Minister of Transport on Road Traffic Management Corporation interventions & road accident fatalities

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed the Minister of Transport, Mr Sibusiso Ndebele; the Deputy Minister, Mr Jeremy Cronin; and the delegation from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) led by the Director General of the Department of Transport, Mr George Mahlalela.

Minister of Transport on RTMC interventions and on road accident fatalities during festive season
Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said the year 2012 had begun in high spirits and would be a year of intensified efforts in the pursuit of efficient service delivery, with the high hopes that the goals set would be achieved. Opportunities existed for all to make a difference in their respective areas of deployment. Challenges remained the same. The shared strategic mission and primary purpose was to provide a safe, reliable and efficient transport system for our country. It would take partnerships to realise those goals. The Department of Transport had been in the process of reorganising itself to ensure it had the necessary capacity to discharge the required services. A very good workshop had been held with the Department and the Deputy Minister and it was felt that the Department was now in a position to make a difference.

Gearing up for the year of service delivery, the Minister emphasised the role of stakeholder enterprises as agents of change that was sought for our communities. The RTMC was one of the country’s key and strategic agencies. The chief mandate of the RTMC was to make South Africa’s roads safe. Its aim was the success of programmes and improving the living conditions of our people. The last time the Committee interacted with the RTMC, it reported several interventions that were being undertaken to address the challenges besetting that organisation. Other interventions were aimed at improving its capacity to deliver an efficient service. Among other issues discussed were the road safety leadership and RTMC restructuring process. The leadership of the RTMC would address those issues.

Headway was being made in stabilising the RTMC, particularly in leadership. Working with the interim CEO the organisation was able to resolve the matter of the former CEO of the RTMC, which was an issue that had paralysed the movement of the RTMC from 2009 forward. That matter was finally resolved in December 2011. The process of appointing the new CEO was well under way and the Department was confident that finalisation of that process would bring the much needed renewed hope to the organisation that had been plagued by leadership challenges for some time.

Minister Ndebele commended the work being done by the current Interim CEO in ensuring that the organisation continued to function and discharged his responsibilities despite all the challenges.

A subject very close to the Minister’s heart was the mammoth task of changing people’s conduct on our roads. Multiple lives were lost every year due to road crashes that were unnecessary and preventable. If only South Africans would change their mindset, the Department would be able to realise minimal and less fatal crashes on our roads. Road carnage was a problem that affected all of us and was a collective responsibility that would see us making inroads in making our roads safer. South Africans in general were not lawless people. Of all licensed drivers, only a few individuals continued to display total disregard for the rules of the road and were the few who were turning our roads into killing fields. They had to be isolated and exposed for their deeds were not only a danger to themselves but posed a real threat to the sustainability of society.

Figures released of deaths emanating from road crashes recorded during the December holiday break were down compared to the previous year but the Department of Transport was still very unhappy; 1475 people was still too high a figure and must be brought down significantly.

The Department wished to drive social conduct programmes that would have a primary objective of speaking to the drivers of the vehicles. Each month the country lost more than a thousand bodies due to road crashes that could have been avoided. Those programmes would be done in partnership with stakeholders involved in road safety initiatives; one of those partners the Department would be using was the I Pledge Campaign run by Imperial Holdings together with the Department of Transport. Through that campaign Imperial Holdings employees pledged proper conduct that encouraged and promoted safety on our roads.

There was also support for the establishment of Road Safety Councils within the communities, and the role that those councils played in fighting road carnage could not be over emphasised. The councils existed within communities where drivers of vehicles, and passengers, lived. Road Safety Councils were organs of society that ensured that in each locality, people realised the carnage on the roads and said this must not be allowed on roads in their locality. The councils encouraged good driving behaviour and, where it was felt there was a need, could ask for traffic officials when and where it was necessary. In that partnership the carnage could be brought down because the community itself wished to prevent its members from dying.

Drunk drivers must be highlighted and their actions disowned by their own families. The public transport community must be empowered to change the attitude of the public transport drivers. Passengers must refuse to be transported in a vehicle that did not meet the minimum safety requirement standards, and must refuse to be transported in a vehicle that was driven recklessly at breakneck speeds. Passengers must say no to a driver who was under the influence of alcohol and other forms of drugs. Passengers were urged to take advantage of existing platforms to report such abuse, one of which was the RTMC hotline 0861 400800.

In partnership with the Department of Basic Education, driving lessons were being introduced as part of the Life Skills curriculum at schools in order to prepare them for the road ahead and create a new breed of driver. At age 17 they would be able to get learner’s licences and by the time they passed matric at age 18, would then be able to legally obtain driver’s licences.

The various legislation that governed road conduct would continue to be assessed as to their effectiveness and contribution to safer roads.

