DURBAN, TUESDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 1998
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, welcome and thank you for attending our briefing this morning. I also welcome the members of the Road Safety Board whom I will introduce later, and the officials of the Department of Transport.
Road safety has been a priority issue on the agenda of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport since 1995 when we launched Project Victoria, but it shot to public prominence with the advent of Siyabakhumbula last year. August 1997 was dedicated to remembering those who died in road crashes and mass memorial services in different centres in the province allowed thousands of people to unite in their grief.
Quick on the heels of Siyabakhumbula came Arrive Alive which combined heightened enforcement with a plethora of hard-hitting media images, messages and graphic advertisements. Although this was a national campaign, Arrive Alive allowed us in KwaZulu-Natal to reinforce our zero-tolerance approach to traffic offences.
In March this year, we re-launched our road safety project under a new identity. Asiphephe (Let us be Safe), which metamorphosised out of Project Victoria, is a broad- based, long-term and sustainable approach to road safety with a community-orientated philosophy. Education and enforcement are vital components of the project. It also requires commitment from the Justice, Health and Education departments as well support from local government, local communities, business, the media and all sectors of the transport industry.
World wide experience demonstrates that with strong government commitment and leadership, well researched and targeted road crash reduction strategies as well as well resourced road safety programs, a dramatic reduction in road trauma can be achieved. In the state of Victoria in Australia, the road death toll was halved between 1989 and 1993. Through focused road safety programmes and strategies, Asiphephe aims to reduce the road death toll to 50% of the present level over the next five years. At present, approximately 2000 people are killed in road crashes in KwaZulu-Natal every year, 7000 people are seriously injured and 16 000 people are slightly injured. The annual loss to the economy is in the region of R2 billion.
We have now appointed a Road Safety Board to oversee the development and delivery of road safety strategies, policies and programmes in KwaZulu-Natal. The Board will assist me to guide and monitor the progress of the Asiphephe project and will report to me regularly on the quality, effectiveness and performance of road safety programmes against annual and overall targets.
The appointment of the road safety board is an important milestone in the development of a multi-sectoral partnership to lead the crusade to reduce road crashes. The wide cross- section of community interests represented on the Board is a demonstration of our broad- based approach to road safety.
The Road Safety Board comprises the following members :
Mr Khaba Mkhize - (Chairman of the Board) General Manager of the SABC in KwaZulu-Natal Mr Andrew Ferguson - Director - Kwanaloga Ms Jenny Gray - Deputy Director General - KZN Department of Transport Mr Adrian Peters - Durban Metropolitan Council Mr Golden Malinga - Inanda Chamber of Commerce Prof. Krishna Naidoo - Department of Health Mr Paulos Ngcobo - Cosatu Mr Alois Nkabinde - Department of Education Mr Peter Grobler - KZN Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mr Ross Stuart - Department of Justice Mr Msatshwa Ngidi - SAPS Crime Prevention
The Board’s activities will be supported by Mr Musa Zulu, the Director of the Asiphephe Project. His role is to manage the project, and to co-ordinate the implementation of the strategies and programmes.
One of the principle elements of the project is collective ownership of Asiphephe. One of the ways we aim to achieve this is the establishment of road safety councils throughout the province to convey and execute the project at community level. Like the Rural Road Transport forums who were charged with prioritising and co-ordinating road and bridge construction in rural areas, the Road Safety Councils will be organs of civil society - fully representative, democratically instituted bodies. The Road Safety Councils will among other things, evaluate road safety awareness in their respective areas, assist us with road safety education programmes, alert us to road hazards and advise the department on ways to make the road environment safer and more user friendly.
In order to set models for the operation of these road safety councils, we have identified three places in KwaZulu-Natal as focus areas to set the process in motion. The Asiphephe Focus Day campaign is designed on the philosophy of Siyabakhumbula where we make road safety a community-orientated issue through the holding of mass meetings in different areas.
But while the Siyabakhumbula events were held in stadiums and were attended by thousands of people, the Asiphephe Focus Day events will be on a slightly smaller scale targeting community leaders and representatives of different structures and organisations. Siyabakhumbula’s main objective was to raise mass awareness of road safety while this campaign has a more focused approach. It aims to build on that awareness and momentum created by Siyabakhumbula to set in place long-term and sustainable programmes at community level.
The Focus Days will be held as follows :
1) Port Shepstone : 13th September 1998 at the Port Shepstone Show-ground 2) Inanda : 27th September 1998 at the Mqhawe High School 3) Newcastle : 3rd October 1998 at the Osizweni Anglican Church
These areas have been strategically selected for their geographic locations, their organisational capacity and because they are situated in development nodes. These areas are also subject to high frequency collisions and compliance with road laws is relatively low in these regions.
The events will be people-centred focusing on education, information and road safety activities. There will also be displays and information desks which will assist in communicating our messages.
These Focus Days are being organised by steering committees in the respective areas who will form Interim Road Safety Councils. These structures will eventually lead to properly constituted Road Safety Councils which will serve as models for other areas in KwaZulu- Natal.
It has been widely reported that the Department of Transport’s budget has been severely cut this year and unfortunately, the Asiphephe Project, the Road Traffic Inspectorate and the Road Safety Education sub-directorate did not escape unscathed. Funds for road safety are limited and we have undertaken that only well researched road safety initiatives that are cost effective are adopted. All our activities are therefore focused and streamlined but definitely not ineffective.
This applies particularly in the case of enforcement. We will continue to be as hard-line in regard to infringements of road laws as we have been over the past year. I would like to warn drivers that while we have been forced to scale down our activities, we have not slackened in our zero tolerance approach. Roadblocks, speed timing exercises, checks for seatbelts, vehicle defects and drivers licences and weighing of heavy vehicles are still continuing and once we are able to secure more funding, we will tighten the screws once more.
This brings me to the final part of this briefing. It gives me great pleasure to announce that the KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. RTI was established in 1938 with just two officers and two Harley Davidson motorcycles. These bikes did not have radios, lights or sirens and the officers wore tunics and caps.
It is quite evident that RTI has grown substantially over the past sixty years and today we a have a staff compliment of 750 people, 350 of whom are enforcement officers. They operate through six regions and have 23 stations across the province.
RTI has an extremely proud track record and continues to excel as the best traffic law enforcement agency in this country. We have a staff of extremely dedicated officers who will stop at nothing to save lives, carry out their duties under the most trying of conditions and to stop indiscriminate transgressions of road laws. They have been in the front line of all our road safety campaigns and unfortunately they are often confronted with public hostility because of the nature of their jobs.
But these are the people who, in the middle of the night and in the pouring rain, pull mangled bodies out of car wrecks and who work very difficult hours to ensure that our roads are safe to travel on.
I personally have been extremely proud to be associated with RTI and I take this opportunity to congratulate all the members on this milestone in their history.
The Department of Transport will be undertaking a series of activities to mark this anniversary. I will be visiting all six regions where we will hold celebration functions and we will also be holding a provincial event to pay tribute to RTI’s 60 years of service excellence.
Further details about these events and other activities will be communicated through the media.
Finally ladies and gentlemen of the media, I would like to thank you for your continued support of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport’s programmes and activities. We appreciate your assistance in making transport a vibrant, active and priority public issue in KwaZulu-Natal.
Thank You.