Step up road safety, minister urges
2011-08-24 08:50
Cape Town - Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele has called on provincial transport MECs to intensify road safety efforts in their regions.
"South Africa can no longer afford a business-as-usual approach to road safety," he told a MinMec meeting in Cape Town.
Among the priority areas agreed on at the meeting was stepping up campaigns against drunk driving, and the roll-out of 24-hour traffic law enforcement around the country.
Ndebele said August had been a "horrifying" month for road crashes and deaths, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.
"Provinces and municipalities should already be putting in place road safety plans for September, to ensure there is no recurrence of what happened on our roads during August.
"Each province and municipality must know where, when, why, who, what and how, in terms of road deaths in their respective areas.
"MECs and mayors must ensure that all traffic chiefs provide a detailed weekly evaluation and analysis of road deaths for their policing areas, as well as corrective measures being implemented.
"There must be active participation from national, provincial and local government in this [United Nations] Decade of Action for Road Safety," Ndebele said.
The tragic deaths and the misery and grief caused by road accidents were not inevitable.
"They can be prevented, if measures are taken by all of us to ensure safe roads. We are therefore calling upon all South Africans to play your part in this decade of action," he said.
A copy of Ndebele's speech was sent to Sapa.
- SAPA
