Funding new traffic cops
LENNIT Max, DA chairman of the Western Cape Standing Committee on Transport and Public Works, claims that reducing road crashes remains a top priority of the Western Cape Government (Argus letters, November 25.
Despite the best efforts and plans of Provincial Traffic, the record suggests the crisis of road carnage does not enjoy the priority it should by the DA Western Cape Government.
There was a 57 percent increase in road fatalities during November 2015 (107 deaths) when compared to the same month in 2014 (68 deaths).
For December 2015 (131 deaths), there was a 32 percent increase in road fatalities when compared to December 2014 (99 deaths).
As the ANC member on this committee, I have been raising this matter since 2014.
Despite this, there remains a 20 percent vacancy rate in posts for provincial traffic officers. There should be 648, but there are only 516 officers. This number includes the 30 officers recently appointed.
It costs about R290 000 to recruit, train and equip an officer. The annual salary of an officer is about R280 000.
It would thus cost R37 million annually to employ 132 traffic officers to patrol our provincial roads.
The one-off cost to train and equip these officers would be R38m.
The Western Cape cabinet has failed to prioritise the filling of these critical vacancies.
It receives an equitable share allocation from National Treasury. It has to make choices as to how to use these funds, just like other provinces do.
We instead see over R1.3 billion allocated to the department of the premier for the 2015/2016 financial year, of which R861m is allocated to the Centre for E-innovation for the broadband project.
As the ANC we have pointed out that there are over R600m in reserves in the account of government motor transport. Why not use these funds to fund the traffic officer vacancies?
In the Adjusted Estimates of Provincial Expenditure 2016, R708m has been added to the budget from provincial financing, including the Provincial Revenue Fund and the Asset Finance Reserve.
Surely , if road fatalities were seen as a priority, R38m could have been found to fund the 132 vacant posts?
What has worsened the situation is the failure by the Department of Public Works to advertise and fill the six vacancies for the critical posts of six chief traffic officers. These officers are critical to manage the teams in the different regions.
These were advertised in 2015, but never filled. Then our committee was informed on October 27 that the process had been stopped and new adverts issued. We have now been informed the adverts only went out on November 11.
It appears our committee was misled by the department. This is clear evidence of a lack of seriousness. I am in no way suggesting that additional traffic officers will ensure an end to all road deaths. Over 50 percent of those who died on our roads over the November/December period are pedestrians, thus the visibility of our traffic officers at the “hotspot” areas is critical.
We welcome all the plans and communication strategies developed by provincial traffic for the festive season.
We have to focus on behaviour change, using technology and data available to inform our strategies.
What is missing is the adequate human resources to make this plan work.
Ultimately it is the lack of political will by the DA in this province to prioritise road safety that has contributed to this situation.
Over 80 percent of those who died on our roads in one of the districts between 2006 and 2015 are coloured and black. Would the DA act if 80 percent of those dying were white South Africans?
As the ANC we propose transferring a portion of the R600m reserves from Government Motor Transport to the Provincial Revenue fund and then allocate the required funds Public Works and Transport to employ the 132 provincial traffic officers our province so desperately needs.
The time to act is now.