South Africa
South Africa is the most southern country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland. Lesotho is situated within South Africa's borders.
The territory of South Africa has nine provinces- Gauteng, Western Cape, Kwazulu Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Free State and the North West. Pretoria is the executive capital and Cape Town the legislative capital. Other major cities include Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and East London.
South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market. The country has well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centres throughout the region. Economic growth in recent years has been consistent but not strong enough to eradicate the country's large socio-economic inequalities that resulted from the apartheid regime and persist in the form of high unemployment rates, wide areas of poverty and increases in crime. An informal economy has developed as a result of unemployment and this poses another challenge to the country's economic development.
South Africa has a population of just over 44 million. Annual per capita income is USD 11,000 and it is estimated that 50% of the population live below the poverty line.
Road Safety in South AfricaProjects |
Facts
Roads
Roads in South Africa provide a mixture of first and third world traffic conditions. This creates variations in the population's awareness of road safety hazards and its capacity to cope with the different traffic conditions. Road conditions vary from well designed and developed dual-carrage motorways that run between the major cities and tourist attractions to non-paved and poorly maintained rural roads. A major road safety concern is that many pedestrians use or cross the expressways. The presence of wild animals also creates safety hazards on these roads. In addition, much of the local social life of the population occurs on and around the road network in the rural areas.
Vehicle fleet
There are approximately 6 million licensed drivers and 7.5 million registered vehicles in South Africa, 4,154,593 of which are motorcars, 241,000 mini-buses, and 27,221 buses. In 2004, motorised vehicles made up 89.3% of the total vehicle population and towed vehicles 10.7%.
The average age of automobiles is 10 years, minibuses 13 years and buses and trucks are generally between 11-12 years. The number of registered vehicles is increasing by about 6% annually.
The main means of passenger transport is bus or "taxi". In urban and sub-urban areas there is a dense population of "taxis" which in fact are light vans fitted with all kinds of seating arrangements. Driver’s experience, overloading, and lack of vehicle roadworthiness are major road safety concerns.
Road safety situation
Traffic safety is regarded as a serious problem by the national government and the general public. The cost of crashes in 2005 was estimated at ZAR38 billion (USD 6 billion). In the period December 2005 to December 2006 the number of registered vehicles increased by 573 715 (7.20%). During this period, the number of driving licences issued increased by 4.05%, the number of fatal crashes for 2006 increased by 6.12% and the number of road traffic related fatalities increased by 8.9%. Of the fatalities, the number of driver fatalities increased by 15.49%, passenger fatalities increased by 18.20% and pedestrian fatalities increased by 2.26%.
The primary contributory factors in fatal crashes, or that impact on the seriousness of injuries, include excessive speed, drinking and driving and the non-wearing of seatbelts. Pedestrians account for almost 50% of road crash fatalities.
Road safety coordination
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) was established in October 2005 as an agency of the Department of Transport to oversee road traffic management in South Africa. The RTMC oversees the following road traffic management areas: training of traffic personnel, road traffic information, crash investigation and recording, communication and education, and infrastructure safety audits. An additional responsibility of the RTMC is to guide and sustain the expansion of private sector investment in road traffic management.
The SA GRSP has an important role to play in brokering partnerships between the RTMC and the private sector. The RTMC Plan serves as the primary guideline for the identification of projects and initiatives to be developed in conjunction with the private sector, e.g. the provision of equipment to improve visible traffic law enforcement, and the development of interactive road safety programmes with communities and schools.
Other actors in road safety in South Africa
The South African Government has recently become a Contracting Party to the UN ECE 1998 Global Agreement on Harmonised Vehicle Technical Rules. Finally, the South African Police Forces and a number of Universities and Transport Technical Centres such as CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) and SABS (South African Bureau of Standards) are actively participating in road safety matters.
Provincial Departments of Transport also initiate road safety campaigns. One example is the KwaZuluNatal "Asiphephe" campaign (Let us be safe) on the enforcement of traffic rules and the prevention of goods vehicle overloading. Asiphephe is active through several sub-groups in local activities, for example in improving road safety in the communities and settlements around Durban. The Ethekwini Municipality (Durban Metro) has developed a comprehensive road safety strategy which aims to support national and provincial initiatives.
The City of Cape Town (Western Cape) has a viable traffic management system in Cape Town; another is aimed at reducing the exceptionally high rate of crashes involving pedestrians.
