According to the national Department of Transport, lead by Minister S'bu Ndebele, the month of October in South Africa is "Transport Month". The intention is two fold, first to focus attention on road safety, and to this end, we have seen many road blocks and speed trapping on Joburg roads. Indeed if road blocks and more intensive speed trapping are supposed to lead to improved road safety, one hopes that these efforts would extend beyond the month of October and become standard practice by both the SA Police Services and the relevant traffic police departments.
Secondly, to focus attention on the need to improve the general conditions of existing roads, in an effort to improve safety. It is especially during the rainy season that South African roads suffer from potholes, possibly a result of poor workmanship in the building of the roads, but more likely a result of extremely high traffic volumes on our roads. The Ministry has emphasized that it would use the most labour-intensive methods to rebuild the roads in order to ease the high unemployment emphasized.
Libya is said to have the highest number of road deaths in the world at 39 deaths for every 100,000 members of the population, per anum. With the current civil war taking place in the country, the road deaths will certainly be on the increase. South Africa's own statistics are not that much better, with 33 road deaths for every 100,000 members of the population, per anum. Sweden has the lowest road deaths in the world at just over 2 deaths out of 100,000 members of the population per anum.
In order to drastically reduce SA's road fatalities, it is my opinion that Minister Ndebele ought to dedicate the entire year to road safety.
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