Road carnage reduces safe travelling! South Africa is becoming one of the un-safest countries on the raods.for the record, almost 600 people have been killed while travelling. One of the Millennium Development Goals is about enhancing safety on the roads, but ‘we’ are not near the grade in matching some ‘most developed’ countries. Perhaps, one of the contributory factor is that ‘we’ have not made ‘safe travelling’ a way of life. Yet year after year, the ministry of transport has made ‘rhetorical threats’ of confiscating licences from un-characteristic drivers. We have not mastered the art of science in ‘making driving’ part of the schooling curriculum. ‘For some, a driver licence means independence and freedom. For others, it’s a necessary tool for their work. But being on the road carries a risk; for you and others road users. Whether you want a licence for a motorcycle or car, or to operate a passenger bus or bulldozer, your licence comes with responsibilities’, says one of New Zealand pamphlet on how to become a ‘good’ driver. Many of motorists acquire licences through ‘panic’ of losing ‘job opportunities’ and/or offers for a ‘better lifestyle’ yet we have not become ‘gene[d]’ to master good driving behaviour. One of the boring aspects of driving is, to ‘observe’ drivers driving while fiddling and/or ‘fingering’ with electronic gadgets, drinking and driving and road ‘rage’. Last year during the same period, about 1 582 road accidents occurred in which more than 1 761people died which is equivalent to 269 people killed only in New Zealand during the same period. New Zealand registered a reduction of road fatalities by 100 from 369 by the same year. The Road Transport Management Corporation [RTMC] has previously argued that ‘Attitudes in South Africa are in serious need of adjustment’, and this was negated but ‘we’ only recover from slumber in December. This must stop! And such financial burdens are felt by the families and obviously the Road Accident Fund in processing those claims by victim’s next of kin. In one skills development session, the Minister of Higher Education and Training posed an important question as to whether road fatalities, are not as a result of a skill factor on the roads? Certainly, South Africa is not immune from the suffering of ‘shortemism’ in acquiring vehicle licences and/or testing of vehicle in which the highly-connected become the ‘fittest worms’, to benefit at the expense of a qualified driver. Still, many driving schools are manned by ‘capitalists’ people on the basis that many see learner sessions as ‘milking cow’ for quick bucks on ‘impatient learners’, who are lazy to go through stringent processes and/or procedures to obtain same. And also the scourge of bribery and corruption has corrupted the system such that to ‘offer’ a bribe is seen as business as ‘usual. Until we agree that road fatalities is a skill hiccup, we continue to apply all measures in the book to deter un-characteristic drivers with no gain. We must inculcate sound driving behaviour at a tender age to make driving safely and responsibly a way of life. And the basic education and further education band becomes a change driver in this regard. The public commentary which always are predictable with writing such as this that, ‘The preliminary statistics provided show that there has been very little change in the carnage that occurred on South Africa’s roads this festive’, must be a thing of the past! By: Mampane Norman National Spokesperson Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union Tel: 0112424600/4615 Cell: 0720737959/0722000275 Email: [email protected] www.popcru.org.za 01 Marie Road Auckland Park 2006
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