Road safety now takes centre stage
Transport Month heralds a call for improved behaviour, writes Alf James
This year, the launch of October Transport Month coincided with the hosting of the finals of the national debates and participatory educational techniques on road safety.
Speaking at the launch event at the Lakes Hotel in Benoni on October 5, transport minister Blade Nzimande said the competition had allowed young people to exchange ideas among themselves and to share as well as to learn from each other as peers about road safety.
He said every year about 1.24-million people around the world die in road accidents.
“It is projected that if the situation remains the same, by 2030 road crashes will be the world’s fifth cause of death. SA, like most developing countries, experiences large numbers of serious injuries and fatalities due to crashes.
“Of particular concern is that 60% of the crash victims are young people between 15 and 35 years. These are future leaders and they constitute a large percentage of the economically active population.
“With young people dying in large numbers our future is threatened and SA is denied its economically active population, robbing it of skills and ultimately affecting its economic growth.”
Nzimande said the debates and participatory educational techniques on road safety by young people send a clear message that the future of the country is indeed in good hands.
He stressed pupils should embrace the competencies and valuable road safety knowledge and skills they have acquired and be road safety ambassadors in their communities.
Nzimande said the need to ensure the situation does not get worse necessitates that road safety knowledge and skills are enhanced to increase responsible road safety behaviour. It is for this reason that all pupils who participated in this programme are winners, and must return to their provinces as road safety ambassadors, championing and promoting road safety.
“The country’s roads are a shared public space and as such we should exercise caution and maturity when using them, either as drivers, passengers or pedestrians. It is far better to prevent crashes than to try to deal with their aftereffects.”
Another issue emphasised by Nzimande was for the transport sector, as a driver of economic development, to embrace the opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and to find ways to stimulate the economy to open a corridor of opportunities and produce more jobs, through the enhanced use of technology.
“We need to modernise our transport infrastructure to bring it in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Unlike the three previous revolutions, SA as a leader on the continent needs to proactively participate in this revolution, to ensure we are at the forefront of change and innovations.
“What should really be bothering us as country is that just 0.7% of gross domestic product goes towards research, technology and innovation. This is even below the continent’s average of 0.9%. The average of the highly developed states in Europe sits at about 5%.
“This is also a clarion call to business to say that government simply doesn’t have the capacity and funding to deliver on everything it has to do within the sector. Before the end of this year, I will announce a team of professionals who will form part of a panel of transport experts to advise me on strengthening the role of all the modes of transport in the social and economic development of our country. It is important we all work with these experts, supported by institutions of higher learning, research institutions and business, to solicit solutions in ensuring we create an integrated and balanced transport sector.
“The national transport hubs we intend to establish in provinces will also be a source of knowledge on provincial transport needs. So we must ensure that we collectively work together to establish these centres of excellence.”
Nzimande said when President Cyril Ramaphose appointed him as transport minister he said that to improve regional and continental integration and relations, transport must take centre stage.
He said he recently attended the Ports and Rail Conference and the Future Mobility Africa Conference in Durban where it was evident that we have an abundance of mineral resources that should be the driving force of our economic development. However, we are burdened by poor transport infrastructure that hinders our capacity to import and export goods.
“SA has a national road infrastructure that is not only important to us but to our region. We must exploit our entire infrastructure to create the most-needed jobs for our people and our continent.
“Domestically, we will continue to engage with the taxi industry regarding matters of concern to government and the industry including the issuing of subsidies to the sector, vehicle financing and taxi violence.”
Nzimande said that in the National Transport Master Plan (Natmap 2050), SA has a comprehensive, multimodal, integrated and dynamic plan which provides a framework not only for implementing transport but also for providing infrastructure and services.
“Through Natmap, we will ensure our modes of transport
maritime, aviation, rail and land transport are integrated and respond to the needs of our communities, particularly the poor and the working class.”
THE COUNTRY’S ROADS ARE A SHARED PUBLIC SPACE AND AS SUCH WE SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION AND MATURITY WHEN USING THEM