2011 to 2020 was the United Nations Decade of Road Safety and would take effect when all wore the badge signifying commitment to the Decade of Action. The belief was that to change the type of behaviour on our roads would take a decade. The consciousness would have to spread.

The Chairperson thanked Minister Ndebele.

Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) presentation
Mr Collins Letsoalo (Acting CEO, RTMC) briefed the Committee.

Report on key interventions within the RTMC
Two years ago the RTMC was in a very critical position and he was grateful that it had come out of that due to the support given by the Portfolio Committee, the Minister and the Department of Transport over the past year.

A lot of work had to be done to reduce the carnage on the roads by at least fifteen percent per year. The entity was behind on that target as the carnage was reduced by five percent this year, although traffic volumes were higher. Road safety was everyone’s responsibility.

The strategy and focus was mainly to reduce road fatalities by advocating safe roads, safe cars, safe speeds and safe road users; in particular road users because more than 80% of accidents were preceded by one traffic violation or another and it was important to change the behavioural aspects on our roads. It was important to ensure effective stakeholder relationships.

Mr Letsoalo made a plea that everyone, including Parliament; support the Decade of Action on Road Safety. The target was to reduce road fatalities by 50% by 2019.

Under the National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP) over a million cars were stopped a month and during the period October 2010 to August 2011 5 540 notices were issued by all provinces and 50 272 vehicles were discontinued or impounded. 17 91 419 cars were stopped to December 2011 and all targets were reached.

In terms of the National Roll out of the 24/7-shift system, the emphasis was that accidents happened mainly on weekends and between 10pm and 6am. There was provincial dispensation where at 10pm traffic officers knocked off so it was desirable to run the system on a 24 hour basis to ensure that at the times when people needed the roads to be safe. The system would be finalised with provinces and implemented.

Ms J Terblanche (DA) interjected. She asked for copies of the presentation, it was problematic that documentation had not been received before the meeting.

The Chairperson replied that she had also enquired about that issue; the Parliamentary Liaison Officer had been asked to get copies. A letter would be sent to the Department, which would communicate with the relevant stakeholders. The issue had been raised in the past and it was a standing agreement that documents must be received by the Friday preceding the day of the meeting.

The Deputy Minister, Mr Jeremy Cronin, apologised, the problem was due to the heavy traffic congestion that morning.

The Chairperson asked that it be recorded that documents must be received by the Friday when a meeting was to take place on a Tuesday.

Mr S Farrow (DA) was perturbed. It was not the first time that the RTMC had presented documents in that fashion. The same thing happened with the Annual Report, which was not received until the day the Committee sat, and it was agreed that the Annual Report could not be discussed at that time until the Committee had access to the report prior to the meeting. It was blatant contempt of the Parliamentary Committee and the matter had to be seriously considered by the DG.

Ms D Dlakude (ANC) said the officials did not delay the Annual Report; it was delayed in the Speaker’s Office and came to the Committee with a letter from the Speaker explaining why it was delayed.

Mr Farrow disagreed. The letter from the Speaker was in respect of the delay in receipt of the report. That report had already been circulated and Province had already seen it, yet it had not come to this Committee.

Minister Ndebele said he would ensure that the issue of late receipt of documentation would not happen again.

The Chairperson stressed that the Committee was receiving the report on the intervention to deal with the problem of the RTMC; Members must not unearth the things that led to the intervention itself. The Committee should be highlighting the shortcomings that were still in existence in the RTMC and spending more time on the intervention strategy. The issue of the documentation then became more important as a written document to engage with in looking at the effectiveness of the intervention strategy and using the document when conducting oversight.

Mr Letsoalo continued with the presentation, saying the focus on the National Driving Schools Forum was because it was the entity’s view that there was a need to include driving schools because they tended to produce the majority of drivers on our roads. Plans were underway for the national summit.

That which could not be measured, could not be achieved. The MRTC had received complaints about its data capturing in crash reporting and had to ensure that the data was in line with international standards and also that it was reliable data. An MOU was signed with Stats SA to ensure that work was done in that regard. Two members had recently been sent to Germany to attend a Crash Investigation and Reconstruction course.

In order to reduce the number of level crossing crashes across the country, a MOU had been signed with Transnet Freight Rail and training of officers was underway. A level crossing unit was launched in Rustenburg and was fully operational with 20 officers.

In order to improve law enforcement on national roads an agreement was signed with South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) on law enforcement on toll roads and weighbridge facilities. 231 traffic officers were appointed and a Chief of Traffic Police appointed.

Mr Letsoalo turned to emphasis on moving violations. Since December last year there had been head on collisions, mostly because drivers crossed barrier lines and overtook when it was not safe to do so. It would be emphasised that anyone who did that, had to be discouraged because it could lead to an accident. The RTMC aligned itself with best practice throughout the world and was a member of the UN Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) and of the Road Injuries Research Network (RTIRN) and the International Road Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD).

