Festive Period Road Accident Statistics & Easter preparations; with Minister and Deputy Minister

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Transport

19 February 2021
Chairperson: Mr M Zwane (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Video: Portfolio Committee on Transport
Statement by Minister Mbalula on the release of 2020 Festive season statistics - 22 January 2021

The Portfolio Committee on Transport was addressed by the Minister of Transport on the road accident statistics for the recent festive holiday period, and on the Department of Transport’s (DoT’s) plans to curb road accidents during the upcoming Easter period.

The DoT said that it was working on providing overtime payment to ensure that traffic officers were available on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis. The national Department had been providing resources to provinces unable to afford overtime compensation, to allow for their officials to be deployed 24/7.

In order to reduce the high level of pedestrian deaths, during the festive season the DoT had distributed reflective bands to people in pubs and bars, which had been identified as places where incidents frequently originated. It believed it could do better with regard to pedestrian accidents, however. The Department was asked to present to the Committee the educational programmes that it was implementing to curb jaywalking and the other factors that contributed to pedestrian road accidents.

The DoT had rolled out warning signage across national roads to alert motorists of high accident zones, and hazardous weather and road conditions, but these safety features were not as advanced on provincial road networks. The DoT had engaged with the SA National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) to assist in creating guidelines and standards for road construction and maintenance in the provinces.

The Department had used R176 million provided by National Treasury to acquire mobile testing stations, which allowed traffic officers to determine in an instant report whether a vehicle was roadworthy or not. If it was not roadworthy, it was taken off the road immediately. The DoT was budgeting to acquire more of these mobile roadworthy testing stations.

Members said the report on road accidents during the festive season had been released weeks ago, and asked why the Minister was engaging with the Portfolio Committee only now. Members asked when they would see the Arrive Alive outcomes, if the Department considered introducing legislation to reduce fatalities especially amongst children, and interventions to address the weekend, which seemed to be the time most collisions occurred. Concern was expressed around the proliferation of worn out tyres and the resale of reused tyres. Members picked up that road collisions most frequently rook place in December and then June and asked how this would be addressed. Members also asked about pedestrian deaths and legislation to deal with workers on the back of bakkies.

Members raised the closing of Greyhound and asked what plans the Department had for long distance passengers. They asked if the Department embarked on education campaigns and if so, what its impact was. Members also wanted to know about the torching of truck drivers and what was being done to remedy the situation. Further questions probed road maintenance,

The Department was commended for the 365-day action campaign and the traffic fines that had been issued.

Members suggested the Committee should invite the provinces to present their road safety plans, preferably towards December. The Committee should also consider oversight visits to focus on road safety issues and law enforcement, amongst other pressing matters. Road conditions, weather conditions and road worthiness should be included during the oversight visit, as well as hotspots where trucks and truckers were being targeted. It was said one issue that should be addressed again when the Committee engaged with the provinces was the state of provincial roads, including the state of potholes. It was said Buffalo City was amongst one of the best Metropolitan Municipalities when it came to curbing drinking and driving. Such municipalities could be learnt from.  It was suggested the Committee get a report on the effectiveness of the national traffic police after the Committee had met with the provinces. It was suggested the DoT should present to the Committee on its educational and safety interventions. The Department was urged to present updated statistics to the Committee even if Parliament is in recess for urgent engagement with Members.

 

Meeting report

Festive Season Statistics

Mr Fikile Mbalula, Minister of Transport, said that excessive speed was one of the most common factors in crashes. Over two thirds of road crashes were preceded by a violation of traffic laws. Crashes were avoidable and preventable, if only people could inculcate a culture of responsible behaviour and attitudes when using the roads.

There had been key interventions under the “2020 Festive Season Manifesto” relating to law enforcement and the Road Safety Education & Awareness Campaign. The main intervention had been to have a strong and consistent presence of law enforcement personnel on the major and arterial roads to ensure that road offenders were arrested in cases where they excessively broke the law.

