Festive Season road accident fatalities: RTMC briefing, with Minister present

Meeting report

The Chairperson accepted apologies from Mr K Sithole (IFP), Mr I Seitlholo (DA) and Mr T Mabhena (DA) and invited the Minister of Transport, Mr Fikile Mbalula, to make introductory remarks.

Minister's introductory remarks
Minister Mbalula observed that the festive season road safety campaign was not implemented in a vacuum, but was located within a broader safety campaign -- the 365 Days Action Agenda -- which included policy and legislative interventions. Although provincial roads, traffic and parking fell within the ambit of exclusive provincial legislative competence, maintaining national norms and standards was necessary to ensure effective performance by municipalities.

He invited Mr Kevin Kara-Vala, Executive Manager: Road Traffic Information and Technology, Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), to deliver a detailed presentation on road crash statistics.

Festive season road crash statistics

Mr Kara-Vala highlighted some of the road safety interventions that had been carried out over the 2021/22 festive season. He observed that the number of fatal crashes had been significantly higher than during the 2020/21 festive season, when lockdown regulations had been in place. For this reason, he compared the 2021/22 statistics with those from 2019/20, showing that the number of fatal crashes had decreased by 5%, although the number of major crashes had increased from 11 to 34. There had been a significant increase in single vehicle crashes, and human error remained the leading cause. Coordination between the three spheres of government and monitoring and supervision of interventions were still lacking.

(See Presentation)
Discussion
Mr C Hunsinger (DA) appreciated the level of detail in the statistics provided. The challenge was now to convert them into a year-round road safety programme. Had the Department learnt anything from Sweden’s Vision Zero, which aimed to proactively eliminate road fatalities? He was disappointed that the Committee Members had not had the opportunity to scrutinise the presentation before the meeting, which would have enabled them to engage more fruitfully with it. He asked who or what agency was responsible for supervision and monitoring, and how would it improve outcomes. What were the possible reasons for the decrease in fatal crashes in the Eastern Cape? He thought that the Department’s target of a 10% reduction in fatal crashes was marginal. and he was hesitant to accept it.

Mr L McDonald (ANC) asked for clarity on the 136 taxis impounded in the Western Cape for driving without operating licences. If the drivers of these taxis were habitual offenders, then it should be made difficult for them to use the roads. He was shocked that there had not been a single arrest for passenger overloading during the 2021/22 season. He had first-hand knowledge that passenger overloading was widespread. Weighbridges were not being operated properly and there was no legislation requiring seatbelts in minibus taxis. He also drew attention to a truck stop in Leeu-Gamka where there were two bottle stores. This was unacceptable. The visibility of pedestrians needed to be increased, especially in areas near highways, which were mainly inhabited by poor black people due to apartheid spatial planning.

Mr P Mey (FF+) said that potholes remained a serious problem. They should be repaired early when they were still no bigger than a soccer ball. He also reported complaints he had received about a sinkhole on the R50 between Pretoria and Bapsfontein, and another one on the R711 between Clarens and Fouriesburg. It was understandable that it could take a long time to repair a sinkhole, but it should be easy to fix potholes. He reported that he had met two ordinary citizens repairing a pothole in the Eastern Cape. One problem was that members of the public did not know how to report potholes when they saw them.

Mr L Mangcu (ANC) said that the Committee needed to take a stronger position on two matters. Firstly, the effectiveness of the National Traffic Police (NTP) -- they were not having any effect on the number of accidents because accident prevention was, in the main, a responsibility of provincial and local government. Provincial and local law enforcement had also complained about perceived interference by the NTP, and he requested a breakdown of its effectiveness. Secondly, fatal accident statistics showed virtually no change over the years, going back to at least 1998. Human error remained the leading cause. How was the government intervening? It should be looking at the example of countries such as Sweden and using cutting-edge technology to address the root causes of fatal accidents. He also requested information on sanctions issued to unlicensed drivers during the 2021/22 festive season.

Ms N Nolutshungu (EFF) appreciated the RTMC’s honesty about the challenges of implementing its plans. She asked for confirmation that speed cameras between Laingsburg and Aberdeen were working as intended. While driving there, she had deliberately increased her speed above the speed limit but had not received a ticket.

Mr M Chabangu (EFF) said that potholes were a major cause of accidents, and suggested that the national Department should repair potholes on provincial and local roads -- but then fine the provincial or local authority responsible for maintaining the road. He said that bribe-taking was widespread among provincial traffic police, and reported that road signs were becoming less and less visible in many areas, especially in the Free State.

Mr Kara-Vala explained that the supervision and monitoring in the presentation referred to senior supervisors at a roadblock, for instance, who did not always manage to keep officers focused on specific areas of intervention.

There were several factors behind the decrease in fatal crashes in the Eastern Cape, including a focus on known hazardous areas. He agreed that passenger overloading was a serious problem, but noted that the figures for vehicles impounded included some that had been overloaded with passengers. He said that the cameras between Laingsburg and Aberdeen were average speed cameras, which might explain why Ms Nolutshungu had not received a ticket.