On strengthening institutional capacity, controls and governance, organisational restructuring process was underway. A new CFO was appointed from 1 December 2011 and it was hoped that the entity would obtain a clean audit this year.

In terms of controls and systems and issues of governance, the focus on corruption, fraud within the procurement environment resulted in the reduction of irregular expenditure to zero for the 2010/11 financial year. Vacant posts in finance could not be filled due to financial constraints. An independent Audit Committee was appointed, a Risk Management Committee established, and appointment of the Board was under consideration by the Shareholder’s Committee.

The Ministerial Task Team recommendations on the RTMC were: Disciplinary charges against employees: Five officials were dismissed and some matters were still sub judice as two cases had been referred to the CCMA. Settlement was reached with two officials. Settlement was reached with the CEO in November and the contract mutually terminated on 1 December 2011.

Mr Letsoalo turned to the RTMC Financial Capacity. The RTMC declared its financial position and possible shortfalls to the Minister of Transport and to National Treasury. The entity applied for an increased budget and was awaiting the outcome. A request for additional funding was submitted to National Treasury via the Department of Transport but was not granted. A request for an increase of the RTMC grant for the next two years to sustain the RTMC was not granted and the RTMC was insolvent as a result. A request for funding from National Treasury for the implementation of AARTO was also not granted.

The Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) was formally listed and was up and running and an Acting Registrar was appointed. Preparation for a summit was underway to ensure that all issues were dealt with.

Key Challenges:
- The sustainability of the RTMC
- Most of the entity’s operational issues were in the legislation, rather than in the regulations
- The operations of Shareholder’s Committee to meet its governance requirements
- The National Road Traffic Act (NRTA) was still provisional, most provisions were not yet in use
- The following mandatory functions as per Section 28 of the RTMC Act and Section 52 of the NRTA were outside the span of control of the RTMC:

> Functions performed by the RTMC: road traffic law enforcement; training of traffic personnel; road traffic information; accident investigations and recording; communication and education; infrastructure safety audits; and administrative adjudication of road traffic offences.

> Functions still performed elsewhere included vehicle registration and licensing; vehicle and roadworthiness testing (periodic testing); and testing and licensing of drivers.

- Financial challenges still remained. The RTMC had hoped that there would be a change in revenue so that it could achieve.

Festive Season Road Safety Report
The Festive Season period was from 1 December 2011 to 11 January 2012, and included school closure, industry closure, Christmas and New Year weekends and all weekends ahead of school reopening. The period was characterised by travelling holidaymakers, migrant workers, and church meeting gatherers, football fans and ANC Centenary delegates. This resulted in increased traffic volumes along all major arterial routes, especially N1 north and south of Gauteng, N3 towards KwaZulu-Natal and the N4 towards Mpumalanga.

The National Rolling Enforcement Plan started in September and the focus was on public transport enforcement. Public transport depots were visited to ensure that public transport passengers were safe. The focus was on all aspects of driver and vehicle fitness, load management and documentation. The campaign embarked on roadblocks, roadside checkpoints, speed timing operations and visibility patrols. National, provincial, municipal traffic departments worked with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (CBRTA).

SAPS recorded and investigated fatal crashes and fatalities. The RTMC captured, verified and analysed the crash data. South Africa followed the World Health Organisation 30-day reporting standard. Crash information was disseminated to the media on a weekly basis.

Festive season fatalities for December 2011/January 2012 were 1 279 fatal crashes in which 1 475 people lost their lives.

Major fatal crashes included one between Belfast and Machadadorp (18 fatalities); in the Free State near Harrismith where two vehicles were involved (30 fatalities); in the Western Cape between Laingsburg and Touwsrivier (7 fatalities and 22 injuries); and in the Free State between Frankfort and Tweeling (19 fatalities, 7 injuries). 49 people died involving only four vehicles, which was of grave concern because all were head on crashes, a driver losing control, and a bit of overloading.

Most common causes of crashes were:
- Speeds too high for conditions, especially during inclement weather and at night
- Dangerous, reckless and/or inconsiderate driving, particularly barrier line infringements
- Barrier line overtaking resulted in more than 65% of major fatal crashes
- Abuse of alcohol by drivers and pedestrians
- Fatigue, especially amongst public passenger drivers
- Vehicle fitness, particularly tyre failure and defective brakes; and
- Pedestrian negligence (jay walking, walking on freeways), not visible at night, and drunken walking.

Also very cheap tyres that looked perfect but were an accident about to happen. This would be raised with the South African Bureau of Standards to ensure that those were removed from our roads.

Not wearing seatbelts, especially on the back seat, whilst not a contributor to crashes, was found to have been a major contributor to fatal or serious injuries following a crash.

