ARTIE JINA AND WILLEM GROENEWALD: How to unclog the arteries of national roads and keep lifeblood flowing

Transport month is behind us, and as is often the case with noteworthy days, weeks and months there was debate on its relevance. But November brings us to the brink of the holiday season, with the accompanying upsurge in leisure travel, and with it a spike in road crashes and fatalities.

Our road and rail networks are the arteries of our nation, and their condition and efficiency dictate our health, in all its aspects, and our socioeconomic viability. 

It’s no overstatement that our constrained transport network has an effect on every aspect of our economy and society. The Gain Group research consultancy recently reported that inefficient rail transport costs SA about R1bn a day, with a projected loss of R400bn in 2023, the annual equivalent of 6% of GDP.

Crime, especially cable theft and vandalism, continues to eviscerate the rail network — 1,600km of cabling was stolen in the past fiscal year, and 75% of SA’s rail network is now inoperable.

Partly as a consequence, the number of trains plying the crucial Joburg-Durban route daily dropped from 70 to 10, and freight being transported has fallen to levels last seen in World War 2.

It’s well documented that these failings continue to hamstring our key exports: coal, ore, fresh produce, wine and motor-vehicles. In all, 31% of our GDP is at risk.

If transport networks are arteries, what they carry is the lifeblood of the economy: goods, services and especially people. SA already has a dreadful road safety record, one that the Automobile Association (AA) regards as a national crisis. The Road Traffic Management Corporation reported that from January to December 2022 12,436 people died on our roads. From 2013 to 2022, 126,526 road deaths were recorded.

How many of those could have been prevented if commuters had access to safe, affordable, reliable passenger trains and also buses operated on proper roads?

Returning the rail network to its full operational capacity would enable rail to regain its position as the transport mode of choice and alleviate pressure — in every sense of the word — on our roads. That would in turn make travelling safer and less fraught.

That must be accompanied by investment — financial and resources — in damaged and neglected roads on major routes, in metropolitan areas and in rural towns.

With less road damage to fix, more money would be available for socioeconomic development, and investment in public transport. But simply removing behemoths from our roads won’t make them as safe as they should be. Achieving that requires a broad swathe of interventions that must be applied consistently, not just for a few weeks in the festive season.

Central to that is policing, which remains woefully inadequate. A 2019 study by the Traffic Law Enforcement Review Committee, which was established by the previous transport minister, Dipuo Peters, recommended a doubling of the number of traffic law enforcers throughout SA as a critical measure towards improving this situation.

In addition, to be effective traffic law enforcement must be extended to a 24-7-365 model in all areas of the country. The road safety awareness campaigns unfurled at this time of the year have their place, but they too must become a constant presence in the minds of road users, along with the constant presence of law-enforcement agencies.

You won’t change driver behaviour through three weeks of campaigning when for the rest of the year nothing else is done. Introducing any new traffic legislation will also not solve the problem: you cannot legislate yourself out of a problem that requires boots on the ground. 

Drink-driving remains a scourge and must be dealt with more effectively than it is now. Statistics from the Traffic Law Enforcement Review Committee Report suggest than only 10% of drivers arrested for drunk driving are prosecuted.

This isn’t unfixable. For example, a collaboration between the organisation Aware.org and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department has delivered the rollout of effective evidential blood alcohol technology to ensure the efficacy and admissibility in court of blood-alcohol tests. The National Institute for Crime Prevention & Reintegration of Offenders offers offenders an opportunity to rehabilitate.

Awareness campaigns must also highlight that it’s easier than ever to avoid drink-driving. A variety of alcohol-free drinks is available, as are ride-hailing services. Obviously, public safety remains paramount. The AA and Bolt have a partnership whereby users can access the AA’s emergency response services through the SOS button in the Bolt app’s safety toolkit. This feature enables drivers and passengers to connect quickly and easily to private armed response teams and private emergency medical rescue if they are involved in any medical or security emergency while on a Bolt ride, at no cost.

The diverse seemingly disparate interventions outlined above constitute a swarm of measures to eradicate crime and inefficiencies from our nation’s arteries and in doing so safeguard the humanity and economic activity they enable.

• Jina is director of parts supply & logistics at Ford Motor Company SA, and Groenewald CEO of the Automobile Association of SA.