The statistics included:

From November 2020, a host of K78 roadblocks were conducted in the country and 490 017 vehicles were stopped and checked.
65 397 drivers were issued with traffic fines, and 1 453 drivers were arrested for various offences.
In December, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays accounted for 54.3% of all fatal crashes.
26% of crashes were between 6pm and 10pm, and 12.9% were between midnight and 4am.
All provinces except Mpumalanga showed a reduction in fatal crashes.
The decline in the number of fatal crashes from the previous festive season was 10.3%, and there were 7% fewer fatalities. 
The breakdown of people who died on the roads was pedestrians (40%), passengers (34%), drivers (25%) and cyclists (1%).

Easter Period Preparations

During the Easter period, the Department aimed to reduce fatalities by 20%. Its plans were to:

Influence driver behaviour
Curb drinking and driving
Control overloading
Monitor public transport
Have a high visibility of law enforcement
24/7 law enforcement from 02 April to 2 May
Ensure pedestrians’ safety
Mobile testing on the roads


Discussion

Mr C Hunsinger (DA) stated that the report on road accidents during the festive season had been released weeks ago, and asked why the Minister was engaging with the Portfolio Committee only now. From 2011, the DoT had the Arrive Alive campaign, which aimed to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2015. Six years later, the Department had still not presented the outcomes to the Committee. In 2017, Cabinet had approved the National Road Safety Strategy with the same objectives as the Arrive Alive campaign, with 2030 as the deadline. How had data collected from the road safety campaigns resulted in an improved strategy? Statistically, road accidents remained the ninth leading cause of deaths in South Africa, especially in the age group 20-34. There was an average of 1 300 children who were killed in crashes each year. What legislation was the DoT considering to reduce fatalities amongst children?

Cargo flow statistics indicated a large volume of cargo landing at terminals for exchange clearance and handling. The DoT had not shown any plans for rail links to be connected to these terminals. Was it engaging with other Departments in this regard?

He lamented the fact that Greyhound had had its last day of business earlier in the week. What plan did the DoT have for passenger transport over longer distances? Had it engaged with Greyhound?

The combined road network of the nine provinces was in excess of 237 000kms, compared to South African National Road Agency (SANRAL) roads, which covered about 21 000kms. The budgets for the nine provinces had increased by only R5 billion, whereas the SANRAL budget had increased by R15 billion. He asked if this skewed budget would be looked into.

Mr L Mangcu (ANC) said that the statistics on the reduction of road accidents was not contextualised. A comparison of the increase of population on the road and the increase of new drivers needed to be given. There had been a generic increase of 3% in the vehicle population across South Africa. This could be juxtaposed with the perceived decrease in road accidents. Raw figures did not really assist the Committee if they were not given in context.

Human factors had accounted for a large percentage of road accidents, according to the Department, which had been its punch-line for many years. What were the specific targeted interventions to address human factors? What were the outcomes of the current interventions? Over the years, human factors as a cause for road accidents had increased, so this should be a focus of the DoT. Road accidents occurred more frequently on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays -- what had been the interventions to address this? This had also been the case for many years, so was the Department merely doing the same thing and expecting different results?

The 365-day action campaign and the traffic fines that had been issued were commended. He asked that the DoT put data presented such as traffic fines, into better context. How many traffic fines had been reduced, cancelled, paid in full, ignored and warrants issued?

There had been 13 311 incidents involving worn out tyres, and he had previously asked the DoT what interventions were being implemented with regard to worn out tyres and the resale of used tyres. There had been a proliferation in second-hand tyres being sold across South Africa.

He asked the Department to present to the Committee on interventions that had been of an educational nature, and whether these were making an impact. Over the years, the Western Cape had had the best improvement in its numbers regarding fatal crashes. The Western Cape did not welcome the national traffic police, whereas the rest of the country did. Were the national traffic police making any impact on road safety? He believed they did not have much of an impact, nut this increased the tensions and burden on the fiscus. What was the cost of the national traffic police? 

