Date: 27/05/2003
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
Title: Ndebele: KwaZulu-Natal Inter-faith Transport Imbizo
NOTES FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE SPEECH BY THE KWAZULU-NATAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, MR S'BU NDEBELE, DURING THE MEETING OF CHURCH LEADERS ON ROAD SAFETY, 27 May 2003
Master of Ceremonies
His Worship, Councillor Obed Mlaba, Mayor of EThekwini Municipality
Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile
Head of Eastern Cape Department of Transport and Staff
Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa, CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport
Ministers of Religion present
Distinguished guests
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good Morning, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all in our meeting to design the programme of action to deal with road safety by appealing to God who is our source of strength. I would like to first thank all ministers of religion for their presence here today and the commitment they have shown with regards to road safety matters.
Church leaders have a very long and good history of participation in programmes aimed at the betterment of the human condition. When the whole of Africa was trapped under the gripping yoke of European slavery, church leaders stood up and faced the might of European armies. When the evils of segregation, racism and colonialism stood in the way of black advancement, church leaders stood up and not only won the struggle but in the process produced Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. During the darkest days of apartheid when neither time nor our mortal efforts seemed to be winning the battle, the church became the last beacon of hope for millions who were oppressed then.
I believe the role of the church is still relevant even during the democratic dispensation where we have new and totally different challenges. In our Road Safety Strategy we do have church leaders as part of the broader civil society that we work with. We have held church leaders' meetings, prayer meetings, workshops and seminars during which we delved into road safety matters. Thus, we have increased civil society participation on road safety matters to include even the church.
It will be remembered that as early as 1997 the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport, with the support of the people of KwaZulu-Natal embarked on the Siyabakhumbula Campaign to remember and honour all those who passed away in road crashes in South Africa. This was a widely publicised campaign in which both His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini and Former President Mandela attended. This was also the same year when we started the Asiphephe Project that utilises enforcement, education and media campaigns. We have just emerged from the Easter holiday period during which we embarked upon a heightened period of enforcement, education and media campaign. In this regard our road safety campaign was balanced up by the law enforcement actions of our Public Transport Enforcement Unit (PTEU) through Operation Shanela.
I set up the PTEU in order to deal with the enforcement part of road safety. As early as 2001 the National Department of Transport released figures indicating that during the five days over the Easter weekend in 1999, 35 people in KwaZulu-Natal lost their lives. During the same time in the year 2000, this figure was reduced to 28, a saving of seven lives over a short period. That constituted a 20% reduction and even superseded our target of a 14% per annum reduction in fatalities over a five-year period.
There is an indication that everything is still on track towards the saving of 3500 lives by the end of this year in terms of our road safety programme. However, saving lives on the road is beyond the capacity of one stakeholder as it involves the commitment of all of us or else our whole effort is doomed, as Paul Tillich, the German theologian explains: "understanding the ambiguity of one's greatest achievements and greatest failures is the beginning of spiritual maturity". No achievement or failure is solely individual or departmental. The whole society is involved in either instance.
Having worked tirelessly to curb road carnage, we witnessed one of the most gruesome incidents of carnage in which 14 workers died in a terrible accident in Melmoth. During the same month, 13 children died at Emalangeni when two taxi drivers were "playing" a dangerous game called "ukugeyima". As if that was not enough, South Africa witnessed one of the most terrible incidents during this decade when a bus carrying more than 60 workers plunged into a dam in the Free State on 1 May. Nine days later Mrs Lindiwe and Lindithemba Kubheka, wife and son of Mr Themba Kubheka, our Ambassador to China, passed away in a gruesome crash in the Pinetown off-ramp on Saturday, 10 May. These incidents are extremely traumatising even to read in a newspaper - how much more to the family members. The list of gruesome incidents is endless and as the Minister responsible for road safety in KwaZulu-Natal I am deeply concerned and worried by the spate of road crashes year after year. I thought it would be a good idea for us as the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport to work together with community leaders, such as you, in addressing this problem.
It is my fervent hope, therefore, that today's meeting will be a very fruitful one and that with the power of the Lord, the evil of road carnage will be substantially minimised. Through the collective power of wisdom gathered in this hall, I know that we will be able to come up with suggestions that can help in reducing this road carnage. We have been hoping that through our various road safety programmes we would be able to have a voluntary compliance in the driving community. Alas, we have not succeeded in getting drivers and other road users to self-regulate. As a result, we have no other choice but increase enforcement. If you thought you had seen zero tolerance, you have not seen anything yet. Our main objective is to reach voluntary compliance of the traffic law by the driving public. We know and understand that road safety is not something one does TO a community but it is something that can only be done WITH the community. Together, we have shouted "Amandla" in fighting the scourge of apartheid, now, let's again together say "Amandla" and unite in fighting this evil.
I thank you.
