Shocking, Tragic but not Surprising!

By Ashref Ismail

The Boksburg Tanker Explosion that claimed the lives of forty people on Christmas eve is symptomatic of a transport department that is dysfunctional and a country that is at the edge of a precipice.

With more than a thousand people killed on South African roads during the past month-long holiday season, we remain numb to the news of road related deaths. We have become so insensitive to the needless and senseless loss of lives that we have normalized dying on our roads as an unfortunate expectation.

Daily, an average of forty people die on South African roads with up to 35% comprising of pedestrians. This puts us amongst the top ten worst countries in Africa and in the top 25 worst in the rest of the world when comparing road deaths among 100 000 population.

The road transport system which is the lifeblood of any vibrant economy, is the heartbeat of a flourishing and prosperous society. Safety, security, efficacy and efficiency separates first world from third world environments. A government that is unable or unwilling to provide an integrated transport system that caters for the needs and inspirations of its people is indeed a sad indictment on its ability to govern.

Anywhere else in the world a government that lacks accountability and is characterized by incompetence, ineptitude and corruption would long have been declared rogue and replaced.

Everywhere one looks, there are signs of a failed state – it is a wonder that the system has not imploded already. Or, maybe it has, and we’re hamstrung like in the proverbial boiling frog syndrome, that we do not even notice it anymore.

If there is indeed one area apart from Eskom, that conclusively demonstrates the utter failure of the ANC government, it is in its inability to reign in the mini-bus taxi industry. Daily we are confronted by rogue drivers who are a law unto themselves, braking road rules with impunity and constantly endangering the lives of their voiceless passengers and other road users. We have seen how they would shoot at and burn long distance coaches, even killing rivals for lucrative routes.

More than ever before we are beginning to see the scourge of bad driving increasing amongst the heavy vehicle sector. Following the Boksburg tanker explosion, there have been four other tanker-related crashes in the country. And this will continue, as unscrupulous operators, hire drivers with dodgy credentials, providing no advanced, defensive driver training, overloading their vehicles, cutting on key maintenance and asking their drivers to drive longer hours without reasonable breaks. This is a recipe for disaster and we regularly witness the frightening results on social media.

The failure of Prasa, the SOE that manages Transnet and Metrorail has resulted in an ever-increasing volume of heavy vehicles on the major arterial corridors. Clearly, government’s much vaunted “Road-to-Rail” project was derailed by the widespread corruption, incompetence and malfeasance as witnessed during the Zondo Commission proceedings. The total destruction of the rail infrastructure and the plundering of what used to be efficient railway stations is enough to reduce one to tears.

High levels of corruption, inadequate training, incompetence and general ineptitude – not to mention poor leadership has seen a traffic law enforcement fraternity that is conspicuous by its absence. So out of touch are they with the ability to provide safety and security that it is not surprising to find homeless beggars controlling traffic at major intersections! If and when traffic police are visible, you’d find them either sitting in their expensive patrol cars or conducting speed-timing operations. If you should be pulled over for a roadside check – at most –  it will be checking the validity of your driving license and the vehicle license disc.

There is absolutely no evidence of smart policing at all, just plenty of fund raising effort. This in a country where there are high levels of alcohol-related deaths. In fact, according to Medical Research Council’s Non-Natural Injury Mortality Rate, 65% of weekend death rates are as a result of abuse of alcohol, either by a driver, and/or pedestrians. One would think there would be a greater focus on driving under the influence, but no – when last did you come across a sobriety check-point?

Daily we witness motorists of all vehicle classes committing all manner of road infractions with impunity – talking and even texting on their mobiles while driving, operating un-roadworthy vehicles, jumping red lights, overtaking dangerously, tailgating and various other moving violations simply because they know can get away with it. The chances of getting caught are very slim and even if they do get pulled over, a litre of coke or some lunch money can sort out most road nuisances, right? Crime does pay in good ol’ SA!

Increased levels of frustration amongst the compliant motorists is leading to road rage and it seems that we are all just one mile away from total anarchy.

No to mention the crumbling infrastructure, secondary roads dotted with thousands of killer potholes and the general state of decay that is reminiscent of a scene from an apocalyptic movie.

And that is only referring to road transport. What about rail, aviation and maritime? The lack of competition following the downing of major brands like Mango, Kulula, Comair and SAA has led to the high cost of air travel, both domestically and internationally forcing more people to travel by road.

So, how did we get here?

I’ve been mentioning a number of times in this article, and having worked for two decades at provincial and national departments of transport and being a former, founding member of the Road Traffic Management Corporation, I can say without a doubt that the following are some of the key challenges:

• Cadre deployment with political appointees being parachuted into senior positions who are totally clueless and who lack passion and commitment;
• Lack of continuity as every new Minister brings along his/her own administration and their first order of business is to throw out what the previous guys did and re-invent the entire wheel, all over again;
• The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is supposed to be the lead agency for road safety in the country, but when last did you hear from them? There is a total lack of a communications strategy from this SOE;
• Studying their annual report, you will see that many of their strategic objectives and key performance indicators are not aligned to measuring road death reductions;
• The National Traffic Police of the RTMC has merely created an additional tier of traffic law enforcement and it is not uncommon to find three different agencies working along one major route, all of them doing “speed trapping” at different times of the day;
• A proper accredited and certified driving school/driving instructor training programme should be developed, which ideally should be preceded by overhauling the entire K53 regime;
• Road safety education in conjunction with the National Department of Education has not been realized and a wonderful opportunity to inculcate safety habits from a young age is missing;
• Road traffic offences are still seen as a minor or petty offence and various agents across the entire criminal justice system do not bother giving it the necessary gravitas to serve as an effective deterrent;
• For too many of the local traffic authorities especially, road traffic offences are a means of revenue generation and until this mindset changes, we will continue to lose lives;
• Corruption at vehicle testing stations, driving license testing centres, road-side checkpoints and weighbridges must be uprooted and culprits arrested and prosecuted. Far too many officials are living way above their means and a simple lifestyle audit will reveal how many of them may be on the take and/or are moonlighting as taxi or transport operators;
• The entire road traffic strategy needs to be overhauled and an effective tri-partite coalition established between government, the private sector and civil society.

While the wish-list is far from complete, tackling some of these issues listed above would be a step in the right direction. With a cabinet reshuffle looming, let’s hope that the new incumbent will provide the vision, aims and objectives that the long-suffering populace country is long asking for and is truly deserving of.

Ashref Ismail is a multiple award-winning road safety practitioner with more 35 years’ experience at provincial, national and international levels. He holds qualifications in Traffic and Municipal Policing, Teaching, Public Relations and Professional Driving. He currently runs his own fleet risk management consultancy, FleetMax Africa, specializing in advanced, hazard management training and driver wellness. He can be contacted on 061 447 8506 or ash@fmxafrica.co.za