Road accidents were the most frequent in December, followed by June. How would this be addressed?

Mr K Sithole (IFP) said that the DoT and the Minister did not take the Committee seriously, as most of the programmes presented had been seen on Twitter, and nothing had been sent to the Committee. He asked what interventions the DoT was implementing to deal with the increase in driver and passenger fatalities. He asked for a breakdown of road accidents per national route, and for the DoT to provide the results of the National Road Safety Strategy from 2011-2020. How many road accidents were attributed to potholes? How many road fines had been paid per province? What was the DoT doing to educate people regarding pedestrian-related road accidents?  When would it combine and submit all of the results to the Committee?

Minister’s response

The Minister said it was unfair that he was being accused of disrespecting Parliament. He went out of his way and had never absconded from Parliament. He welcomed criticism and disagreement on his methods, but this should not be equated to disrespect. It seemed like some Members of the Committee would prefer for the Minister to present the road accident statistics to Parliament before releasing them to the public. If this was indeed the case, then the Members should say so. He used his own personal Twitter account, and the DoT had its own account. The statistics were released in January before schools and factories opened. Parliament had been closed during this time, but he was prepared to comply with the wishes of the Committee should it prefer statistics to be presented to it before they were released to the public.

He had noted and would take into consideration all the suggestions made by the Committee, as the issues were important and had a huge impact on South Africa. The suggestions were not criticisms, but rather constructive inputs. This was one of the richest engagements on road accidents that the Department had had with the Committee. The Department had previously set a 10% target, which it had achieved. It had set a 20% target, which it had not achieved.

The Minister apologised to the Committee for circulating the presentation late. He excused himself, as he had to attend another meeting.

The Chairperson responded that the Committee had received the presentation on time.

Discussion

Mr T Mabhena (DA) commended Mr Alec Moemi, Director-General (DG), DoT, for engaging with him regarding an urgent matter outside of normal hours. He thanked him for his service.

He said that road accidents involving workers on the back of bakkies resulted in absolute carnage. In farm areas, tractors were seen with connected trailers carrying passengers. Did the presentation of the statistics include issues such as this?  Was the Department looking to develop legislation in this regard, as current legislation did not factor in road accidents where there was an employee/employer relationship? The Western Cape legislature had setup a task team to deal with the employee/employer relationship as an arising issue, but it had not had positive engagements with the national task team regarding this.

On the N3, trucks had been torched, which was an inter-departmental matter. Had the DoT engaged with the other departments involved? If the Department had received resistance from other departments, what had been done to remedy the situation?

SANRAL ran many advertisements at a great cost to tell the public about progress on road infrastructure. Could the Committee be provided with statistics regarding accidents on SANRAL roads where it had had intervention programmes?

Conditional grants were given to provinces for road maintenance. What was the completion rate of road maintenance per province in relation to the stipulated grant conditions? Had the DoT performed oversight of projects in provinces?

Mr M Chabangu (EFF) said that COVID19 had contributed to the reduction in road fatalities. The DoT could not rely on this factor in future. What mechanism would be put in place to keep the statistics low? Roadworthiness statistics were not as in depth as he would have liked. The N3 near Harrismith was a cause for concern, how was the DoT intending to remedy this? Would a free flow way be constructed at the Van Reenen Pass? The Moloto Corridor was killing citizens daily. The Committee’s oversight visit had found that the people were unhappy with the slow pace at which the matter was being attended to. When did the DoT anticipate it would be completed?

DoT’s response
 
Mr Moemi said that the DoT was reviewing the role and space of taxis. It was having round-table talks with Treasury over the proposal to subsidise taxis. Taxis played a role in both local passenger transport as well long-distance transportation, which had been raised by Mr Hunsinger. This was being considered in the review.