The most vulnerable ages were between 19 and 29 years, and the most common occurrence per time of day was between 19h00 and 23h00. The top three road factors were sharp bends, poor road surface, and visibility.

On average 36 people died on South African roads per day during the Festive Season, which was of grave concern because most of the accidents, if not all, were avoidable and should not have resulted in people dying or being injured.

In line with the objectives of the Decade of Action (safer roads, safer vehicles, safe road users) the National Rolling Enforcement Plan would be strengthened to focus on the following areas:
- Removal of rogue drivers (reckless and negligent)
- Discontinuing of severely defective vehicles
- Corruption and fraud (roadside, vehicle testing stations, driving licence centres)
- Encouraging the use of seatbelts (potential to reduce fatalities by 30%)
- Roll out of AARTO
- Target of stopping and checking one million vehicles per month nationally
- Minimum of 10 000 drivers to be screened nationally, monthly for substance and alcohol abuse
- Greater collaboration between government, civil organs and the private sector
- Robust media liaison campaign
- Strengthened inter-ministerial relations between sister government agencies; and
- Inclusion of road safety education in the school curriculum.

The RTMC wished to see zero fatalities on our roads.

Discussion
Mr Farrow thanked the Minister for being so realistic about some of the aspects. The Committee worked on the basis that it wanted to see something happening, and to ensure that the Minister’s ambitious objective of reducing the fatalities by 50% by 2019 would be a reality.

Mr Farrow was leaving the Committee and was concerned about a number of things; he asked that they not be regarded as criticism. The time had come to put into action some of the things that were agreed to but were not happening in the Department.

- There was a need for a workshop that would entail all stakeholders. Looking at the results of the very expensive workshops across the country, the people that attended, and the cost implications, it was mind-boggling. It could be done very reasonably with people that were generally there from the stakeholders of the industry, to try to find more innovative ideas to stop the carnage on our roads.

The most common causes of crashes were not ranked in any order in the presentation. Of the eight, six were moving infringements. How could moving infringements be controlled? Law enforcement needed to be visible in places where it currently was not. He fully supported the 24/7-shift system but were there sufficient uniformed police to do that? It had been suggested to him that the public be involved, such as reporting bad behaviour driving through an SMS that could be located and transmitted directly to the nearest traffic officers.

- The whole aspect of the K53 licences – it should be insured that new licensed drivers went into a provisional period with a P licence plate.

- The Committee had agreed that there would be a charter for all public transport operators, with a toll free number so that passengers inside the vehicle could report on. Those charters should be enforced.

- A professor from the University of Potchefstroom had presented a document relating to adding the traffic psyche to the school curriculum and the late Kader Asmal had accepted that for introduction to schools.

- There were many things wrong with the RTMC, but they were raised because he wanted the RTMC to work. He felt that the organisation had failed in its mandate of road safety as criteria.

Mr Farrow believed that rolling enforcement was the responsibility of municipalities; he did not understand what SANRAL had to do with enforcement. He cautioned that he did not think that SANRAL should be the future enforcers on our national roads.

Mr Farrow supported the AARTO roll out, but one could not demerit somebody if it was not correct first of all and it was the right person that was driving. When the original demerit system was launched in Tshwane and in Johannesburg it was expected that the pilot project would come back to the Committee so that it could look at what went wrong. The public, as a partner, could not be convinced that a system would be implemented that had not worked properly. Administration of that had to be spot on. 44 infringements could be demerited in some form, he suggested starting only with the key ones – speeding, drunken driving, reckless driving. The Committee needed to see those reports and analyse them.

- Mr Farrow was concerned that there had recently been an unprotected strike at the RTMC. There were people where the matter of suspension had not been resolved. Two years ago he had asked the Minister to take away the implications of individuals who had bias within that organisation and get a labour consultant in to deal with the delicate issues of procedural issues relating to suspension. The legal implications of going to court were R1.6 million – to fight battles that a labour consultant could actually have advised on. The agency was once again in ICU, technically insolvent, with a situation arising where shortly there may not be salaries paid to staff.

Mr Letsoalo responded on the issue of insolvency. It was an issue of transaction fees spent and therefore that money still remained a liability until it was written off. It was for the Minister of Finance to condone that expenditure and write off that amount of approximately R200 million. The RTMC was insolvent for R174 million so when that was taken care of, the organisation would be solvent again.

Mr Farrow said he had enjoyed the two and a half years he had had with the Minister and the Chairperson of the Portfolio committee, as well as the thirteen years he had worked with the Deputy Minister. His colleagues, Ms Juanita Terblanche and Mr Ian Ollis, would ensure that the transition was as smooth as possible and would work together in the same spirit. He thanked everyone for the cordiality.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Farrow for his ideas and suggestions. She thanked Mr Farrow and Mr De Freitas for the contributions they had made to the Committee in representing the Democratic Alliance. It had been a good working relationship in trying to transform the country on a non-party basis. While wishing them well as shadow ministers, she was losing experienced Members. Mr Farrow was one of the longest serving Members, and Mr de Freitas in research, they had worked as a team in addressing issues of transport. She wished them well in their new deployment.

