Mbalula’s Easter road safety stats ‘questionable’, says AA

Transport Ministe Fikile Mbalula on Thursday released the preliminary road traffic statistics for the Easter long weekend, but the Automobile Association (AA) has questioned the figures provided.

It says the numbers do not reconcile, therefore do not make sense, are misleading and give a false view of road safety in South Africa.

“Official numbers from previous years don’t reconcile with each other, or the Minister’s own number and therefore any meaningful insights cannot be drawn,” the AA said in a statement.

“Published numbers from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) – which reflect official data – show that during the 2019 Easter period, 228 people died on South African roads.”

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“Should this be the case, then this year’s preliminary number of 235 fatalities over the Easter period would be an increase not a decrease. However, Minister Mbalula yesterday noted that 260 people died over the Easter period in 2019, which would indicate a decrease. These numbers do not reconcile with each other, rendering commentary on them redundant,” says the AA.

The association also said that the figure of 260 deaths over the Easter period in 2019 was not mentioned in official government documentation which the association says brings its veracity into question.

“In 2019, the Easter period fell between 18 and 21 April, yet the official statistics were signed off on 29 April, less than eight days later. Final figures would traditionally only be released after 31 days,” said AA.

It says that any numbers provided now for the deaths during Easter 2021 are preliminary and comparing them to any final number from previous years is statistically irrelevant and premature.

It has also accused the minister of misleading the public by saying the country was heading in the right direction in achieving its goals of better road safety.

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“We have a situation where the Minister of Transport says the government is making headway in achieving road safety goals but his assessment is based on questionable data. No valuable conclusions can be drawn from these numbers because of the difference and unreliability of the statistics,” the AA said.

Mbalula said the 2021 road traffic statistics were not compared to the 2020 figures due to the Covid-19 lockdown that reduced vehicle travel on the country’s roads.

“We have not taken the 2020 figures into consideration because that was an abnormal period characterised by a hard lockdown, which restricted interprovincial travel and movement between districts,” he said.

Citizen Reporter