Road deaths: Omar must go
2003-01-06 21:00
Pretoria - While the road death toll since December 1 mounted to 1 236 by Monday, the Democratic Alliance demanded the resignation of Transport Minister Dullah Omar, or his removal from office.
"The minister is not up to his job, and the time has come for him to step aside," DA transport spokesperson Stuart Farrow said in a statement.
"If he refuses, he must detail exactly how he will bring about a reduction in road accidents."
Omar was reported in the Sunday Times as admitting the government's road safety strategy had failed. But in a subsequent statement his office denied that the minister had made such a concession.
Questioned about the Arrive Alive campaign, Omar had expressed his concern about the number of road deaths, the statement said.
"The campaign nonetheless played an important role and has made a positive contribution - no question of failure," it said.
Farrow said Omar's defence of the campaign, and his claim that the campaign was anything but a failure, was laughable.
"The minister should face the facts - more than 1 200 people have already lost their lives since December 1, which by all accounts point to a dismal failure on his part.
Should resign
"The minister has the final responsibility for South Africa's road safety. If he is unable to perform this duty, he should resign."
Omar had failed to reduce road deaths through the Arrive Alive campaign, due to an insufficient number of traffic officials, corruption and fraud in the traffic and vehicle licensing and testing centres, Farrow said.
He said Omar had also failed to move road freight to rail, to bring about efficient alternative public transport, to ensure uninterrupted imports and exports through the country's harbours and to sufficiently fund the road maintenance backlog.
"The Democratic Alliance again calls on President Thabo Mbeki to consider removing Minister Omar from office."
Deaths
The Arrive Alive campaign said on Monday that 111 people had been killed in 66 accidents since the start of 2003.
Added to police figures of 1 125 deaths in 884 fatal accidents during December, that brings the total since start of last month to 1 236 fatalities.
Arrive Alive said 19 accidents since December 1 claimed five or more lives each.
In the latest, a driver and five passengers died in a head-on collision near Sun City in North West at about 22:00 on Sunday. Another passenger was seriously injured.
"Allegedly this accident was caused by unsafe overtaking."
The latest provincial breakdown of the road death toll from the start of last month is: KwaZulu-Natal 252, Gauteng 203, Western Cape 193, Eastern Cape 135, Mpumalanga 120, Free State 106, North West 104, Limpopo 81 and Northern Cape 42.
Gauteng transport MEC Khabisi Mosunkutu said that to see his province's toll in perspective, one should bear in mind that there were between 2.7 million and three million vehicles registered in the province, and the figure was growing. The number of accidents involving taxis and buses seemed to be on a general decline, he said.
Pedestrians
Ill-disciplined pedestrians presented one of the largest problems with regard to traffic accidents in his province, according to Mosunkutu.
He said a number of campaigns had already been conducted, especially in informal settlements bordering national or provincial roads. These were intended to make people aware of the danger of crossing the road without looking for oncoming vehicles or where they were not supposed to.
"We are going to mount very serious pressure in the coming months."
Callous motorists were another headache, Mosunkutu said.
Gauteng had very good roads, he pointed out.
"Consequently people who are scared to go onto the Kyalami race track find it easy (to speed) on our roads."
Quite a high number of people were arrested for alcohol-related offences, Mosunkutu said.
Another problem was the unroadworthiness of vehicles.
With regard to the high number of accidents and road deaths, he said: "I'm convinced we will beat this problem - not in 20 years' time, but soon."
- SAPA