GRSP in South Africa
The Global Road Safety Partnership initiative was launched in South Africa in 2000 in support of the Department of Transport’s national road safety strategy entitled “Road to Safety 2001-2005”. During an inaugural meeting, several projects were identified which aimed at enhancing and supporting the governments’ activities through private sector support.
Until 2004, GRSP activities in South Africa were driven by a committee of partners and chaired by a representative of the Department of Transport, after which it was decided to open the leadership to any of the GRSP Committee members.
In June 2004, the focus of GRSP activities was shifted from the national to the provincial level in order to give more attention to the strategic implementation needs and initiatives of selected provinces as well. This led to the successful implementation of a number of pilot projects, which could be replicated in other areas such as the establishment of community safety forums, the improvement of pedestrian facilities and pedestrian visibility, and road safety education and awareness for teachers and learners.
In October 2005, the Department of Transport established the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) as an independent structure managing various road traffic functions, including road safety education and communication, crash investigation, traffic information and the training of traffic law enforcers. The RTMC has since become the main government entity responsible for road safety on the national level.
On 25 May 2006 the South African Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) announced its association with the Global Road Safety Partnership South Africa (GRSPSA) initiative. The announcement was done during a function (sponsored by Chevron South Africa) which was attended by representatives from the private sector, government offices and non-profit organisations supporting the promotion of road safety. The event paved the way for the restructuring of the GRSPSA and the inclusion of new partners in the efforts supporting the RTMC to establish improved law compliance and to enhance road safety in South Africa. Mr. Thabo Tsholetsane, representing the RTMC, expressed his appreciation for the enthusiasm of all partners who are willing to support government initiatives.
At the end of 2006 GRSP South Africa was established as a non-profit company in order to have a legal framework that would increase the effectiveness of cooperation with the RTMC.
Organisation of GRSP South Africa
Membership in South African GRSP is open to any private company or organisation committed to the improvement of the road safety situation in the country and interested in supporting the government’s road safety strategies on the national, provincial and local level. Organisations and companies that actively support a specific initiative by contributing, for example, human or financial resources or technical expertise become a member of the SA GRSP Committee.
A GRSP Chairperson is elected annually and the Committee meets regularly (monthly basis) to monitor project progress and plan future activities. Current members include the SA Automobile Association, Drive Alive (NGO), Daimler Chrysler SA and BP SA.
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Projects
Safer Roads
Eldorado Park (completed)
The primary objectives of the project were to: improve road safety engineering measures and education, develop the skills of the local work force and increase road safety knowledge through education and training. Additional objectives included: developing a shared understanding amongst teachers of the magnitude of the local pedestrian and road safety problem; encouraging teachers to implement road safety education and combine efforts and resources in the fight against road crashes involving children.
Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to obtain information regarding the road safety perspectives and opinions the community. After the initial study the proposed (and accepted by the community), engineering changes were implemented. A “General Road Safety Orientation Course” was presented to the teachers in Eldorado Park. Activity booklets and a teacher manual were developed. A Teacher Road Safety Forum was established. This forum is used to disseminate road safety knowledge and information and to train teachers and other role-players.
All participating schools organised Road Safety Weeks, which included road safety storybook reading; painting of road safety murals; drama, song and dance performances; excursions to practice correct road behaviour at new road infrastructure around schools; road safety competitions.
Four new Junior Traffic Training Centres have been planned for Eldorado Park of which two have already been constructed in partnership between SANRAL, BP SA and Daimler Chrysler SA.
Project partners: The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL), Innovative Traffic Solutions (ITS), CSIR, University of South Africa’s (UNISA) Institute for Social and Health Services (ISHS) which hosts the WHO Collaboration Centre for Injury Prevention, BP SA, Daimler Chrysler SA, and 3M SA
Safer Roads Users
Pedestrian Safety and visibility (current)
The main target of the "Pedestrian Safety and Visibility" projects is to reduce the pedestrian component of child road deaths and injuries by 30%. The aim is to integrate retro-reflective material into children’s clothing and safety devices and to erect special road signs in the vicinity of schools using fluorescent retro-reflective materials. A number of pilot sites have been chosen for the GRSP Project implementation.