SANRAL, as a national entity, was funded by the national fiscus. Provinces received a grant that enabled them to perform road maintenance, guided by the Provincial Road Maintenance Grant (PRMG). The PRMG was in line with the road funding policy of South Africa, which was a concurrent function that looked at the network that was not declared as part of the national road network. This network was constitutionally the responsibility of the provinces. The provinces were expected to raise their own revenue, and provincial treasuries were expected to budget for roads. Some provinces had budgeted minimally for roads and had indicated to provincial departments that the national Department was giving them money. It must be clarified that the PRMG was never intended as a substitute for budgeting for roads. The PRMG was a maintenance grant to maintain existing road networks, but not for building new road networks. It was a matter for the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to direct provincial treasuries on how to budget appropriately.

The DoT had started collecting data on tyres as a factor in road safety, following Mr Mangcu’s suggestion in previous engagements. He was surprised that Mr Mangcu had not been satisfied with the Department’s presentation on the matter.

Mr Mangcu, on a point of order, said that he did appreciate the Department’s efforts, but the presentation did not state how tyres had contributed to road accidents. He commented that it was difficult to clap for a fish when it was swimming.

Mr Moemi said that it had not been easy collecting data about tyres as a cause of accidents. Roadblocks had begun looking at tyres, and those statistics were being reviewed. The DoT would improve on collecting and presenting such data. He welcomed Mr Mangcu’s suggestion, especially on the reporting of periods where there was an increased frequency of traffic, as well as collecting data and reporting on new drivers that were on the roads. To complement this, the Department would look at deregistered and discontinued vehicles. Collecting data on drivers that had exited was difficult as there was no law prohibiting older persons from driving, subject to them being fit to drive.

The DoT had introduced new measures, such as the introduction of Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) in 2015/2016 period. The DoT had been working hard on AARTO, where it had now been signed into law. The implementation and rollout of its core functions had been attained at a level of about 60% by July. The DoT was working on providing overtime payments to ensure that officers were available on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis. The National Department had been providing resources to provinces unable to afford overtime compensation, to allow for their officials to be deployed 24/7.

The Department’s messaging to the public regarding pedestrian safety had improved. The strategies of reaching out to specific areas had improved as well. There was a greater link around jaywalkers and pedestrians involved in car accidents while under the influence of alcohol.

The comparison of data collected on bicycle collisions from 2015/16 to the present had shown trends in incidents which had allowed the Department to intervene, such as the creation of bicycle lanes within cities which had improved the situation. Similarly, with regard to incidents involving pedestrians, the DoT had used previous data collected and distributed, and had issued reflective bands to people in pubs and bars, which had been identified as places where incidents frequently occur. The DoT believed it could do better with regard to pedestrian incidents, however.

High accident zones had been marked to warn motorists of potential danger. Sign boards had been placed around national road networks indicating high accident zones, or hazardous weather and road conditions, to inform motorists. In Mpumalanga, as one approached Waterval, there was now signage indicating that there was persistent fog. Signs indicating that roads were slippery or where roads become dangerous due to a gap, had also been prioritised. While the warning signage was present for national roads, safety features were not as advanced on provincial road networks. The DoT had revised this and engaged with SANRAL to assist in creating guides and standards for road construction and maintenance in provinces.

Mr Moemi said he would look into the matter regarding tractors using trailers as a means to transport passengers in farming areas.

The DoT had engaged with the various departments involved in the issue of trucks being torched along the N3. It was being led by the Inter-Ministerial Committee established by Cabinet, where the President had elected the Minister of Employment and Labour as the Chairperson. It was reportedly South African drivers who were believed to be the instigators/coordinators of the torching of the trucks. The disagreement had arisen as they believed they had not been afforded opportunities, whereas train drivers had. At the heart of this, it was a labour challenge, but it occurred within the jurisdiction of the DoT road network.

A detailed report on the R573 road would be drafted and presented to the Committee, with a comparison of the road carnage over the years and a time-lapse of interventions. The interventions on this were still under way.

The monitoring of conditional grants had improved. Departmental officials had been visiting the sites to authenticate the projects. This was enabled by dedicated resources made by Treasury to increase monitoring capabilities. It was not the best it could be, but new guidelines had been developed as mentioned, and this would yield better monitoring capabilities.

