Pretoria – In one of the blackest periods on South Africa’s road, a total of 141 people are reported to have died on the country’s roads over the weekend, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) confirmed on Monday.
The “shocking and unprecedented road carnage” has prompted the RTMC to work with provincial traffic authorities to intensify law enforcement on roads, including the introduction of a 24-hour shift for traffic officers and harsher penalties for drunken driving.
“South Africa recorded the most shocking and unprecedented road carnages over the weekend with 141 people confirmed to have been killed in 110 motor vehicles collisions in all provinces,”the RTMC said in a statement.
The RTMC said the highest number was recorded in the Eastern Cape where 53 people were killed. Two crashes, one in Willowvale with 36 fatalities and another involving a minibus taxi that crashed near Cradock with nine fatalities, accounted for the majority of the deaths.
Gauteng recorded the second highest number of fatalities with 21 people confirmed to have died from 29 crashes, while Kwa-Zulu Natal recorded 17 deaths from 18 crashes and Limpopo recorded 13 deaths from 12 collisions. The province with the least number of deaths was the Northern Cape where five deaths were recorded from five collisions, followed by the Free State (six deaths from six collisions), Mpumalanga (eight deaths, from ten collisions), North West (nine deaths from eight collisions) and Western Cape (nine deaths from nine collisions).
The RTMC said: “Crash investigators from the Road Traffic Management Corporation were sent to the Eastern Cape over the weekend to determine the exact cause of the two major collisions in the provinces. A preliminary report from the investigators is expected this week.
“The Shareholder Committee, comprising of the national Minister of Transport, the MECs from all provinces and the South African Local Government Association, last week granted the RTMC the authority to harmonise law-enforcement throughout the country and work towards the introduction of a 24 hour/seven days a week shift system.”
The CEO of the RTMC, Advocate Makhosini Msibi said this would contribute to “increased police visibility and ensure greater impact on the prevention of traffic offences and a reduction in traffic fatalities”.
“Harmonisation will streamline the delivery of essential road traffic and law-enforcement services and ensure coordination and collaboration in the implementation of agreed national uniform standards,” Msibi said.
Anti-corruption operations would also be intensified to deal decisively with driving schools that connived with licensing officers to issue drivers’ licenses to undeserving candidates. These operations would also focus on the fraudulent issuance of roadworthy certificates to public transport and freight operators.
Traffic officers would also receive further training and development to be able to do their work effectively and contribute towards reducing fatalities on the roads.
Msibi said the additional on-the-job training to be provided to traffic officers would focus on equipping officers with skills to enforce overload control, dangerous goods transportation, vehicle examination, license examination, road traffic information and road traffic legislation. They would also be trained to do high speed pursuit and interception.
He warned motorists that the RTMC was consulting with the Department of Justice to tighten the law on drunken driving. The proposal under discussion involved the reclassification of drunken driving from a Schedule 3 to a Schedule 5 offence and the introduction of minimum sentences.
“Road safety is not negotiable. It is everyone’s responsibility to behave appropriately on the roads and where they fail there must be consequences,” Msibi said.
ANA