On Friday, South African Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi released the latest Easter road-crash statistics in which fatalities increased by 51%. The news came moments before reports that 19 learners had perished on their way back from schools between Bronkhorstspruit and Groblersdal surfaced.
The learners were being ferried in a sprinter minibus when the bus underestimated the speed of a horse-and-trailer truck and collided with it whilst turning on the R25 between Bronkhorstspruit and Groblersdal on Friday.
During Maswanganyi’s earlier statement, he had told reporters in Pretoria that the government hoped communities would take road accidents seriously.
Last year road deaths between the Easter long-weekend reached 156, this year it increased to 235, according to a report by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).
Maswanganyi highlighted that the government had spent a total of R147 billion (USD11 billion) on road accidents, and R33 billion (USD2.5 billion) spent by the Road Accident Fund on paying out injury claims.
In a statement, he said that the funds would be better spent on other government priorities, like addressing unemployment, poverty and inequality, if driver behaviour improved and crashes were reduced.
Even with over 18,000 officers being deployed to hot spots on suspected hazardous national routes during the Easter holidays, crashes still persisted – forcing the Ministry to review the way that it dealt with road safety.
Authorities noted that most accidents happened on residential and rural roads.
“We emphasise awareness more than enforcement. We cannot have an officer on every corner of our roads. We will continue to improve enforcement policies and strategies,” said Maswanganyi.
Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan said during the tabling of this year’s budget that government would have a balance of R149bn (USD11 billion), which would have to be borrowed. This figure was almost equal to the amount spent by government on road crashes and fatalities annually.
The review highlighted that while the government forked out billions on road accidents, it was spending less on some of its social programmes.
The latest statistics, along with the horrifying minibus crash, questions the integral systems behind driver education in South Africa, and the behavioural patterns of people on the road. Some experts have even suggested a review of the entire road-education process, and for stricter law enforcement to help reduce the number of road-related facilities.
