Religious communities urged to join fight against road deaths
JOHANNESBURG – The Gauteng MEC for Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure said that as part of the drive, the department is prioritising road safety, decongestion of public roads, depollution and the use of smart technologies to transform the transport sector.
Gauteng MEC for Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo has called on the religious community to join efforts led by the Gauteng Provincial Government to tackle the scourge of road deaths and taxi violence in the province.
The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport media liaison officer Melitah Madiba said, “Speaking during a service at the St Paul’s Apostolic Faith Mission in Evaton on Sunday, 27 October 2019, Mamabolo told congregants that the carnage on the roads had reached crisis levels with an estimated 40 people dying on Gauteng’s roads per day.”
Madiba said that Mamabolo honoured the invitation by the church and used the occasion to outline the Department of Roads and Transport October Transport Month campaign which is anchored on making Gauteng a City Region of Smart Mobility.
“My visit to your church today is to plead with you to pray so that we change driver behaviour and also for peace in the taxi industry. It cannot be correct that our roads continue to kill so many people,” said Mamabolo.
Mamabolo said that as part of the drive, the department is prioritising road safety, decongestion of public roads, depollution and the use of smart technologies to transform the transport sector.
He added that the department will be hosting a road safety summit with various stakeholders in an effort to find extraordinary measures to curb the road carnages. “As part of making our province a hub for easy movement of people and goods, we need to make our roads safer. We also cannot ignore the unacceptable rates of violence and murder in the taxi industry. The taxi industry is one of the biggest people movers in our province, with close to 70 per cent of our people using this mode of transport.”
Madiba added that the MEC announced that, together with the taxi industry, Gauteng Provincial Government would launch a road safety campaign in November and called for more stakeholders to join hands in making Gauteng’s roads safer. He also announced that the department will host a road safety seminar early next month to come up with extraordinary measures to tackle the carnage on the province’s roads.
“We will be all over the province and we are asking the church to join this effort. It is only through working together that we can make road safety a reality in our province. These deaths call for extraordinary measures,” Mamabolo concluded.
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