By Bhekisisa Mncube
Pietermaritzburg – Over 680 people have died as a result of road accidents in KwaZulu-Natal between May - September this year, MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, told the special sitting of the provincial Legislature today.
Mchunu was delivering an executive statement before the Legislature on recent road carnages in the province.
“In the recent months, our province has experienced a disturbing increase in road accidents which have resulted in many fatalities and injuries,” he said.
The most recent ones being the Pinetown/ M13 (Field’s Hill) accident, which claimed the lives of 23 people and the R66/R34 Nkwalini accident that claimed 10 lives – including eight maidens and two minders.
“This moment calls upon all responsible citizens of KwaZulu Natal – and South Africa at large – irrespective of political affiliation, to stand together and jointly search for lasting solutions,” the MEC said.
Mchunu said the accident comes after the province was starting to consolidate the gains, “we have made in the past four years owing to the effective implementation of road safety programmes”.
He revealed that in the last three years, “we experienced a marked decrease in road fatalities by at least 33.6 percent.”
This improvement, he said, “is a solid basis upon which we have been building our progress towards achieving a 50 percent decrease in roads crashes and fatalities by 2020, as per the United Nations “Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020”.
Field’s Hill Accident/ M13
Addressing the pertinent issue of the recent horrific Field’s Hill/M13 accident, Mchunu said his department had invested more than R80 million in the last two years upgrading the M13 road.
Speaking specifically on the recent accident, he said the department has instituted plans to address the challenges of M13. “I have reported these plans to Cabinet. I have also indicated to Cabinet that I have since become aware of concerns that have been raised by various stakeholders with the Department of Transport on the use by trucks of Fields Hill (M13) including a desire for the banning of trucks on this road,” he said.
He reported that he had requested Cabinet to allow him to engage with all relevant role players and stakeholders affected in this matter. “After this engagement, I will table a comprehensive report on my findings to both Cabinet and the Legislature for debate,” he said.
“We should have a provisional report by 25 September and a final report a week later,” he said.
Attempts by opposition parties to hoodwink Mchunu into imposition of a temporal ban on heavies travelling on M13 were refuted. “That’s not how we run a government. We don’t wake and make determinations with widespread implications without due process. I won’t do it,” he emphasised.
Speaking to SAnews, he said the desire of survivors to sue the truck owner was a proactive approach. “As the department, it is our duty to support these families, including with legal access remedies if so required.”
He expressed his deep dissatisfaction with the public support for the driver accused of killing 23 people.
He stressed that the response of the truck company which yesterday withdrew legal representation for the driver and accused him of having presented fraudulent papers during the recruitment process as, “insensitive”. He also rejected the truck owner’s insistence that he had serviced the brakes of the truck days before the accident. “I trust the evidence presented to me by the department’s expert which found that the brakes were defective.” – SAnews.gov.za