Minister Ndebele added his thanks, he was sure Mr Farrow would be available when the Committee developed some of the suggestions made. The cordiality that was characteristic of the Committee was highly appreciated. It had been a warm and robust relationship, and he asked that the Committee could continue to draw from his experience over the years.

Mr I Ollis (DA) referred to the RTMC financial capacity. It was stated that National Treasury did not increase funding and the RTMC was insolvent as a result. If the entity was insolvent and it was understood that there would soon not be sufficient funding to pay salaries, how would the institution be run if it were already insolvent?

Mr Letsoalo was not aware of the entity not being able to pay salaries, nor was the CFO, who was well trained in finance.

Mr Ollis referred to the key challenges. The totals for expenditure estimates seemed to be incorrect. How many employees were there in the entity, and how many vacancies were there?

Mr Letsoalo responded that the Committee had previously complained that 75% of budget went to compensation of employees, so part of the drive to reduce costs was not to fill vacancies, especially at a higher level, in order to manage the process. The staff complement was 403, which included 283 national traffic police members. The vacancy rate was about 20%, which had been kept in order to keep the organisation solvent.

The table for Preliminary Festive Season Fatalities, there seemed to be a typo in that for fatalities the first column should be 2010/2011 and not 2010/2012.

Ms Terblanche agreed with the strategy and focus on safe roads, safe cars, safe speeds and safe road users. However, she thought it should not be safe cars but safe vehicles. She would like to invite the Minister and the Deputy Minister to drive from Johannesburg to Kimberley by taxi in order to experience the volume of taxis, trucks and other vehicles even as early as 4 or 5am, if one wished to commute to OR Tambo. She had avoided about fifteen accidents driving to the airport that morning.

Ms Terblanche would continue to lobby for the privatisation of Transnet because our rail system needed upgrading. North West did not have a harbour and only a very small airport at Potchefstroom, and the district was in need of alternative transport as a main artery of distributing goods and cattle. The N12 could not carry the volume and was the reason why it was called the road of death. There was a need for infrastructure and maintenance. The road from Potchefstroom to Carltonville was a disaster.

Ms Terblanche interacted with the poor and noted the plight of the people. There was a need for reflector lights for bicycles, and jackets. Simple things like that could save and change lives.

Ms Terblanche agreed that education was key, but it was not only the youth that needed to be educated, it could be people who had been driving for decades.

Ms Terblanche had experienced two very serious accidents, which she had not caused, both because of retreaded tyres. Retreaded tyres on vehicles and on trucks were killers. Another accident was caused by a drunk unlicensed driver of an unlicensed car. Those accidents could have been avoided if retreaded tyres were disallowed, or if legislation could be passed forcing truck owners to check their tyres or take those vehicles off the roads. Accidents cost the country R40 billion per annum. That money could be far better utilised in building the country that Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela and the people that came after them had envisaged.

Mr de Freitas said goodbye to the Committee. Most Members of the Committee were not just colleagues, they were friends as well and he would miss everyone. He thanked the Chairperson for the manner in which she had treated Members irrespective of political party.

Mr De Freitas referred to the strategy of making roads safer in South Africa and asked what that actually meant? The basics were not dealt with. There should have been more emphasis on the wearing of seat belts and on education and awareness campaigns. Statistics internationally showed that by spending minimal resources and money on awareness campaigns aimed at wearing seat belts, fatal accidents were reduced by five percent within one week.

Mr Letsoalo clarified that the view was to focus on the mandate, which was to make South African roads safe. From a systemic approach the RTMC was saying the road environment was a space within which there had to be safe roads, there must be safe vehicles, there must be safe speeds, there must be safe road users, and they must interact that safety. That meant law enforcement, engineering for safe roads, and education. Safe roads included such things as visibility; safe vehicles meant that they were roadworthy. If any of those were not in place, there would be an accident.

Mr De Freitas supported the 24/7-Shift and noted that it was given to the provinces, was the budget given to the provinces as well?

Mr Letsoalo responded that currently there were three areas with traffic police, the majority of which sat in local, and some were in provinces. The municipalities had a 24-hour service. Provinces worked until 22h00and started again at 06h00, which meant that they worked for sixteen hours, but they were needed when the people were dying, which was at night. Discussions were being held with provinces. The Western Province had already implemented the 24-hour service; RTMC was saying the same to the other provinces.
It did not necessarily mean more traffic officers but was a question of reallocating.

In rolling out the driving schools forum, Mr de Freitas wanted to know more about the driving schools. What was being done to ensure that they were properly licensed and that the instructors themselves were properly trained and had a very advanced lecturing skills.

