October is Transport Month annually in South Africa and as is usual, it has kicked off to much fanfare at a New Age Breakfast Briefing held in Sandton this morning. This despite the fact that the fact that the “National Road Safety Summit 2014” which was due to run from 30 September to 2 October was summarily cancelled on 11 September and notification sent to some invitees on 29 September 2014, one day before the event.

Several resolutions were adopted at last year’s Summit hosted by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters, amongst them:

• Sorting out the AARTO Act and its associated points-demerit system and getting it rolled out nationally;
• Bringing about changes to the requirements of Professional Driving Permits so as to require public transport drivers to undergo specialised skills training and testing;
• Bringing about changes to legislation to prevent the transportation of passengers on the back of bakkies and trucks; and
• The formation of a National Road Safety Advisory Council.
• This year’s summit has been summarily cancelled and/or postponed to 2015 “after serious consideration of the insufficient progress made on resolutions taken at the inaugural Summit in 2013 by various stakeholders and key drivers” says the letter.

Justice Project South Africa, whose representatives wasted their time at last year’s Summit, wishes to express its sincere disappointment and regret that yet another “talkshop” has been allowed to take place with not one single agency being held accountable for the resolutions THEY committed to deliver on by the time this year’s Summit came around.

NGOs have a role to play in bringing about greater road safety, but they cannot do it on their own and they certainly cannot make any progress without the cooperation and blessing of Government. For the Minister to cancel this year’s event in order to avoid embarrassment is not acceptable and bears testimony to the lack of any accountability that exists in the Department of Transport and its State Owned Enterprises.

It seems that Government, (like JPSA to a certain extent admittedly) has been far too distracted by the importance of rolling out e-tolling which is seen as a way to generate revenue to focus on road safety issues which typically cost money to implement. This is very sad indeed, given the fact that approximately 17,000 people die and well over 100,000 are injured on our roads annually.

It’s also remarkable to note how many road traffic events have suddenly been taking place in the Northern Cape, where Minister Peters hails from, despite the fact that it is the safest province in the country in which to drive and the least in need of road safety projects.

Until such time as individuals with the power to bring about change take real responsibility for the situation, nothing is going to change and blood will continue to drip from the hands that have played the proverbial fiddle and raked in salaries for not doing their jobs while South Africans get killed and mutilated on our roads.

Issued by JPSA