Education and tougher law enforcement key to curbing SA road fatalities

Johannesburg - Education and tougher law enforcement are key focus areas in South Africa's ongoing battle against road traffic accidents and fatalities; but they are by no means the only interventions required to reduce the annual death toll.

There is also a clear argument for all road users to be accountable for their actions and treat the country's road traffic laws and enforcement institutions with respect. "Driver and pedestrian behaviours such as drunk driving, jaywalking, recklessness, and speeding are among the main contributors to South Africa's annual motor vehicle accident fatality statistics; these human behaviours are also among the most difficult to influence or change," says Dr Karien Venter, Senior Researcher at CSIR Smart Mobility.

Dr Venter was one of the keynote speakers at a multi-stakeholder panel assembled for a Business for Road Safety (BRS) Webinar, held on 26 September 2024. The BRS was established by the South African Insurance Association (SAIA) in 2014 and tasked with exploring ways to reduce road accidents and fatalities in the country – in recognition of the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action programme aimed at reducing global road accident fatalities by half (50%) by 2030.

The BRS chairperson and General Manager Insurance Risk at SAIA, Ms Pamela Ramagaga, called on all South Africans to collaborate and work together sustainably and systematically to improve road use outcomes. "If we work together, we can shift the needle in terms of what we see on our roads and help government to achieve the Decade of Action goal," she said.

The assembled experts agreed that combatting road fatalities required instilling the correct road use behaviour from an early age; but conceded that increased and sustained law enforcement were non-negotiable too. They argued that in the absence of consequences for poor driver behaviour, road users tended to resist change.

Mr Layton Beard, Head: Public Affairs and International Relations at the Automobile Association (AA), raised concerns over the impunity with which South African road users interacted with existing road traffic laws, citing the common practise of 'buying' driver's licences as one example. He advocated for consistent action from law enforcement agencies to deliver improvements in road use. "Enforcement needs to take place 24-7, 365 days per year," said Beard.

The panel flagged significant education and experience shortfalls in the novice driver population, exacerbated by systemic problems in the issuing of both learner's and driver's licences. Mr Lazarus Mokwena, Secretary General for the National Driving School Association of South Africa (NDSASA) suggested a rethink of the transition from learner to driver, saying that the current system does not allow adequate time for the necessary skills to be development or experienced. "The system is failing the driving school industry in a sense that a person comes into the system for a learner's licence today, and tomorrow, the same person is on the system looking for a driver's license," Mokwena said.

The various road and road use agencies across South Africa have been hard at work to improve road safety outcomes across the country, spearheaded by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). Government, through the RTMC, reports back to the UN on various road safety initiatives.  It has also ensured that road safety is built into the National Development Plan as part of delivering on UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) 3 and 11.

Progress towards the UN Decade of Action has been slow; but the stakeholders gathered for the event remained optimistic that a few careful, strategic improvements – combined with a tighter focus on education and law enforcement – could help the country back on track.

Ms Ntsoaki Tsokolibane, General Manager: Road Safety at the RTMC, called for "holistic interventions" that include addressing society's alarmingly lax attitude towards the law.  Dr Venter also singled out compliance as a major issue, conceding that, "One of the biggest problems that we currently face is that enforcement is not followed through to bring people to task for the behaviour they choose to execute."

The panellists labelled road safety a "shared responsibility" that should be tackled in collaboration. At a higher level, this might require a refinement of current approaches to both private and public sector transportation.  "If you want to change driver behaviour you must make mobility your primary goal; at the moment this is not the case in our country," Beard said.

To further reduce road fatalities, the AA suggested getting tough on crime by ensuring that forensic laboratories process samples quicker, allowing enforcement agencies to do their work – and for the courts to ensure that people who transgress the law are punished.

Panel moderator and Chief Executive Officer of MasterDrive, Mr Eugene Herbert, closed the session with the 'be the change you want to see in the world' quotation often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. "We cannot expect government to rein in road fatalities on its own; road safety falls upon all road users who must take responsibility for their actions," Herbert concluded.