Mr Letsoalo responded that the aim of the forum was to say that the driving schools industry had not been taken care of in the way that the taxi industry had been, and it was necessary that driving schools be regulated.

Mr De Freitas asked for more information on the AARTO roll out and the aspects being followed by Johannesburg. He failed to understand how it was being rolled out when the base had not been done by the pilot case in Johannesburg.

Mr Letsoalo explained that the law said it must be done that way and if anyone did it differently that was not implementing AARTO. The RTMC would engage the political principles at that level and would meet with the Mayoral Committee to ensure that that was inculcated throughout.

In terms of the roll out, they already had a pilot and had asked for a pilot assessment report, the aim being to find out what the issues were in AARTO. The issues raised were mainly about administration, education, and system issues such as the National Contraventions Register, and Public Education and Accidents. People behind the desk and those on the road had been trained. The authorities were ready but the public had to be taken along in the process and also be ready.

Mr De Freitas was pleased to hear that data collection for crash reporting had been improved.

Mr De Freitas asked for clarification on Business Against Crime in fighting crime and corruption against driving licence and test centres. Business Against Crime was an entity that corroborated business and various other entities; he did not understand their competence in being crime and corruption fighters, and in particular for driving licence and test centres.

Mr Letsoalo explained that Business Against Crime had developed a Best Practice Model. They had insurance and bankers that were needed in cases where a person drove a vehicle that was fraudulently licensed or where someone drove a car that was not roadworthy. The RTMC was also working with them in terms of road crimes as well as vehicle crimes, were people stole cars, and had use of their database.

Mr De Freitas was not surprised to hear that the RTMC was in a mess when so many years down the line it was only now implementing HR policies.

Mr De Freitas noted that Treasury had turned down requests for funds. The reality was that the organisation had to work with what it was given and it seemed that it planned that Treasury would be giving more money; it had to plan with what it had been given.

Mr De Freitas noted from the presentation that most of the financial staff had no tertiary qualifications or experience in the financial field – how were those people then appointed in the first place?

Mr Letsoalo responded that the people without skills were already there when they joined the RTMC. The new CFO was well qualified and they believed that the organisation had the right people for the job.

Mr De Freitas noted the preparations for the AARTO summit, but not resolving some of the problems that AARTO had. Why was a summit required?

Mr Letsoalo responded that the summit was just an engagement with the public.

He also noted that the figures in the tables did not add up.

Mr Letsoalo said yes there was an error, not in the total amount but in the amount set aside. The figures came from BUSA and Transnet.

Mr De Freitas agreed that the WHO 30 day reporting period was quite right, but did those figures also include morgue statistics? What systems were in place to get those statistics from morgues because it involved other ministries?

Mr Letsoalo responded that the RTMC had gone from the point of only using the police; everybody must be involved. A Stats Committee had oversight, mortality statistics came out of Home Affairs, and the Department of Health and Stats SA was also involved. So mortuary statistics would be included moving forward.

Mr De Freitas would also like to see a charter for motorists in a very big awareness campaign.

Mr Letsoalo said the charter had been started with PSL and there had been a lot of momentum. The RTMC had been engaging with organised business, with the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) and others to say adopt road safety as part of what they did. Their assistance was needed; the RTMC could not do that alone.

He thanked everyone for their friendships over the last two years.

Ms Dlakude thanked the Minister and Deputy Minister and the Acting CEO for being present and welcomed the new colleagues.

The Minister and the RTMC had done a lot of work and the Committee was impressed with the interventions they had made and did not agree that the RTMC was still in ICU. She welcomed the new CFO and hoped the other vacancies would also be filled so that the RTMC could institute its mandate.

Ms Dlakude raised the issue of institutional arrangements. There was a need to look at the National Roads Act so that all those hiccups could be removed and the RTMC could move forward; and hopefully the Minister would be able to appoint the new CEO. The Acting CEO had done good work, the problems of the RTMC were there long before he came in and there had been great improvement since then. She hoped with the input of everyone, the fatalities on the roads would be lowered.

Ms Dlakude said the funding model had to be looked into because one could not continue with the allocation of resources the way it was currently done. There ought to be a policy that would speak to the backlogs.

The congestion on our roads was unbearable in every province in this country. There was an urgent need for Integrated Public Transport which would assist in minimising that.

Ms Dlakude believed most of the accidents on the N4 were due to fatigue. People travelled long distances from Rustenburg to Maputo and those people did not get sufficient rest. There were fatal accidents every day on the N4. The RTMC had limited staff and resources but were trying their best; the Committee must support them and lobby for more funding to assist the RTMC to execute its duties.

