Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula says it is every driver’s duty to contribute to road safety.
“We must all appreciate that safety on our roads is a collective responsibility that we must all shoulder. Each one of us must be able to define their individual contribution to making our roads safer for our children as well as future generations. This starts with changing behaviour that places the lives of other road users at risk,” said the Minister.
This comes in the wake of a number of crashes, each with multiple fatalities, in the Western Cape, Free State, Kwazulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, from Thursday, 19 September 2019 to date.
The Department of Transport has taken tangible steps towards curbing the carnage.
“The rollout of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) is not just about a more efficient way of adjudicating road traffic offences, but also about creating effective incentives to change road user behaviour,” said Mbalula.
The Minister said efforts to ensure that traffic policing becomes a 24/7 activity are well underway. “We are engaging with all traffic authorities in the country and traffic officers through relevant channels to ensure that the implementation of this intervention does not negatively affect conditions of service of our officers.”
In the coming weeks, Mbalula will roll out a campaign that will vigorously drive road safety messages through a collaborative effort with organs of civil society. A social compact will underpin the Ministry’s agenda of accelerated service delivery and define the role of civil society in ensuring road safety. – SAnews.gov.za