The DoT used the system of a ten-point check to check various car functions such as wipers, brakes, indicator lights and so on. This was used alongside other systems that municipalities had developed. R176 million had been given to the DoT by National Treasury, which had been used to acquire mobile testing stations that allowed it to produce an instant report on whether a vehicle was roadworthy or not. If it was not roadworthy, it was taken off the road immediately. The DoT was budgeting on acquiring more of these mobile roadworthy testing stations.

The N3 near Harrismith was a mountainous area. The double lanes that went through Van Reenen’s Pass had been cut off. It would be difficult to cut the road any further on that section of the mountain. The other side of the mountain had a gorge that was about 1km deep, making it particularly difficult to engineer. SANRAL had proposed the De Beers Pass as an alternative, at a fraction of the cost of making modifications to Van Reenen’s pass. The De Beers Pass would be straighter, have a gradient of four degrees or less, and allow trucks to move more easily. There was resistance by communities regarding this proposal, as the new coordinates would bypass the town of Harrismith. Subsequently, the Harrismith Business Forum had been established by community members who were against the proposal, claiming it would collapse businesses in Harrismith. The former Minister of Transport, Mr Dipuo Peters, had halted the SANRAL proposal and assured the concerned communities that the De Beers Pass would not be constructed. The DoT was looking for solutions that would satisfy the Harrismith Business Forum and community members.

Follow-up discussion
 

Mr Mangcu suggested that the Committee should invite the provinces to present their road safety plans, preferably towards December. It should consider oversight visits to some provinces when time permitted. The visits should focus on road safety issues and law enforcement, amongst other pressing matters.

Buffalo City was amongst one of the best Metropolitan Municipalities when it came to curbing drinking and driving. Such municipalities could be learnt from. He suggested that the DoT should present to the Committee on its educational and safety interventions, and deliberately exclude law enforcement interventions.  He suggested that the Committee get a report on the effectiveness of the national traffic police after the Committee had met with the provinces.

Mr Hunsinger supported Mr Mangcu’s proposals, but said that the report on the effectiveness of the national traffic police should be put on hold. Provinces should indeed be invited to present their road safety plans to the Committee, as this would enable it to review and evaluate them. As soon as time and conditions permitted, oversight visits to the provinces was good idea. Road conditions, weather conditions and road worthiness should be included during the oversight visit, as well as hotspots where trucks and truckers were being targeted.

Mr Sithole stated that he supports Mr Mangcu’s proposal for the Committee to engage with the provinces to evaluate their road safety plans. He added that the DG had not addressed the question regarding potholes.

The Chairperson said that one issue that should be addressed again when the Committee engaged with the provinces was the state of provincial roads, including the state of potholes.

Mr Chabungu reminded the DG about his question regarding the Moloto Corridor.

The Chairperson said a full presentation had been made regarding the progress and status of the Moloto Rail and Moloto Corridor.  The issue that needed to be looked into further was the issue of safety and education. He suggested that the Members look at the Committee programme and should there be any suggestions thereafter, for those proposals to be brought forward.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister, Deputy Minister and all the officials for their attendance and engagement. He said that the Committee did not take the approach of “us and them” when it came to the Department. The robust conversations should not be taken as the Committee trying to disrespect the Department. The Committee had not taken a decision for the DoT not to issue statements while Parliament was on recess. It was understood that the Department should issue statistics at the earliest and most convenient time. Perhaps the Department could email statistics to the Members of the Committee prior to releasing them to the public, and a discussion could take place at a later time that was arranged.

Committee minutes
 
The minutes of 10 February 2020 were tabled before the Committee.

Mr Mabhena and Mr Hunsinger both said they had been unable to go through the minutes, and were thus unable to move their adoption.

The Chairperson thanked them for their honesty, and said the minutes would be tabled again at the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned,

 

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