Mr L Suka (ANC) felt that education and awareness should be more vocal and closer to communities. Emphasis was usually placed on the media but little was said about community radio stations. There were more than two radio stations in his province and the literacy level was quite high but pamphlets should respond to language issues.

Mr Letsoalo said the RTMC took note of that.

Mr Suka expected that the 24/7-shift programme would start by the next financial year and be rolled out province by province so that communities could be informed when it would be coming to their province.

Mr Suka agreed that the funding model should not be driven by statistics but by the desire to improve the roads on which vehicles were driven, especially those roads leading to national roads, and the signage also needed to be improved.

Mr Letsoalo also noted the important issue of signage, which he had seen were not maintained to the proper standards. The RTMC had in mind doing road safety audits where it would check infrastructure.

Mr Suka asked what were the reasons that Treasury did not accede to requests for funding.

Mr E Lucas (IFP) thanked the Minister, the Deputy Minister and the Head of Department for the effort they had put into this very serious issue.

The issue of unroadworthy vehicles was serious in two ways: some of the traffic testing centres were corrupt so one was never certain that those cars were actually roadworthy. The same applied to buying used cars.

Tyres were also important; people were undercutting them but did not understand that one could not put new treads on them. The importing of four ply tyres was criminal because they were dangerous, especially for vehicles that carried passengers.

Mr Lucas stressed the importance of road conditions and that potholes were dangerous. There was such congestion on our roads because the public transport system was not good enough. The rail system must get working properly to reduce the number of vehicles, and especially the extra heavy vehicles on roads.

Mr Lucas said resurfacing of roads was not being done properly, which was why all the holes were coming up. He supported regulating driving schools.

Mr Letsoalo said all of us were ambassadors for road safety. The South African Institute of Race Relations had released a paper that stated that road crashes were killing more people in South Africa than even our murder rate. There was a need to ensure that issue was addressed and to move with speed in this 2012 year of action.

Deputy Minister Cronin said he was pleased that the Acting CEO had presented the bigger picture of the Festive Season in a very modest way. A five percent reduction, notwithstanding an increase in vehicle movement, was an improvement. These things could not be compared annually as there could be exceptional circumstances. Over the last years there had been the beginning of a reduction in fatalities due to the measures introduced and greater activism from citizens and the championship seen from political parties. While not happy for not having achieved the desired dramatic impact, at the same time one must not be pessimistic but realise the initiative started and to move into greater action. It was possible to begin to make a dramatic impact.

Mr Lucas and Ms Terblanche had made it clear that there were a lot of other issues to be looked at as well. There was now a Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission that identified two provinces as having serious challenges around road issues and road infrastructure, being North West and Mpumalanga. Much of it had to do with the movement of heavy trucks causing huge damage to road infrastructure and being on roads where much of it should be on rail.

His department was working very closely with Public Enterprises and with Transnet and were looking at revitalising the branch lines. The direction that Transnet had gone had to look at privatising not the infrastructure but the operations by concession. It was agreed that there was a need to look at the key corridors of freight logistics and also to address the branch lines and agricultural products moving on roads. In general road freight was not as effectively regulated, as it should be.

The Deputy Minister was very pleased that the RTMC was moving towards regular vehicle testing. Stopping cars on the road was not the most scientific way of inspecting a vehicle. There was a need to move to periodic vehicle testing. This was done every six months with public transport vehicles, but with other vehicles only when they changed ownership. Perhaps priority should be given to the heavy freight vehicles.

In response to Mr Suka’s comment on gravel roads in the Eastern Cape, there were huge challenges in road maintenance and road extension and expansion, and the department had to prioritise. With SANRAL there was road engineering and project management competence. Perhaps SANRAL with the cooperation of the Northern Province needed to assist the province in doing project management and proper prioritisation.

Regarding requests for funding turned down by Treasury, the RTMC needed to make a good case as to why the funding was needed, and to show Treasury that the RTMC was now running correctly with a good team in place.

Minister Ndebele thanked Members for the vibrant discussion. A fresh start had been made at the beginning of the parliamentary term. Together they had analysed what had gone wrong with the RTMC, which could not do much in terms of legislation and the absence of a CEO. Candidates would be interviewed and that person would come in with a new confidence. There was also the opportunity of a new board being appointed. The RTMC was unique, having national competence, provincial competence and local competence and had the best chance to deliver because a force had to work very closely with the municipalities and provinces where the enforcement capacity was. However, it should be ascertained which cities and which roads were killing our people and have enforcement in those areas.

Of the 44 areas for demerit, he proposed prioritising four – drinking and driving, driving without a licence, exceeding the speed limit, not using seat belts. South Africa’s driving culture was terrible.