Issued by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
Title: Ndebele: KwaZulu-Natal Inter-faith Transport Imbizo
NOTES FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE SPEECH BY THE KWAZULU-NATAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, MR S'BU NDEBELE, DURING THE MEETING OF CHURCH LEADERS ON ROAD SAFETY, 27 May 2003
Master of Ceremonies
His Worship, Councillor Obed Mlaba, Mayor of EThekwini Municipality
Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile
Head of Eastern Cape Department of Transport and Staff
Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa, CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport
Ministers of Religion present
Distinguished guests
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good Morning, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all in our meeting to design the programme of action to deal with road safety by appealing to God who is our source of strength. I would like to first thank all ministers of religion for their presence here today and the commitment they have shown with regards to road safety matters.
Church leaders have a very long and good history of participation in programmes aimed at the betterment of the human condition. When the whole of Africa was trapped under the gripping yoke of European slavery, church leaders stood up and faced the might of European armies. When the evils of segregation, racism and colonialism stood in the way of black advancement, church leaders stood up and not only won the struggle but in the process produced Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. During the darkest days of apartheid when neither time nor our mortal efforts seemed to be winning the battle, the church became the last beacon of hope for millions who were oppressed then.
I believe the role of the church is still relevant even during the democratic dispensation where we have new and totally different challenges. In our Road Safety Strategy we do have church leaders as part of the broader civil society that we work with. We have held church leaders' meetings, prayer meetings, workshops and seminars during which we delved into road safety matters. Thus, we have increased civil society participation on road safety matters to include even the church.
It will be remembered that as early as 1997 the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport, with the support of the people of KwaZulu-Natal embarked on the Siyabakhumbula Campaign to remember and honour all those who passed away in road crashes in South Africa. This was a widely publicised campaign in which both His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini and Former President Mandela attended. This was also the same year when we started the Asiphephe Project that utilises enforcement, education and media campaigns. We have just emerged from the Easter holiday period during which we embarked upon a heightened period of enforcement, education and media campaign. In this regard our road safety campaign was balanced up by the law enforcement actions of our Public Transport Enforcement Unit (PTEU) through Operation Shanela.
I set up the PTEU in order to deal with the enforcement part of road safety. As early as 2001 the National Department of Transport released figures indicating that during the five days over the Easter weekend in 1999, 35 people in KwaZulu-Natal lost their lives. During the same time in the year 2000, this figure was reduced to 28, a saving of seven lives over a short period. That constituted a 20% reduction and even superseded our target of a 14% per annum reduction in fatalities over a five-year period.
There is an indication that everything is still on track towards the saving of 3500 lives by the end of this year in terms of our road safety programme. However, saving lives on the road is beyond the capacity of one stakeholder as it involves the commitment of all of us or else our whole effort is doomed, as Paul Tillich, the German theologian explains: "understanding the ambiguity of one's greatest achievements and greatest failures is the beginning of spiritual maturity". No achievement or failure is solely individual or departmental. The whole society is involved in either instance.
Having worked tirelessly to curb road carnage, we witnessed one of the most gruesome incidents of carnage in which 14 workers died in a terrible accident in Melmoth. During the same month, 13 children died at Emalangeni when two taxi drivers were "playing" a dangerous game called "ukugeyima". As if that was not enough, South Africa witnessed one of the most terrible incidents during this decade when a bus carrying more than 60 workers plunged into a dam in the Free State on 1 May. Nine days later Mrs Lindiwe and Lindithemba Kubheka, wife and son of Mr Themba Kubheka, our Ambassador to China, passed away in a gruesome crash in the Pinetown off-ramp on Saturday, 10 May. These incidents are extremely traumatising even to read in a newspaper - how much more to the family members. The list of gruesome incidents is endless and as the Minister responsible for road safety in KwaZulu-Natal I am deeply concerned and worried by the spate of road crashes year after year. I thought it would be a good idea for us as the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport to work together with community leaders, such as you, in addressing this problem.
It is my fervent hope, therefore, that today's meeting will be a very fruitful one and that with the power of the Lord, the evil of road carnage will be substantially minimised. Through the collective power of wisdom gathered in this hall, I know that we will be able to come up with suggestions that can help in reducing this road carnage. We have been hoping that through our various road safety programmes we would be able to have a voluntary compliance in the driving community. Alas, we have not succeeded in getting drivers and other road users to self-regulate. As a result, we have no other choice but increase enforcement. If you thought you had seen zero tolerance, you have not seen anything yet. Our main objective is to reach voluntary compliance of the traffic law by the driving public. We know and understand that road safety is not something one does TO a community but it is something that can only be done WITH the community. Together, we have shouted "Amandla" in fighting the scourge of apartheid, now, let's again together say "Amandla" and unite in fighting this evil.
I thank you.
Issued by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
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