Red Cross Children's Hospital, Cape Town, 4 December 2000
Chairperson, Your Excellency, Consul of India, Mr Puri, MEC Meyer, Superintendent Dr Ramiah, Honoured Guests, Friends
Thank you for inviting me to say a few words here today by way of opening this important training course. Let me begin by warmly congratulating the three main institutions that have been responsible for conceiving and running these courses over the past two years: the UNISA institute for social and health sciences, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Centre for Peace Action.
A special word of appreciation to you, Your Excellency Mr Puri, for being present here to represent your great country, India, and to bear witness to the growing practical partnership between our two countries.
As we all know, our informal partnership goes back a long way. It is built on the living connections between your people and our communities of Indian origin. It is built on the firm foundations of solidarity and support shown by your government and people towards our own struggle to liberate ourselves from the oppression of apartheid, just as you yourselves freed yourselves from the oppression of colonialism.
It is reinforced by the pride we feel in having had the young Mohandas Gandhi in our midst in the early years of this century. It is strengthened by the knowledge that his long road to perfecting the philosophy and practice of non-violent resistance began on a station platform in Pietermaritzburg in 1904. As the Mahatma himself later explained:
"My non-violence derived from personal experience and became necessary in response to the calls of public duty. The isolated life I had to lead in South Africa, whether as a householder, legal practitioner, social reformer or politician, required, for the due fulfilment of these duties…a rigid practice of non-violence and truth in human relations, whether with my own countrymen or with Europeans." I would like to pick up on these remarks, if I may. First, a word or two about the link between your training themes and the issues of peace and violence in society. What you are about to start here today is a course combining injury control and traffic safety components. In other words, issues to do with both crash prevention and damage control after the event. If prevention could be perfect, alleviation of trauma would be unnecessary.
We mustn't be over-technical in the way we approach these issues. The underlying truth is that we are dealing with the consequences of road behaviour that is violent and very often criminal. We know that the vast majority of serious or fatal road crashes are the direct result of criminal acts of aggression or negligence by drivers or transport operators. That is why we have stopped talking about "accidents" - because to do so takes responsibility off the shoulders of the offender.
Our society remains deeply traumatised by its past. So much of the conscious and unconscious aggression banked up from this past finds expression on our roads. It shows itself in illegality, rage, arrogance and selfishness.
These are all signs of cultural distortion. While we are already beginning to enjoy the fragile first fruits of our new democracy, we still have much to learn about how to live this new democracy as good and responsible citizens.
Indeed, some of our citizens still continue to reject democratic values as a matter of perverse principle. Others are disorientated and inflamed by the difficulties of transition from struggle to social reconstruction, and by the painfully slow redistribution of power and economic opportunity.
But these growth pains are to be expected - and we shouldn't let them get us down. We hold the levers of change in our own hands. Today India, South Africa and other developing countries can interact in friendship at government-to-government level. And this means that we can begin to build enduring institutional links at many levels and in many different sectors of our societies.
I am extremely heartened and encouraged by what you are doing here today - indeed, what you have already been doing for the last two years. You have assembled to address a set of problems that crucially affect both of our countries, and to freely share experiences. To the extent that you find solutions, the benefits will be collective, not narrowly national or individual.
You have gathered together as law enforcers, public health professionals, road traffic engineers and behavioural scientists. You will be addressing a complex set of medical, technical, institutional and logistical issues. You will be analysing policy successes and failures from other parts of the world. You will be looking at the methodologies that have proven most effective in preventing crashes and mitigating the seriousness of injuries.
In other words, what you are doing is all about building multi-disciplinary cooperation that brings together the right mix of local government planners, medical and technical experts, sponsors, educators and mobilised communities.
But underlying all these aspects - as I'm sure you will all be quick to point out - lie deeper questions of behaviour, attitude and social orientation. In a word, questions of culture. We succeed when the sum total of our efforts starts to change hearts and minds.
The Australian road traffic people have a series of horrific and emotional TV road safety adverts which all carry the punch line, "If you speed - or if you drink, then drive - you're a bloody idiot." We will start to arrive alive in greater numbers when it is no longer necessary to drive home these messages in this way. When every adult South African is ashamed to do these things, or to boast about having a fiddled driving licence - and when no child will accept such behaviour - then we will have arrived.
So, as we examine policy options, we are also examining ourselves. We are taking an audit of where we have got to: not only in terms of our systems and structures, but also in our core attitudes and values.
As government, we are clear about the responsibilities we have to fulfil. We know that we have to enforce effectively, adjudicate equitably and stamp out illegality in our licensing and vehicle testing institutions. We have to regulate operators, eliminate overloading and strengthen our emergency services. And we have to develop imaginative public-private sector partnerships to promote new vehicle safety technologies, improve our vehicle surveillance capabilities and protect and empower our vulnerable pedestrians.
We are currently finalising a range of projects and legislative interventions which I hope to announce early in the New Year within the framework of my Department's comprehensive road safety programme, Strategy 2000-2004.
But as you can see from what I have just said, there are limits to what government can do - and it's good to be frank about what these are. We can legislate, regulate, educate, communicate and facilitate. Within very strict financial constraints, we can provide certain amounts of seed funding. But we cannot solve a problem as challenging as the carnage on South Africa's roads by ourselves.
We need the committed support of business, of our schools and communities, and of dedicated professionals such as yourselves - all acting together for the common good.
I know what your aim is over the next four days. It is simply this: to fashion road safety programmes that work.
I support you 100% in this aim. As Mahatma Gandhi also said: "An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."
I therefore wish you every success in your joint efforts to contribute towards safer roads for all.
Finally, I'd like to end by making an appeal to all South Africans, and especially our business community, to dig deep to support the Red Cross Children's Hospital - the only specialist children's hospital in Africa south of Cairo. We all know what a wonderful and dedicated hospital this is. It cares for some 200 000 children each year. It is a world leader in many fields of medicine and paediatric care. But it is also a model of community outreach, playing a key role in preventative health care and the education of community health workers in the Western Cape.
By making a priority of serving our most disadvantaged communities - while at the same time guaranteeing free health care to all children under 6 years of age - the hospital is experiencing enormous financial strain. It desperately needs funds to complete its 42 million Rand redevelopment programme. Already 27 million Rands have been raised, but a further R15 million are still needed. Please help the Hospital to meet its financial target and fulfil its aim of putting preventative strategies in place that strengthen our communities and solve children's medical problems before they become chronic or acute.
May you all have a well earned and relaxing festive season break, and return to the struggle refreshed and inspired. I thank you. Arrive Alive.