The Minister stressed the need for road safety councils this year. There was a sizeable budget of about R8 billion for repairing roads with potholes, etc. That could best be done by creating Road Transport Forums where the community in the area would stipulate the priorities. Parallel to that were Road Safety Councils. Road Safety Councils were made up of people who had lost loved ones in road carnage and combined with others even just as solace and to comfort each other. They connected with those who buried the dead and also with the Road Accident Fund, so that when things happened one was not left alone but was in a caring South Africa, in a caring society with a caring government. Money was provided through the Road Accident Fund – people had to eat, children had to go to school. A person from the Road Safety Council could empower that person to get some money for food or for the children to go to school. Road Safety Councils were the primary instruments of carrying the message of road safety. Road Safety Councils would also point out road safety measures in their own communities and how they could best be done.

South African road users were very angry and intolerant; tension on the road could be a killer if drivers did not have the attitude that it was shared space; waiting for twenty seconds could save a life. South Africans must become more road safety conscious.

Mr Ollis asked for clarification on the R200 million transaction fees. That was a lot of money – what exactly were those fees? His question on the figures in the tables that did not add up had not been answered.

Mr Letsoalo had responded to the figures. That was supposed to be the allocation from National Treasury, not necessarily the total. The difference was in the slide above in management fees that were not necessarily allocated. When one renewed a licence R36 went to eNaTis as transaction fees. That money collected by provinces was paid to the RTMC and then to the Department and then back to the National Revenue Fund. The previous management of the RTMC incorrectly used that money for the RTMC so the DoT and the National Revenue Fund were still expecting it.

Ms Terblanche suggested an incentive such as the community that had the most safety councils in the next six months would get a laptop for a school. She would do that in Potchefstroom and hoped others would do something similar.

Minister Ndebele was impressed by the amount of goodwill amongst the people who were involved in road safety and believed there were so many companies out there that would be only too willing to provide laptops so it should not be necessary to go to government for that.

The Chairperson reflected that the meeting had been called because of the challenge in our country that people only noted when accidents happened. The problem was that the transport system was not integrated. The Committee had enough information at its disposal to use to respond to that problem. The 2003 Public Survey Report pointed out the situation of public transport in our country. The survey focused on public transport and also took one to a level of understanding the whole transport system in the country and what the Committee should be doing to respond to that situation. It was important not to approach the matter from the angle of the RTMC on fatal accidents that happened during the Festive Season. The Committee was tasked with the responsibility of finding solutions. That did not mean that the RTMC did not have to strive towards good results. The Committee needed to create an environment that would make the work of the RTMC easier than it was now. 80% of freight was transported by road and 20% by rail; if it were 80% by rail and 20% by road, the work of the RTMC would be easier. The Committee had to produce the environment that was conducive for the RTMC to produce the desired results. It was also the responsibility of the Committee to make the citizens of this country more responsible. As the Minister had said, out of ten million drivers maybe only one million were irresponsible. The question was how to protect the innocent and ordinary citizens that became victims of a handful of irresponsible drivers. It was for the Committee as legislators to propose and pass very biting laws to make people more responsible, and in doing so even those that were innocent would be affected.

The Committee was doing research as to what was happening in other countries and what technology had been introduced in order to make people more responsible and also to assist in the process of resourcing cases. A pilot was done by the Western Cape Department of Transport where a few cars were fitted with cameras that were able to record the violation of a traffic law by the car being driven with the camera in it and other cars around it. There were countries with technology that made it impossible for a driver that smelt of alcohol to even start the car. If the few irresponsible citizens of this country could cost the country R40 billion in a year on fatal accidents that would make the lawmakers of this country think differently. What legislation could be introduced to stop that level of irresponsibility so that the R40 billion could be redirected to address issues of transport in a developmental manner. The Committee should be looking at the issue of the RTMC and fatal accidents in this country from that perspective. The fatal accident report was aimed at raising the level of awareness of the legislators – beyond the RTMC there was more work for the Committee to do. When the RTMC had resolved all its internal problems, the fatal accidents would not just go away. There was work for the Committee, the Department and the Cabinet in terms of the Infrastructure Commission, in terms of the Deployment Commission as well as Town Planning. The Committee had to work to solve this problem.

From a government point of view, and the taxpayers, one would look at the R40 billion and begin to feel bad; and especially from a woman’s and a mother’s perspective. 16 000 people, and breadwinners among them. Children were also killed; they could have been future leaders in the country.

The Chairperson asked Members to go back to their political parties, to think carefully and return with fresh ideas as to how the RTMC could best be assisted to operate in a more conducive environment, and to take the issue of fatal accidents more seriously than it was currently.

The Chairperson thanked the Minster and the Deputy Minister for availing themselves, and also the Acting CEO of the RTMC who had assisted the Committee to better understand the challenges. She charged the Committee to look at the issues with a broader perspective.

Adoption of minutes
Minutes of Committee meeting held on 17 January 2012 were adopted without amendments.

The meeting was adjourned.