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By Edwin Naidu
Are there too many vehicles on South Africa’s roads, and how is this affecting the nation?
According to Stats SA, there are 12 million vehicles on our roads, with at least 7000 people dying every year in motor vehicle-related accidents.
This is despite South Africa signing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which all United Nations members adopted in 2015. The Sustainable Development Goal Target 3.6 aims to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2030.
However, a recent report by Stats SA, ‘Road Transport Accident Deaths in South Africa, 2007-2019’, shows that the number of deaths from road transport accidents continues to increase.
Several factors contribute to road traffic accidents, including human error, inadequate infrastructure, vehicle defects and environmental conditions.
Human factors, such as speeding, reckless driving, distracted driving (often due to smartphone usage) and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, are among the primary causes.
I read in one article that the SA Police Services recently laughed at a drunken man in a Solar4Life Haval who wanted to stop several motorists because they were driving, in his words, too fast. It was no laughing matter when the drunk idiot crashed into a wall. Still, getting the police to do their job is like expecting snow in summer.
The cumulative figures for road transport accident fatalities between 2007 and 2019 indicate that individuals typically pass away in the province where they reside.
KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have the highest proportions of deaths occurring in the residents’ respective provinces, with rates of 92,1% and 93,4%, respectively.
In contrast, Gauteng displays a distinct pattern compared to other provinces, with a lower percentage of road transport accident fatalities occurring in the province of usual residence, at 54,2%.
These daily horrific accidents that remind us of the carnage on our roads, especially on the N3 to Durban where the number of truck accidents via Pietermaritzburg, is alarming.
On Monday, Higher Education and Training director-general Nkosinathi Sishi challenged Transport Education Training Authority (TETA) CEO Maphefo Anno-Frempong to help save lives by encouraging citizens to use rail as a means of transport.
“It would save many lives,” he said during the launch of the Green Hydrogen Centre of Specialisation at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria.
Sishi, a former deputy director-general of public entity oversight at the national Transport Department, said his calls followed the tragic passing of a department parliamentary liaison officer in a road accident over the weekend.
The emphasis of the launch was on the groundbreaking formation of the centre, which is a first for hydrogen in South Africa.
This project involves collaboration between the Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority, the Mining Qualifications Authority and TETA. Its aim is to address the pressing need for hydrogen skills in the country.
Yet, the DG’s sadness about his late colleague was evident at the CSIR.
Anno-Frempong agreed with Sishi, saying the consequences of an accident involving hydrogen transportation were unimaginable.
“For us, it is ensuring the lives of people of South Africa are secure as hydrogen is stored and transported at distribution centres,” she added.
Preferably, it would be carried via rail.
However, if two recent incidents that negatively impacted citizens are honestly analysed, one is left with the feeling that our government has a poor track record of putting the nation first.
First, the SA National Defence Force lacked intelligence in decisively dealing with the July 2021 riots in KwaZulu-Natal. The government estimates 354 deaths during the rioting. And recently, the unprecedented heavy snowfall, which sadly resulted in casualties, could have been prevented had the country’s disaster management team not been asleep.
The Transport Department could have acted on the SA Weather Service’s warnings of inclement conditions on the horizon by liaising with the traffic authorities to close the roads in anticipation of snowfall.
But in a country where traffic authorities are susceptible to bribes, letting people off the hook, or putting motorists through unnecessary roadblocks while leaving malfunctioning robots to be manned by beggars risking their own lives while keeping traffic moving, is ludicrous.
If she makes good on her promise, a forward-thinking CEO like Anno-Frempong would go a long way toward ensuring the safety of citizens in our country with a poor track record.
Honest public servants like Sishi and Anno-Frempongmust be applauded for discussing ways to save lives rather than responding when it is too late. However, South Africa Inc. must first understand why the left hand must know what the right hand is doing to ensure we arrive alive.
Edwin Naidu is Editor of Inside Education.
Inside Education