The Preliminary 2023/24 Festive Season Campaign Statistics were released on the 24th of January 2024 at Grasmere, Gauteng, by Transport Minister Sinidisiwe Chakunga. According to the report, 1427 people died in road accidents over the 2023/24 festive period. This shows a 1.7% decrease from the holiday period in 2022/2023. Most of the deaths were pedestrians (40.9%), and were people between the ages of 25 and 44 years old.
The Western Cape recorded the worst statistics this year, with an increase in fatalities of 22.6%. Free State fared better with a 27.4% decline in fatalities. Minister Chikunga said: “The reality is that our behaviour on the roads in South Africa is still deeply problematic and it has a devastating impact on our society. Despite our significant road safety efforts, we have a long way to go to turn the tide on poor road user behaviour.”
In an exclusive interview, the founder of Arrive Alive, Adv. Johan Jonck provided valuable insights and feedback on the state of road safety on South Africa’s roads. Jonck founded Arrive Alive in 2003 as an NGO aiming to decrease the number of lives lost on South African roads through raising public awareness of road safety concerns.
What more do you feel can be done to heighten road safety in South Africa, not just over the festive season but all year round?
When we want to improve road safety, one will always refer to the four E’s: ease, education, enforcement, engineering, and evaluation. I think it’s easy to create awareness on the educational side 24/7 – but on the enforcement side, we definitely need more strict enforcement. We definitely need to clamp down on corruption – that needs to be done every day. On the engineering side, we need to address the conditions of many of our roads, especially in the rural areas.
What trends have you noticed over the years at Arrive Alive regarding road safety in the country? Can you say if it is improving or getting worse? Are there any major factors that you can mention here?
We are facing an uphill battle. Many pedestrian lives were lost over this period. Over 40% nationally and in the Western Cape, over 50% of the fatalities were pedestrians, as reported by the Transport Minister.
Unroadworthy vehicles, unlicensed vehicles and drivers prove to be a huge problem on our roads. It would be valuable to root out corruption not just with getting caught for speeding, but from licensing, and getting your license to passing roadworthy tests.
We need to take note of the dangers of driver fatigue, speeding, safe following distances, and wearing a seat belt and buckled up in the front seat and backseat.
Also, it’s important to note that South Africa has the 10th largest road network in the world with 750,000 kilometres of road, but of those, 140,000km are tar roads – so there are a lot of municipal and rural and even gravel roads.
I also think we should never forget to acknowledge those traffic officers and emergency services workers who do their utmost best. The job requires a 24/7 approach, and it needs private sector involvement. Companies from the private sector are also assisting in driving road safety awareness. Things like eye tests are important. We cannot merely leave things up to the government and the state.
Road Safety is a bit of a team effort. We can create a lot more awareness, but definitely, we need to focus on a lot more defensive driving. Adjusting to the conditions is not only about speeding, it is driving at a safe speed for the circumstances and conditions.
Why does this matter? Whilst the fatalities on the roads may have decreased slightly over the 2023/2024 festive season, we still “face an uphill battle” when it comes to road safety on the country’s roads.
