Tuesday, 14 May 2000
"SAFETY IN TRANSPORT IS OUR TOP PRIORITY: AT SEA, IN THE SKIES, IN RAIL AND ON OUR ROADS"
Madam Chairperson
Honourable Members of the NCOP
I had to resolve a dilemma today: Do I furnish you with a shopping list of the 150-odd projects currently handled by my Department? Or do I select some key issues and focus on them? I have chosen the latter course because we need to prioritise, and I think it is important that you should know where we are prioritising.
Today I would therefore like to focus mainly on issues of safety: safety at sea and in the air, and safety on our road and rail networks. But I want to place these issues in a developmental perspective that shows up the links between the safety and security of our people and the macro-economic, developmental and redistributive goals that were put before us so clearly in the President's State of the Nation address.
What this means is simple: we cannot separate transport issues from quality of life issues. How well is our system performing in terms of our people's safety and their quality of life?
There have been a number of welcome developments in these spheres over the past year, which we may have a few moments to touch on later in today's debate. But let me just briefly mention the matter of the safety of our fishing fleets.
Despite various general improvements in coastal safety systems, I have been deeply concerned about the high loss of life from our fishing vessels and the hardship suffered by the families of our fisher-folk. I am therefore pleased to report that in March this year the South African Maritime Safety Authority hosted a successful seminar on fishing vessel safety in Cape Town, and that suggestions from this conference are being taken forward urgently.
SAMSA has implemented a formal ad hoc fishing vessel safety inspection programme. Important Safety Conventions from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) are being incorporated into our law for my approval. A post-conference working group has been set up and an international conference, already approved by SADC and supported by the United Nations, will be held as soon as possible. Safety is also of course concerned with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. So I have taken the initiative to convene a tripartite meeting to address HIV/AIDS in all the transportation modes. The support of the ILO in this endeavour is much appreciated.
In commuter rail, the last six months has seen a number of very serious accidents that have caused loss of life, injury and grief to passengers and their families. In this regard, I have two important announcements to make. The first is that my Department has completed draft legislation for the establishment of a Rail Safety Regulator in South Africa. I will be submitting this Bill to Parliament in its next session and we expect the new body to be functioning by the end of this year.
The second announcement is that we have now cleared the way for the South African Rail Commuter Corporation (SARCC) to spend over R400 million in upgrading commuter rail safety over the next five years. The focus of the programme is on modernising the signalling systems by replacing old systems with the latest technology.
The new infrastructure will include cables, signals, point machines, track circuits, relay interlocking systems, Centralised Train Control Centres and upgrading of rail-bound telecommunication facilities. These installations will greatly enhance the line capacity required to safely operate the intensive schedules of our urban commuter rail services.
I don't have to remind you that this is the major area where safety is a cause of serious concern. We are all acutely aware of the grim statistics that give rise to the phrase "carnage on our roads." I have so often publicly touched on the pain and suffering of the victims of road crashes and of their families that I will not do so again today. The question I will instead address is: "Where do we stand now, in May 2001? What is being done, and what are the prospects for improvement in the safety of our road system?" At the outset let me say that it is very heartening to note that the safety situation on our roads is in fact improving. Of course we cannot begin to be happy about where we are. Of course there remains a huge task ahead of us. But it needs to be said that we have made progress.
The general statistical trend since 1994 is clearly downward, and has begun to show welcome signs of consolidation since the introduction of Arrive Alive in 1998. We are achieving year-on-year reductions in crash and fatality rates of between 6 and 9%, which has led us to believe we may be able to start setting more stringent reduction targets a lot sooner than we initially expected - particularly once our forthcoming structural reform measures begin to bite.
I would like to thank everyone responsible for helping us to reduce the number of crashes and fatalities on our roads.
Road safety is the responsibility of each and every citizen of our country. As government, we have been engaged in a yearlong process of root-and-branch review of all the systems, institutions and structures that have a bearing on road traffic quality and safety management. We have consulted a wide range of stakeholders and role-players and have received constructive feedback from many organisations and individuals.
I am pleased to say that we are now putting the finishing touches to South Africa's comprehensive new road safety strategy, which we have called The Road to Safety, 2001-2005.
The Road to Safety is all about getting to grips, for the first time in our history, with the underlying causes of crashes and deaths on our roads.
It looks hard at systems and structures and proposes a wide range of interlinked investment programmes and reform actions to radically improve the safety of the total road environment. Wherever possible, it opens up space for public empowerment and private sector and community participation. We want this strategy to belong to the whole country. We are determined to ensure that it becomes an instrument for turning road safety into a national crusade.
The Road to Safety has identified six key problem areas. They are as follows:
The Road to Safety therefore concentrates its attention on the three major components of the system: the road user, the vehicle and the road environment. It says: in each area, this is what we must do, and this is how we must concentrate our resources to achieve maximum sustainable impact - in the short, medium and long term.
