Message of Support by RTMC chairman Mr Zola Majavu CD(SA) at the Trans-Kalahari …

Message of Support by RTMC chairman Mr Zola Majavu CD(SA) at the Trans-Kalahari Corridor Law Enforcement and Road Safety Operations

Date: 02 August 2019
Venue: Rustenburg Civic Centre

Honourable Deputy Minister of Transport Mme Dikeledi Magadzi
Honourable MEC for Road and Transport Oageng Molapisi
The Mayor of Rustenburg Local Municipality Councillor Mpho Khuno
The Speaker of Rustenburg Local Municipality Councillor Sheila Mabale-Huma
Executives and Senior Managers from the national and provincial departments, RTMC and sister agencies.

Our distinguished guest, the ladies in uniform
It is for me a great pleasure to join you on this important day where we display co-operation between our country and the neighbouring states of Botswana and Namibia in promoting safety on the roads.

This event is also significant for us in South Africa because it marks the launch of Women’s Month, which is an occasion for us to celebrate the important role that women in uniform play in making our country a safe place in which to travel and live.

Programme director in exactly six months from today, Ministers of Transport from more than 80 countries will be meeting in Stockholm, Sweden at the 3rd Global Ministerial Ministerial Conference on Road Safety to mark the end of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 to 2020. The meeting will seek to achieve global consensus on continued international collaboration on road safety up to 2030.

Madame Deputy Minister and MECs it is now abundantly clear to me that global conference will find that we have not made sufficient progress to attain the global goal of reducing road fatalities by 50%. This is because road fatalities in our country had remained stable around 14 000 deaths per year for eight years.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. We have started to see some sunrays emerging from the dark clouds. Road fatality statistics have shown a significant eight percent decline from in 2018 compared to 2017.

In the first quarter of this financial year (April to June 2019) fatalities have decline by 24% in our country and the North West province is one of the provinces that recorded the highest decrease of 39%.

This was achieved against the backdrop of increasing human population and vehicles registered in the country. In 2010, the South African population was 50.9 million compared to 58 million today; and there were 9.8 million vehicles registered compared to 12.4 million today. However the fatality rate has declined from 27 fatalities per 100 000 population in 2010 to 22 fatalities per 100 000. Although our rate is still above the average of 17.4 per 100 000, it cannot be denied that we have made progress.

The RTMC has done a study, which has shown that the cost of crashes to the economy in terms of lost productivity, medical treatment, legal costs and property damage among others stands at R166.7 billion.
Initiative such as this one are intended to assist us to achieve a sustained downward trajectory in the number of people dying on our roads and related costs. We understand that to achieve that we need to work closely with the authorities in our countries, neighbouring states as well as non-government organisations. We also need to improve the visibility of law enforcement on the roads and intensify public road safety education and marketing.

As the Chairman of Board of the RTMC, I would like to pledge that the RTMC, as the lead agency on road safety, will double its efforts in ensuring that we achieve the vision of safer roads in South Africa. We are also willing, ready and committed to working with our neighbouring countries on issues such as harmonisation of regulations, improved systems for the collections of information as well as training and development of personnel for road safety.

Deputy Minister, MECs, the Mayor and Speaker I sincerely thank you for this opportunity and I would like to send my good wishes to all our ladies in uniform on Women’s Month. I call on you to go out on the road with full confidence and help the country win the battle against crime and road carnage. We know that you may have issues that you are not happy about at your workplace, but we plead that for this month “ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.

I thank you.

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