On Saturday, 23 March 2024, the Western Cape Government (WCG) officially launched our Easter road safety campaign for 2024.
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I would like to state the support of the Western Cape Government, and that of my Department and its officials for the new United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety, officially launching today, 28 October 2021. I look forward to personally receiving the WHO’s Global Plan for 2021 to 2030 from South Africans Against Drunk Driving and the SADC Alliance of Road Safety NGO’s at the launch of the Western Cape Festive Season Plan on the 13th of December.
In 2010, when my predecessor Robin Carlisle announced the Department’s support for the first UN Decade of Action for road safety, the road death rate in the Western Cape stood at 29,25 deaths per 100 000 population. With its support for the Decade of Action, the Western Cape Government accepted the challenge of a fifty percent reduction in road traffic fatalities by 2020. In 2020, the death rate on our roads stood at 15,82. This is a reduction of forty six per cent (46%), a significant marker of how much safer our roads have become.
While this is a fantastic achievement, we must be realistic before we pat ourselves on the back too much. In 2010, 1453 people were senselessly killed on Western Cape roads. In 2020 this number was down to 1108, a decrease of 23,7% in absolute numbers of fatalities, a much lower decrease than in the death rate. Some of our gains come from the lockdowns imposed in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Much remains to be done, especially as our economy opens up and alcohol sales and consumption patterns return to normal. Alcohol continues to be central to traffic injuries in our province, for pedestrians as much as drivers and passengers, and we can anticipate fatalities rising again as access to alcohol increases.
Some of the projects and programs we have introduced that helped us achieve safer roads in the Western Cape in the first Decade of Action:
Going forward, in addition to performing our mandated functions to provide safe, well-regulated and well-maintained roads, we will also be pursuing major strategic initiatives in the coming Decade of Action.
I will be studying the Global Plan for further areas where we as the custodians of the province’s highway network can make a difference, and will continue to engage with NGO’s such as SADD and the members of the SADC Alliance of Road Safety NGOs.
I call on all sectors of society in our province to join hands with the United Nations and the World Health Organization in initiating this Global Plan for 2021 – 2030. Whoever you are, in whatever way you can, change starts with you.
Media Queries:
Ntomboxolo Makoba-Somdaka
Spokesperson for Minister Daylin Mitchell
Cell: 082 953 0026
On Saturday, 23 March 2024, the Western Cape Government (WCG) officially launched our Easter road safety campaign for 2024.
The Western Cape Government is offering FREE ten-point vehicle checks by qualified examiners from Saturday, 23 March to Thursday, 28 March at venues in Cape Town and Drakenstein.
It is with great sadness that I extend my condolences to the loved ones of the ten people – seven adults and three children – who died in a road crash on the N7 between Vanrhynsdorp and Klawer on Sunday 17 March 2024.
My heartfelt condolences go out to the loved ones of the eleven people who died in two separate road crashes in our province yesterday.