Time is short, so let me just give you a glimpse of the key interventions that are planned.
On the road user side, we focus first on basic driver competence and the testing and licensing system. We are going to support provinces to upgrade sub-standard driver licensing testing centres, professionalise driving licence examiner qualifications and tighten deregistration criteria for both DLTCs and examiners. We are also going to introduce a user-friendly computerised learner driver's testing system that offers the test in audio-visual format in all 11 national languages and minimises opportunity for fraud.
To address the wider patterns of corruption and malpractice in the administration of the full driving test, we are going to significantly expand the numbers and upgrade the capacity of the current DLTC Inspectorate, putting a particular emphasis on providing them with strong technical and forensic auditing skills. We are also going to take steps to formalise and regulate the driving school sector. This will mean setting strict accreditation and registration criteria for owners, clearly defined customer service standards and higher levels of technical knowledge and driving skill for driving instructors.
Finally, as regards driver competence, particular attention will be paid to the fitness of professional drivers in the heavy freight, bus and coach industries. We will tighten the existing practical, theoretical and medical tests for the renewal of the professional driver's permit (PrDP); and we will work with operators, trade unions and the Department of Labour to ensure that proper training systems are in place and that professional drivers are guaranteed safe working hours and conditions.
Parallel to all these measures, we will be launching the Road Traffic Management Corporation later this year, which will introduce much greater control and coherence into road traffic management systems, enforcement and the professional development of officers nationally. I am also pleased to confirm today that the Road Traffic Infringement Agency will come into being in the second half of this year. As you will recall, this will enable us to take routine traffic violations out of the courts and into an administrative adjudication system that will radically improve traffic fine collection and, in due course, implement the points demerit system against both offending drivers and transport operators.
In addition, I can tell you that we have already cleared the ground for consultation with our colleagues in the criminal justice system to gain consensus for more uniform sentencing patterns and for the introduction of much tougher penalties for major traffic offences.
Our other major category of road users is pedestrians. However, if you will allow me, I will turn to this issue later on, after I have made some comments on our roads infrastructure, which itself has an important bearing on pedestrian safety. In the meantime let me tell you what we are doing to achieve improved vehicle fitness.
Here again we will start out by upgrading sub-standard public vehicle test stations and attending to examiner competencies. But we will go a step further. The many areas of weakness in the vehicle testing system that have emerged over the last few years have led us to the conclusion that a thoroughgoing review and reform of the entire vehicle testing system is needed. This includes looking again at its ownership structure as well as thoroughly revising the current manuals, regulatory procedures, data transfer links and systems for monitoring quality standards and detecting malpractice.
We have already begun a process of consultation with operators on key safety issues. I have already mentioned the issue of professional driver competence, but equally important is the issue of vehicle and general fleet safety management. Our preferred approach is to encourage committed industry self-regulation. But we have also made it very clear that where this is not forthcoming we will not hesitate to intervene with regulation and the enforcement of meaningful penalties.
Together with the respective road freight and public passenger industry associations and trade unions, we are about to embark on a formal consultation process to define the terms and create the necessary monitoring and enforcement mechanisms for a standard operator Code of Practice. This will lay down stringent criteria for vehicle maintenance and safety management systems. It will be implemented through a compliance review system and will include prohibitive sanctions for transgression.
We will at the same time carry forward negotiations that have already started on the implementation of key safety technologies like top speed limiters and tyre safety management systems.
The main thing I want to report here is that very significant progress has been made with the democratisation process in the industry. All nine provinces have finally elected representative Provincial Taxi Councils, and we are moving forward steadily with preparations for a first, historic, National Conference of the taxi industry, which will adopt a new constitution and elect the industry's first fully representative national leadership. These developments will impact positively on private sector confidence in the industry and will give a major boost to the recapitalisation process. This in turn will open up much better prospects for negotiation on general taxi-fleet safety management and on the specific safety elements that need to be incorporated into the electronic management systems to be fitted to the new 18 and 35 seater vehicles.
All vehicles, whatever their condition, run on roads. Let me therefore begin by addressing the question of overloading. As you know, overloading of passengers in the bus and minibus taxi industry is of very serious concern to us. It has played a major contributory role in many of the recent fatal bus and taxi crashes, and we will do everything in our power to stop it through the enforcement of fleet safety management.
You will also know that the practice of calculated and systematic cargo overloading is widespread in the road freight sector. We have consulted widely on this issue with stakeholders and technical experts, and are urgently revising the current National Overload Control Strategy to formulate a sustainable long-term approach to funding and operations. This includes:
We will also need the support and backup of the criminal justice system: by helping to provide the required technical training for prosecutors and judicial officers, and by fully taking on board the need for realistically deterrent sentences, especially for repeat offenders. These sanctions will of course apply to overloaders in both the freight and the public passenger transport sectors.
