Transport Minister opens festive operations

Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula encouraged what he termed “life beyond December” when he officiated the launch of the transport festive season operations, held at the Polokwane Cricket Club last Thursday.
Mbalula made a commitment to ensure that the transport sector is not counted among the super spreaders of Covid-19.
“The festive season means increased traffic volumes on our roads as people leave the industrial and commercial hubs such as Gauteng to spend the holiday with family and friends in other provinces. Migrant workers from our neighbouring countries will also use the time to go back home.
“We have vowed not to enable further mobility of the Covid-19 pandemic through our public transport system.”
Limpopo was chosen to roll out the 365 Days Arrive Alive (Waya Waya) Campaign due to having the highest number of road crashes and fatalities.
During the 2019 festive season, Limpopo, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape accounted for 65% of all deaths on the roads. In order to clamp down on lawlessness on the road, the department has taken measures to strengthen law enforcement capacity by procuring 135 vehicles. These include 95 high performance vehicles, 25 bakkies and 15 mobile vehicle testing stations to improve monitoring of moving violations and excessive speeding on the roads. The mobile vehicle testing stations will be used to test the roadworthiness of vehicles on site of any operation.
According to Mbalula, a five-point plan has been developed in which the department seeks to reduce road fatalities by reaching the 20% target that has been set for this year.
“It must, however, not be forgotten that the attitude and behaviour of our drivers remains the biggest problem on the roads. In the last year, human factors contributed 85% towards fatal crashes compared to 91% in the previous year,” he commented.
Research conducted by the South African Medical Research Council and Unisa estimates that 27% of fatal road crashes in the country can be attributed to driver alcohol intoxication and this costs the economy R18,2 billion. The research further shows that pedestrians are three times more likely to die in a road crash where a driver is intoxicated.