Mr Thabiso Ndebele, Executive Manager: Road Safety, Stakeholder Relations and Marketing, RTMC, observed that South African society was not, in general, the most compliant. Typical problems included children sitting between seats, and seatbelts not being used. The RTMC’s programmes needed to take local conditions into account, and it would take a while to reach the kind of situation that prevailed in Sweden. The RTMC could do more with more manpower, and it was also important to educate provincial and local authorities, who were the implementing agents. The government could not keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Road safety education should be more fully integrated into the national school curriculum, and future road design should take into account the fact that South Africans tended to walk a lot.

Mr Chris Hlabisa, DDG: Road Transport, Department of Transport (DoT), said that pothole repair and road sign maintenance were the responsibility of provincial authorities. The national Department transferred funds for these purposes and monitored their use. Potholes were a priority, and while recent floods had created a backlog of potholes to be repaired across the country, provincial teams were ready to act as soon as the weather allowed. The problem within municipalities was on a different scale, however, and the Department was appealing to municipalities to forge partnerships with the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) to acquire the necessary technical skills.

The Chairperson was not entirely satisfied with the response on the pothole situation. The Committee had wanted to hear a plan from the Department. The fact that it transferred funds to provinces to repair potholes did not absolve them—it remained the Department’s responsibility to ensure that the money was used properly. It needed to do more. Potholes caused accidents and damage to vehicles. He agreed with Mr Hunsinger that the Department needed to convert the statistics they had gathered into a concerted 365-day road safety programme.

Mr Ndebele replied that year-round programmes were being formulated in three areas -- pedestrians, drinking and driving -- and alignment of the interventions with different interest groups. Some progress had already been made to implement these programmes.

Mr Mthunzi Madiya, acting Director-General, DoT, agreed that potholes needed to be fixed. The national Department had realised that it needed to strengthen its oversight over the use of provincial maintenance grants. He had proposed the creation of a provincial monitoring unit located in the office of the deputy director-general responsible for roads, which would do in-person audits of work that provinces claimed to have done. He praised SANRAL for its maintenance record and suggested that one approach might be to broaden its responsibilities to include municipal roads. It had the technical expertise and a track record of managing contractors effectively. The Department was in talks with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) on the practicalities of providing around-the-clock visible traffic policing.

Minister's comments
Minister Mbalula confirmed that the Department’s year-round road safety interventions were informed by the data. He said that the 10% reduction target was a significant stepping stone towards the medium-term target of a 25% reduction by 2025.

The Department was looking at a number of measures to reduce the number of illegal operations, including a moratorium on the issuing of new operating licences by municipalities without an up-to-date integrated transport plan (ITP). This was an integral part of strengthening the regulatory framework of public transport. The Department was also looking at strengthening public transport law enforcement by standardising it across the country. The current approach was fragmentary, and standardisation would go a long way to addressing the challenges.

He observed that the R50 was a provincial road, the maintenance of which was the responsibility of the Gauteng provincial authorities and mentioned Gauteng’s Smart Mobility Weekend Campaign which had recently repaired a road in Shoshanguve. He also praised SANRAL for its efficient maintenance of national roads, while lamenting the slow pace of new road building. He argued that money intended for road maintenance was being wasted on servicing debts related to the e-toll project in Gauteng, where the principle of “user-pays” had been abandoned. The uncertainty surrounding this project was also making it harder for the Department to borrow money, and some roads were not predicted to receive maintenance for the next ten years.

He warned that, starting in Gauteng, congestion would increase across the country over the next five to ten years. A disaster was looming, and unless urgent action was taken the consequences would be on a par with the electricity crisis. The Department wanted policy interventions to improve the use of provincial road maintenance grants. What sometimes happened was that provinces paid money to service providers who ran away with it without delivering any service. The province did nothing to recover the funds and then approached SANRAL, expecting it to assume responsibility for a deteriorating piece of infrastructure. He observed that the roads in the Eastern Cape were in beautiful condition, even though none of them were toll roads.

Technology, a new social compact, visible law enforcement and heavy penalties were all required to prevent accidents. In particular, there should be body cameras for traffic police officers, and jail terms for drunk driving and drivers involved in major fatal crashes. He appealed to the Committee for support on these points.

Consideration of further written submissions on proposed additional amendments to Economic Regulation of Transport Bill
Ms Valerie Carelse, Secretary, Portfolio Committee on Transport, reported that most of the new submissions had come from industry representatives and existing regulatory bodies. The Department was due to respond to the submissions on 22 February 2022.

The Chairperson suggested that the Committee deliberate on the submissions at that meeting, after hearing the Department’s responses.

The Committee accepted this suggestion.

Consideration and adoption of minutes
Minutes of the meeting of 25 January were adopted.

The Chairperson said that on 1 and 8 March, the parliamentary and state law advisors would present amended versions of the clauses of the National Road Traffic Amendment Bill that the Committee had objected to.

The meeting was adjourned.