite the process
of skills development within the taxi industry and I mentioned
specifically this Project as one of our efforts in ensuring skills
development in this sector.
You will also remember that the incident was caused by two taxi
drivers were playing a game called 'Chicken'. When we launched the
Public Transport Enforcement Unit on 26 August last year, the
primary objective was to make a safe road environment through
enforcement of traffic regulations within the public transport
industry of which, youth; pedestrians and taxis form part. Thus,
with the success of these projects all components of our Zero
Tolerance Campaign are to be accomplished. We cannot allow our
youth to continue being robbed of a bright future by road
collisions. It is the reason why we say road safety is something
that you don't do TO a community; it is something that you do WITH
a community Asiphephe!
I thank you.
Issued by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
23 June 2003
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