I think you will understand from everything I have so far said, that the wide range of measures I have described cannot be implemented overnight. They require fundamental restructuring work, inclusive consultation and significant legislative and regulatory changes. I am not promising instant miracles. But I am confident that major reforms will be achieved each year during the lifetime of the strategy, and that the situation we will be looking at by the end of 2005 will be very different to what we see today.
The damage caused to our road network by freight overloading is one of the reasons for government's recent strategic decision to encourage a shift in the balance between road and rail in the transport of heavy freight. An efficient and well-managed national rail network is also a potentially cheaper and more environmentally sustainable mode of freight transportation than road haulage - particularly in the areas of containerised and bulk cargo.
It is therefore imperative that we support rail by creating a level playing field for fair price competition between it and road haulage. This level playing field does not at present exist, mainly because the road freight industry is currently not obliged to factor the externalities (or hidden costs) associated with its operations into the prices it charges its customers. These take the form of damage to our road infrastructure; the effect of the industry's heavy fuel consumption on our balance of payments; and the additional burdens placed on our traffic management and health systems by its contribution to general air pollution, traffic congestion and road crashes.
We therefore need to do two things at the same time: reduce these external costs and ensure that the road freight sector internalises at least some of them more equitably in the context of its competition with rail. Overload control is the first step towards effective external cost reduction. But as a second step, my Department is considering developing a modelling exercise that will for the first time fully quantify road externality costs in terms of infrastructure damage, pollution, congestion and crashes, and will look at fair ways of charging road hauliers for these costs - always taking into account the fact that the road freight industry, unlike rail, receives no direct state subsidy.
Thirdly, I think the time has come to review the 56-ton gross vehicle mass limit currently in force in South Africa. This is one of the highest in the world, and compares unfavourably with those in force in the countries of the North, which range from 28 tons to 44 tons. Even in the SADC context, Mozambique, with a 38-ton limit, Botswana, with a 51-ton limit and Zimbabwe, with a 55-ton limit, are more restrictive than we are.
We are therefore considering amending the Road Traffic Act to introduce a lower maximum payload for road freight. This would have two major effects. It would add impact to overload control measures aimed at reducing road externality costs; and it would increase the unit cost of road freight in such a way as to create a price incentive for certain categories of customers to switch from road to rail. Taking this approach would of course require detailed consultation with all interested parties, both from an industry perspective and in terms of harmonisation within SADC.
I think this House already knows how much effort national and provincial government have jointly been putting into the struggle for radically improved pedestrian safety. I believe that this is a battle in which very significant victories can be won in a very short space of time. The formula for success is quite simple:
All these things can be achieved surprisingly easily once the key element of community involvement is given the priority it deserves. Participation makes planners, managers and engineers accountable and creates the energy and dynamism that leads to action. I have now seen the results of this at first hand on a number of occasions; and I can tell you that working in this way gets results.
Just to give an example from one of the projects I have visited: in the space of one year - from 1999 to 2000 - collisions between vehicles and pedestrians in the district where this project was developed dropped by 41%. At the same time, the death rate from these collisions fell by an incredible 82%.
This is the kind of result we want to see multiplied across the face of our country, and so we have given funding support for a rolling programme in all nine provinces based on the identification and prioritisation of hazardous locations and the application of the multi-disciplinary approach I have just outlined.
Meanwhile, within the formal education system, by the start of the 2002 school year, we will, for the first time in South Africa's history, have a fully developed road safety education programme built into the life skills component of the school curriculum, from pre-school to grade 12.
In the simplest terms this means: we start by making sure that our youngest children are able to cross a street safely; and we end by producing safety conscious young adults whom we can fully entrust to drive vehicles carrying passengers or heavy loads. We develop not only knowledge, skills and responsible attitudes, but - even more importantly - values that enable young pedestrians and passengers and budding cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers to challenge irresponsible behaviour and insist on safe road usage.
In conclusion, let me remind you of my opening remarks on the wide range of projects my department is currently busy with. They are all centrally focussed on improving the quality of life of our citizens - in particular, creating real opportunities for the millions of our people who still daily experience the painful effects of decades of marginalisation and exclusion from access to jobs, markets, social services and basic amenities. I would have loved to have spoken in more detail of the work we are doing in areas such as integrating urban transport systems, building and upgrading rural roads that link communities to integrated development nodes and so on.
But I chose to focus on safety partly because of the urgency of the issues involved, and because I wanted to show that safety - which may sometimes be seen as a technical matter - is fundamentally about quality of life, participation and empowerment.
Our roads and how we use them are an integral part of how we live and relate to one another as citizens. Our road behaviour holds up a mirror to us in which we can clearly see the strengths and weaknesses of our emerging national culture. This is why I chose to end by talking about empowered communities taking charge of their own safety and educated and mobilised children growing into the community leaders of the future.
Safety is part of our common life. So as we train our future generations of adult road users in the skills of the road and the values of care and responsibility, we are at the same time engaged in creating a new kind of consciousness, a new conscience for the nation we are all trying to build together.