Limpopo Province education project (completed)
Keeping within the decision made in 2004 to re-direct the SA GRSP focus from the national to the provincial level, the GRSP SA Committee initiated a road safety awareness and education programme in a rural area of the Limpopo Province in 2005. This area has a high number of traffic incidents and is expected to experience abnormal growth in inhabitants and vehicle ownership due to the expansion of mining activities. The community is situated along one of the major national routes linking South Africa with Mozambique and has been identified as one of the Presidential Development Nodes (a region given priority for development activities identified by the President). This project involved 4000 learners from grades 8, 9 and 10 of five secondary schools.
The main objectives of the project were to raise road safety awareness and knowledge amongst the teachers and learners. The initiative included an orientation workshop for teachers to demonstrate to them how to integrate road safety themes into subjects such as mathematics, science, biology, geography and the life skills programme. It furthermore included interactive learning opportunities through road safety poster designs, choir competitions with songs written and composed by the teachers and learners, school theatre with plays written by the learners as well as poetry written by the learners. All the learners were provided with school bags fitted with reflective material to make them more visible as pedestrians. As is typical in rural areas, the learners walk long distances to and from school along major roads, often leaving home when it is still dark.
The project was run as a pilot project and the effectiveness monitored through pre-and post-studies. The post-study found that there was an increase in both the learners’ awareness of the seriousness of the road safety situation in the area and their knowledge of correct behaviour in traffic. The change in learners’ attitudes, behaviour and knowledge was determined through the application of questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. The effect on incidences (fatalities and injuries) will be measured after a period of 12-18 months. The project framework will now be replicated in other areas. At the same time the project served as a capacity building exercise for road safety officials.
Seat belt initiative (current)
In an effort to reduce road crash injury severity, the RTMC plans to implement an intensive national campaign to increase seat belt use in South Africa. In 2006, A GRSP SA project working group undertook the planning for the campaign, defining the various project components and identifying funding sources.The campaign will focus in particular on youth and the passengers of minibus taxis. It is now compulsory for all minibus taxis to comply with specified minimum safety standards, including seat belt use by all vehicle occupants. The campaign will support law enforcement activities as part of the RTMC’s “Rolling Enforcement Plan” and include innovative mass media messages.
Vulnerable road users (VRU) (current)
GRSP SA and the RTMC are cooperating on a project to increase the safety of vulnerable road users, with an emphasis on pedestrians and cyclists. As part of the cooperation, the successful and long-running visibility programme developed by GRSP SA member “Drive Alive” and aimed at school children will be scaled-up. GRSP SA is also supporting the VRU programme by identifying opportunities in communities to implement the pedestrian visibility initiative and by providing funding, as has been done by GRSP SA members BP and DaimlerChrysler.
Visibility (current)
An additional visibility programme will be implemented by GRSP SA in 2007 as a part of its cooperation with the RTMC. This programme, mainly aimed at school children in rural areas and initiated by GRSP SA member “Instead of flowers”, involves providing school children with portable lap desks as many rural schools do not have desks and children often walk long distances between home and school. The “portable desk” is fitted with reflective material and a road safety message and makes children more visible when carrying them.
Safe vehicle fleets (current)
GRSP SA is developing a safe vehicle fleet programme targeting the drivers of public transport and heavy goods vehicles as well as employees of private sector companies operating vehicle fleets. GRSP SA member BP SA is driving the initiative by making their corporate fleet safety programme available to local fleet operators in need of guidance in road safety good practice. Other GRSP SA members such as Shell SA are doing the same.
Community development road safety programme (current)
GRSP SA supports the South African National Roads Agency’s Community Development Road Safety Programme, which targets communities located next to or near South Africa’s national roads. The programme includes the upgrading of infrastructure in high crash risk areas and the implementation of a comprehensive road safety programme aimed at various groups of road users in the community. The programme is implemented with the assistance of road safety officials, traffic law enforcement officers, community development workers, teachers and municipal officials. GRSP SA encourages its members to support the SANRAL project and the GRSP pedestrian visibility programme is included in selected community projects.
Monitoring and evaluation are included in all GRSP SA projects in order to deliver a good practice model that can be replicated in other similar conditions.
Project leader: Drive Alive
Project partners: 3M, UNISA, CSIR, and the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL).
Project partners: The SA GRSP Committee partnered with the Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport and the local government is involved through the Tubatse Transport Forum.