DEAR Editor,-
The ongoing and escalating increase in road accidents yet again on South African roads has reached national crisis levels in the absence of stringent mitigative interventions.
The death toll now stands at over 800.
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The IFP calls on the Department of Transport and its relevant entities and organs to step up visibility and roadblocks.
We also call on drivers to exercise maximum driving discipline and be tolerant of each other in the desperate bid to save lives.
Year on year, the same lamentations are expressed by government, without any meaningful corrective action steps to deal decisively with this national crisis which has become an annual horror reality.
The IFP proposes that government convenes a National Transport Indaba (as a matter of urgency) to deal comprehensively with this national crisis, with a view to introduce legislative reforms and borrow models of international best practice.
It is no secret that licence testing centres in South Africa are infested with corruption and the buying of drivers’ licences happens on a grand scale. The testing manner needs a change.
Other measures should include, but be not limited to:
1 Reduction of speed limits on all major roads;
2 Compulsory retesting for all licence renewals;
3 Revoke driving licences of habitual offenders;
4 Increase fines for all road transgressions;
5 Increase the number of cameras on all major roads;
6 Year-round roadblocks;
7 Reducing alcohol content in blood of drivers to zero;
8 Special driver training for all taxi and bus drivers to further enhance Public Driving Permits (PDPs);
9 Introduction of learner driver courses in high school as a compulsory subject;
10 Special prosecution interventions for all road-related offences, and
11 Review all minimum sentences for road-related offences.
The IFP sends its deepest and most heartfelt condolences to all who have lost loved ones due this crisis of reckless and irresponsible driving on our roads.
We urge all road users to be extra cautious on the roads at all times.
MKHULEKO HLENGWA MP
IFP National Spokesman
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